As Told Over Brunch... Dinner
Whoa, did you catch that? Rather than a brunch review, this is a dinner review of a place named Brunch. For Richmonders, most are like DUH, it’s the sibling to Lunch and Supper! This makes sense! For non-Richmonders, it’s a really confusing concept. Now, it’s time to wrap your heads around a restaurant named Brunch that serves a wicked brunch… and now dinner.
Let me be clear, the already had dinner, but now they’ve got more dinner options.
Let me introduce you to some options. Before we get to food, let’s talk drinks.
A weird fun fact about me is I am an insane cilantro fan. Such a fan that the chef at our work cafeteria once put two full handful of cilantro on top of my stir fry and everyone thought I had salad. It was kind of salad, a cilantro salad. Yum! But I digress.
The Culantro
As you might be able to guess, this drink that I am RAVING about at Brunch was a cilantro-based drink featuring cilantro, tequila and mint. It was a funky green color — in a way that I think Cazey would have appreciated if he hadn’t left me for D.C.
Honestly, I could have drank a million of these but then I’d be dead, and I knew I wanted to at least make it to the appetizers we had coming. It was ridiculously tasty.
For those who want a more refined review, the citrus and vanilla cilantro created an even balance of earthy flavor with an easy-to-sip refreshing taste.
Then came the barrage of appetizers. Perhaps barrage gives off a negative connotation, and I want to ensure you know that if you’re going to barrage me with anything, I’d really like it to be appetizers (especially charcuterie boards).
Meet the Brunch appetizer crew….
Avocado Toast
I can rock with a good avocado toast — I’m a millennial after all. In a one word summary: fresh.
I have a bit of beef with ordering avocado toast sometimes, but what makes this TOTALLY worth ordering is the bread. It was so soft and delicious, paired with the fresh smashed avocados and greens, it was very much worth the try.
Caprese Salad
Since I already used the word ‘fresh’ for the avocado toast, my one-word summary for the caprese salad would be summer. With large chunks of watermelon and Hanover tomatoes (which is a big thing to people, but I don’t quite understand as a transplant), it’s so refreshing and light. It made me feel a bit (dare I say it) healthy, and look at those beautiful colors!
Charcuterie Board
This is a Brunch staple! Seriously, order it. It comes with everything you could want: bacon jam, cheese, sausage (two different kinds), pickled eggs, bread and some delicious mustard.
It’s like picking your favorite child (which I pretend is me but it’s definitely not me, hi brother!) — but it’s the sausage patty. That sausage was so amazing, especially with a bit of mustard.
After two drinks and three appetizers, you might be wondering, “Seriously Sara, more!?”
Duh. Yes. There’s more. Me and my Cazey stand-in (who also can rock a strong animal print like O.G. Caz), each ordered an entree with the intent to share.
I mulled over the options and quickly landed on the shrimp, which was bedded on a corn risotto and red pepper sauce.
New Cazey (a.k.a Alix) ordered the fried chicken, which came with potatoes and asparagus.
Feast your eyes upon these magical creatures.
Jumbo Shrimp
A few weeks ago, I went to a restaurant and splurged to the get shrimp and they were little pieces of chewy rubber. Since that time, I’ve been hesitant to go shrimp, but this came on a bed of risotto with corn, peppers and other veggies, which I felt better about.
Fear not, the shrimpies are cooked PERFECTLY here.
Loaded Fried Chicken
Here’s another fun fact about me, I once interviewed (unsuccessfully) for a food writer job. Here’s an example of why I didn’t get it. I LOVED those little colorful, teardrop shaped peppers. They were so incredibly tasty, but I can’t tell you what they are called. Surely not teardrop peppers. But if they wanted a rebrand, not a bad name.
The chicken, as you’d expect from the sister of Supper, was perfect, so I’ll just gloss over that fact and focus on the potatoes, which were little disks of heaven. Topped with cheese and bacon, they are little loaded potatoes that are also crispy. I mean really, just a twist of a classic that made me salivate.
As Alix and I were trading dishes, the chef came out and said with a big smile, “Hope everyone left room for dessert!”
I got really anxious immediately. I didn’t leave room for dessert. BUT YOU DON’T SAY NO TO DESSERT. So I kept panic-eating my share of the chicken and told everyone about how I thought it was a joke because o-m-g how can I eat more!?
Then we played a fun game called guess-what-dessert-they’ll-bring-out. Being at a table with foodies at a restaurant called Brunch, you’d THINK we could have guessed the right answer….
I guessed bread pudding and someone else guessed cheesecake. I groaned at the prospects of trying to shove down some rich cheesecake, but damn if I wouldn’t do it anyways. I’m a fighter.
Turns out y’all, it was waffles! Which in hindsight is — well, duh.
Waffle Flights!
So we got four different flavored waffles with four different sauces and dips. I’d love to tell you what they all were, but alas, I wasn’t active listening (don’t fault me, there were WAFFLES on the table).
I know for a fact there was a plain one and some regular syrup. Then there was a mocha waffle, peanut butter and one with blueberries and white chocolate chips (I think). And then a blueberry dipping sauce, peanut butter and a maple bacon sauce.
Please don’t quote me on the flavors. I was in food coma.
And now I’m writing this review a bit chubbier than I was yesterday in possibly the softest t-shirt emblazoned with the Brunch logo on it. You could say I’m living my best brunch life… and I’d agree.