This is Part 7 of our New York Food Adventures! Check out the rest here!
The day before our friend’s wedding in New York, the bride organized a girl’s brunch at Balthazar Restaurant in SoHo. Apparently this is the place that Victoria Beckham goes to after showcasing the newest collection of her fashion label.
The inside of Balthazar had a very old French vibe. I forgot to visit the boulangerie area though.
As we were a big party, we were restricted to the Prix Fixe menu for $35USD, which also included a juice and a coffee/tea.
We got to start with a Le Panier basket for every 4 people. There was slight variations in each basket but there’s Monkey Bread, Pain au Chocolat, Croissant aux Amandes, Brioche, Sticky Bun, and Croissant.
I didn’t want to fill up on bread so I only had a little bit of the Monkey Bread and the almond croissant. Both were alright but I think it’s because I wasn’t too hungry at the moment. There was a lot leftover and they packed them up for us to take away.
Next up was the Homemade Granola. It’s basically a fruit bowl with their homemade granola with a dollop of yogurt on top.
Honestly this wasn’t very good. The yogurt wasn’t creamy and was too tart and lacked any depth. The fruit mix was mediocre and nothing special.
As for my entree, I chose the Eggs Florentine which is described as poached eggs on a bed of spinach, artichoke hearts, bechamel sauce and parmesan.
Unfortunately, this was bland as hell. The only good thing about the dish was the runny yolks. The bed of spinach was very bland and flavorless, I had to add salt to it. I couldn’t find the artichoke hearts either but there were potatoes. I also asked for extra bechamel sauce which they fortunately provided a large boat of.
Speaking of bechamel sauce, I was told that a good indicator of a good homemade bechamel sauce is the color. The whiter it was, the better quality it was, and the sauce here was pretty white. It had a slight tartness and was creamy, so I guess that was the other good part to the dish.
In all, I was quite disappointed with my food at Balthazar. I had high hopes but frankly the brunch items I tried just weren’t that good. Service however was very good, but at the end we waited a long time to be able to pay our individual bills.
This is Part 7 of our New York Food Adventures! Check out the rest here!
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