Seattle Eggs Benedict Crawl

[malarkey]

Oh man, the Broadway Grill is to be avoided on all accounts. The food is horrible and I find the ambience very unpleasant. We used to play bar trivia there once a week, but stopped because we couldn't countenance eating there on such a regular basis. It wasn't just that the food tasted bad. We had serious reservations about the sanitation practices of their kitchen based on some of the unexpected organic matter multiple friends of ours found in their food.

Mmmmmmm I think I might pass on this one Rocky!

[rockdoggydog]

Oh man, the Broadway Grill is to be avoided on all accounts. The food is horrible and I find the ambience very unpleasant. We used to play bar trivia there once a week, but stopped because we couldn't countenance eating there on such a regular basis. It wasn't just that the food tasted bad. We had serious reservations about the sanitation practices of their kitchen based on some of the unexpected organic matter multiple friends of ours found in their food.

Mmmmmmm I think I might pass on this one Rocky!

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I may go just because I'm contrary.

Rocky

[rockdoggydog]

Sunday morning Blue Heron joined a few friends and I at Etta's for brunch so we could push forward on the crawl. I ordered the crab benedict and a bloody Mary with a side of bacon. The muffin was well toasted and the the eggs were excellently done, with nice runny yolks. There was a nice amount of crab on the muffin but the hollandaise was bland, bland, bland. It had no tang and no zip and I couldn't detect a single hint of the supposed chipotle that the menu said was in the sauce. There was also a little too much spinach on the muffin and made it a little bit watery. The potatoes were really good and tasty and bacon was excellent, coming from Bavarian Meats. The sticky pecan bun we shared was excellent also and is the same one that comes from Dahlia Bakery. Blue Heron ordered the crab cake special which I'll let her comment on.

This is my least favorite bene so far, earning a 5 on my scale, it would be lower but everything else was good enough to keep it from going lower.. I enjoyed everything else very much and I would go back to Etta's for brunch, but I think I'll stay away from the bene.

Bloody Mary - (singing) Bloody Mary is the Girl I love

Pecan Sticky Bun - Mmmmm, good

Crab Cake Special

Veggie Frittata

Bacon!

The main event

Rocky

[dandelion]

That bene sure looks pretty, if unfortunately not very tasty....

I enjoy the veggie benedict at the Deluxe on Broadway. It has spinach (but not too much), plus tomatoes and mushrooms, all in good proportions. The hollandaise has a nice tangy flavor, without overpowering everything else. It could be a little thicker, but hey, this is no gourmet restaurant. Eggs have the right amount of runniness.

As an added bonus, the bloody mary at the Deluxe is really tasty, especially if you squeeze in the lime wedge.

[Blue Heron]

  Blue Heron ordered the crab cake special which I'll let her comment on. 

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Thank you for posting the photos Rocky. I had a great time with you all.

I agree with Rocky about his eggs bene which I tasted, but I am a tad bit more critical of Ettas after this breakfast.

Tom Douglas should be embarrassed to serve the kind of crab cake that I and one of our dining companions (who was visiting here from out of town) ate on Sunday. It wasn't 'bad' per se, but it was mediocre. As our dining companion said, he's had better crab cakes at Anthony's, and I believe him. It was nicely crispy on the exterior, but it was so thick that the interior was kind of mushy in a mushy bread crumb kind of way. And the crab cake is supposed to be one of his signature items, so doubly dissappointing. My poached eggs were perfect, like Rocky's, and I liked my fried potatoes, too. But for a $15 breakfast entree I expect to get a perfect crab cake, and this was far from it. (I know his restaurants can do this right, as the last time I had one at Dahlia's, a few years ago, it was excellent.)

The place has a nice vibe and energy to it, though, and was packed. A little hard to hear table mates at times.

The nibble of sweet roll and bacon I tasted was really good! Service was also good.

ps. the nectarine garnish was not quite ripe. But that is a minor quibble.

[rockdoggydog]

Volterra was today's stop on the eggs bene crawl. Volterra does not have a traditional bene per se, but rather a mushroom bene. Malarkey, Dubkat, and I met up at Volterra at 1100 and started out with the assorted pastry basket, which contained croissants, pain au chocolat, apple, and cinnamon pastries. I started out with a good Bloody Mary - it occurs to me that this could also double as a Bloody Mary crawl for me and a champagne cocktail crawl for Malarkey, the second best on the crawl so far. We all ordered the Mushroom Benedict and I added a side of bacon. The mushrooms in the bene were chanterelles, morels, and criminis. The hollandaise is perfumed with truffle oil and very light. The eggs were nicely done, cooked whites and runny yolks. the mushrooms offered enough substance that we didn't miss the presence of ham at all. The potatoes were excellent, crispy on the outside and cooked just enough on the inside. Overall a really excellent bene and one that came closest to giving 35th Street a run for its money so far. My only nitpick, and here I am nitpicking, is that there was perhaps just a touch too much truffle oil in the hollandaise. There was very little lemon/vinegar bite in the sauce so as not overpower the truffle scent but as I ate more of the bene I began to feel that maybe it was just a bit much of a good thing as truffle oil is a very strong flavor in and of itself. My score for the Volterra mushroom bene is 8.5.

And now the pictures

Rocky

[jlax]

Have the arteries clogged or are Eggs Bene a little to tough to handle for holiday season?

[rockdoggydog]

The ateries haven't clogged yet, just a little busy lately. I swear we'll be back on this ASAP.

Rocky

[rockdoggydog]

Getting back on the horse, we've had a serious gap lately but I promise that Malarkey and I will get back on task, I promise, maybe, we'll try anyways. I went to Tulio the other day for breakfast and what should I see but Eggs Benedict on the menu. The Hollandaise was fairly well executed, the muffin well toasted, and the ham had enough flavour to stand up. The egg though, ah the egg, it was overdone, oh the humanity of it all. This is becoming pet peeve nomber one on this crawl, overdone eggs. I want runny yolks dag nab it! Overall the bene earned a six, it would be higher except for the egg.

Rocky

[rockdoggydog]

Berkshire Grill, I had no expectations and was fully prepared to take one for the team here, but I was pleasantly surprised. Looking through my Breakfast in Seattle book I saw that Berkshire served eggs bene so in the interests of completeness I went on over to give it a whirl. First off, they have solved the problem of figuring out how people want their yolks by asking how you want it done, simply brilliant. The benedict is served with a relatively thick slice of ham, on an adequately toasted english muffin. The hollandaise was okay, a touch on the bland side but not bad. The yolks were appropriately runny and thus avoided my bene pet peeve of overdone eggs. The downside of the thick ham and slightly bland sauce is that it made teh ham the most important player in the dish and threw the balance off. Overall I would give Berkshire a 7 for their bene.

Rocky

[rockdoggydog]

When it rains it pours, today's stop was Bistro Magnolia, if you've been following the Bistro Magnolia thread you know that I love this place and think very highly of the food. The eggs bene did not dissapoint. For $14.95 at brunch, you can get a prix fixe meal consisting of coffee, plus your choice of a Bloody Mary, Bellini, Mimosa, or OJ, fruit brochets with creme fraiche, and entree. I went with the traditional benedict and Malarkey went with the Florentine. The regular bene is served with canadian bacon here, though some others at the table subbed regualr bacon for the canadian bacon. The egg yolks were good and runny and fresh as evidenced by the orangeness of the yolks. The hollandaise is well made with just enough zing to it and overall the bene is well balanced with no one element overpowering any other. This bene comes the closest to giving 35th St Bistro a run for it's money, Bistro Magnolia earns a 9 for their benedict.

Orange marmalade - made in house

Bacon bene

Eggs Florentine

The Main Event - Eggs Benedict

Rocky

[rockdoggydog]

We tried to go to Pomegranate on Sunday, unfortunately when we got there it was closed for a private event, so on to Brown Bag instead. Brown Bag serves their benedict on a croissant and you get your choice of traditional or San Juan which comes with smoked salmon. I, being the hidebound benedict conservative that I am, ordered the traditional and rebel Malarkey ordered the San Juan. We also ordered a side of corned beef hash (CBH) to share. The Brown Bag bene get s 6.5 on my scale. There is nothing actively offensive about this bene, and it is pretty tasty. The hollandaise is definitely powdered but not offensively so, and the eggs while having some runny yolk to them could have been runnier, the ham was good and generously sliced, the failing lies mostly in the croissant. This is not to say that it is a bad croissant, it was properly buttery and light, just that it doesn't belong in a bene. It compresses down to nothing, offering not much of a platform for the bene to be eaten on and has nothing in the way of tooth to offer substance to support the bene. I'll leave the San Juan to Malarkey to comment on. As far as the CBH is concerned, it's individual parts are all good, it's just that I'm a fan of canned CBH, now the pictures.

With croissant top on

The San Juan

The Traditional

Corned Beef Hash

Rocky

[rockdoggydog]

Finally after three years and since I had my last one Malarkey and I went to Boat St Cafe for Eggs bene today. The eggs benedict renditions do change from Saturday to Saturday, this weeks featured a tomato and sharp white cheddar on a piece of baguette. The eggs were perfectly done, I mean really really perfectly, as at 35th St Bistro it walked that fine line of cooking the whites while leaving a nice runny yolk to burst forth in bright yellow goodness. The hollandaise was wonderful as well, absolutely not made froma powder or any cheating method, I visited the kitchen afterwards where Susan Kaplan was whipping up a batch on a little butane burner in a double boiler consisting of a small pan of water and a pyrex measuring cup. At first I thought that the lack of ham would distract me from the total bene experince but I found it to be not so. Between the cheese and tomato, the benefit that ham would usually lend was present and not missed at all. This bene goes on my board at 9, with my sole nitpick being that it would be nicer if the bread was thinner as it can be a little bit of work to cut through it and not wreck the bene. We also ordered a corn bread with a custard middle and maple syrup that was fantastic. Susan can bake! Now the pictures

Rocky

[dandelion]

Yesterday I had the mushroom benedict at Volterra, and I'm sad to say that it didn't look or taste like the one that Rocky described last October. The yolks were hard cooked. The hollandaise wasn't really a hollandaise at all, just kind of a melted butter with a little truffle oil. No morels, even though there were fresh ones for sale right outside at the Ballard Sunday Market. It was served with roasted fingerlings, which were good and a nice change from regular breakfast potatoes or hash browns.

The balsamic bloody mary, on the other hand, was excellent.

[hhlodesign]

Brunch today at Boat Street Cafe.

The Eggs Benedict were served with a slice of tomato, on a Tall Grass Bakery sandwich roll (my favorite sandwich roll!) toasted. With a light covering of hollandaise.

I like my eggs as runny as possible and think they did a fairly good job with them:

We also had the baked eggs with rosemary ham and buttery crumbs.

And a side of Isernio's Sausage.

I think the baked eggs dish was the better choice, but I had to try the benedict once.