Does anyone have recommendations for brunch in NYC? Lower end comfort up to higher end suggestions welcomed. Just so long as it isn’t accompanied by really loud music.
Thank you!
I find Norma’s at the Parker Meridien to be super for brunch.
Clinton Street Bakery on the lower east side.
Maialino is supposed to have a nice brunch
++++1. Be prepared for loooooooooong waits. No reservations policy.
Minetta Tavern is our go-to whenever we have opportunity to make the trek to the West Village:
http://minettatavernny.com/
We recently have been frequenting the English-style brunch at The Breslin at the Ace Hotel
http://thebreslin.com/
Always enjoyed brunch/breakfast at Prune in the East Village
Have had good new-American-fusion dishes on at Public in LES
http://public-nyc.com/
Enjoyed a couple of times at Maialino where breakfast/brunch is the easiest to get reservations for
Wow, what a mediocre brunch at Minetta Tavern.
The pastry basket tasted like it had been delivered from a low end commercial bakery the day before and sat in a refrigerator overnight. Except for the donut which was so overpoweringly sweet that you couldn’t tell anything else about it.
The hay smoked ham was dry and tasteless. The steak, while cooked perfectly, was incredibly salty. The cocktails tasted like they were designed by a mixologist who just added ingredients until they turned into a bland muddle.
The frites were some of the best I’ve had in recent memory and the biscuit that came with the ham was excellent. To give them credit they took the pastry basket off the bill after we complained.
But they’re definitely off my brunch list. That would have been overpriced at 1/4 the cost.
Sorry to hear that Jay.
Another reason to stay in and make brunch at home. Brunch in NYC is one of the most over-rated and disappointing experiences in the city. Long waits, lousy service, crappy food, high prices, almost everywhere, even the better places. I have chef friends who’ve agreed with Bourdain’s comments about it, that “Brunch menus are an open invitation to the cost-conscious chef, a dumping ground for the odd bits left over from Friday and Saturday nights.”
We walked over to Millefeuille after brunch just because I wanted to say to Arnold - “This is what a croissant is supposed to taste like!” And we weren’t about to trust Minetta with coffee or dessert.
I’ve had some really good pastries at the North End Grill brunch (their sticky bun, pain au chocolat and maple bacon croissant are worth the trip) unfortunately the main dishes are consistently flawed by one overpowering seasoning. The shrimp burger is nothing but smoke flavor, the johnnycakes are smothered with chipotle mayonnaise, etc…
Sorry to hear about your brunch Jay.
We’ve brunched at Minetta Tavern quite a few times over the years, by ourselves or with various other folks, and never had any negative experiences. I don’t recall ever ordering the pastry basket, though. To think that they’d have fresh pastries for being affiliated with, take it fwiw, Balthazar. I also never ordered mixed cocktails at MT, but folks that I was with who ordered them liked them. At Minetta, we’ve enjoyed, as far as I remember, the shirred egg dish, the trout meuniere, the poached cod dish, the huitres crepinettes and even the French toast.
We’ve done sufficient rounds of the brunch places in the Manhattan and while there will be many places that seem to thrive on the leftovers from the night before (these caters mostly to hung-over crowds, or to most non-locals), there are also many other restaurants that take their brunch execution and preparation seriously with well-thought out menu while using top notch fresh ingredients. For brunch we’ve always ordered items which for us would entail, for a mid-day meal, a huge effort at producing or replicating at home. I’ve met and gone with many discerning brunch-goers who continually flock to these places not because of the toast-with-eggs-over-easy dish or the western omelete.
It’s makes good press, and I know he’s hip and cool, but I’m not sure I would condemn all brunches in the city with Bourdain’s broad brush. I have found Balthazaar and Spice Market to be enjoyable among others.
Per my last, and last-ever, experience at Les Halles on Park Avenue South. At least, his place practices what it preaches.
EJ’s Luncheonette 73rd & 3rd.
I ran the kitchen at the west side location (which apparently closed) for 3 years '90 - '93 and it is comfort food well executed.
Avatars and raw milk cheeses don’t kill people, conspiracy theorists do!
Home is always my choice, especially when amenable weather to eat outside.
Wow, the brunch at Maialino was so nice! Delicious food, delicious complex cocktails, relaxed comfortable ambience, excellent service.
Thank you Suzanne and Ramon for the recommendation! We’ll be going back to that one.
My wife went with some girlfriends on Saturday night, she said it was amazing but not to sit outside as the noise from the FDR is overwhelming.
We just had brunch at Ai Fiori.
With the exception of our aspiring actor waiter who had to be flagged down for juice and coffee and ordering and just about everything (all the other servers were great) it was one of the nicest I’ve been to. And he was very accommodating once we got his attention.
You have a choice of $35 for the buffet or $65 for the buffet plus and entree. We did one of each, ordering their black pasta with crustacean ragu - delicious. The buffet didn’t look like much on first glance (just two small tables plus the breads) but almost everything was top notch.
Excellent fresh, clean tasting seafood salad. Nice whitefish salad (though this was no better than any other you’ll find around town), good smoked salmon, good sable. Excellent duck terrine, nice charcuterie and cheeses, two delicious jams, assorted cream cheeses, citrus salad, berries, yogurt, granola and cakes. The cakes were a bit disappointing but this was 100x better than the Afternoon Tea we had at the Peninsula last week. Calm, cool, lovely room.
I’d go back any time. Brunch is only on Sunday.
And at the moment they have coupons for free bellinis w/brunch at the entryway. No idea how long that will last.
We’re meeting friends at Russ and Daughters this Sunday for brunch. Gonna be like the old days, when my father would go to the store and bring home an assortment of lox, herring, and other smoked fish. I’ll have to call and inquire about BYO. ![[wink.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/0/04707e6a7bbb03e0153e349d8a9270d30e1e9525.gif "wink"){kind=small}