Saturday, June 29, 2013

Sarabeth's

One of my favorite parts of living in the city is the whole brunch craze.  I love brunch because it gives me an excuse to eat breakfast foods for lunch!  I always have to eat breakfast pretty much immediately upon waking up, so when I say I go to brunch I just mean I order of the brunch menu but eat it as lunch.  Breakfast foods are my all time favorites and I could eat them for any meal of the day, but it is more acceptable when you mask it under the label of "brunch" for the weekends.

So, in the city you can pretty much find a brunch menu anywhere, but there are a few places that are known as special brunch destinations.  One of the most famous places is Sarabeth's, and they have a bunch of locations all over NYC.  Today, the boot camp class that my sister and I take had a special promo class in Central Park, so we decided to go to the Sarabeth's on Central Park South right after the class.  It is pretty common to expect to wait anywhere between 30 minutes to 2 hours to get a table at brunch, depending on where you go.  We arrived expecting the worst, seeing as there was a big crowd outside, but we pleasantly surprised to hear that the wait was only 15 minutes!  We were seated after about 10 minutes, and were taken to a table in the back room.  From the outside it does not look big, but it is very deceiving, which is probably why the wait is so short even though it is super crowded.

Once we got seated the waiter came over right away, which I always appreciate.  To go along with the brunch theme, I got coffee, which was pretty decent and my sister got tea.  The menu is pretty big and they have a wide array of breakfast and lunch foods, so you can pretty much get anything you want.  I, of course, blocked out all of the lunch items and simply looked at the pancakes, waffles, and french toast.  I had been to the Sarabeth's on the Upper West Side once and got the Almond Crusted French Toast, which was delicious, so I originally planned on getting that again.  However, the table next to us had a half eaten plate of the Fat & Fluffy French Toast on their table that looked so amazing, so I immediately knew that was what I was going to order.

Usually I am not one to get French Toast, as I always end up picking pancakes (my favorite food), but something about the French Toast at Sarabeth's just called out to me.  My sister likes protein more than carbs so she got the garden omelette (egg whites only), which has cheddar, broccoli, corn and carrots.  All of their omelettes come with the choice of muffin, croissant, toast, or scone with preserves, so my sister opted for their banana muffin.
Our order came out after about only 15 minutes, which was extremely fast considering how big the place is!  I saw the waiter walking towards the table with our plates and my nose immediately perked up to the scent of rich, warm butter.  The French Toast comes with about 2 slices of thick challah bread that are each cut in half, fresh strawberries, pure maple syrup, and butter.  I took the first bite of French Toast and was in a sweet and buttery heaven.  The challah bread is so soft and thick, and the sweetness from the powdered sugar and maple syrup really balances out the richness.  I also like that the bread is not overly soaked, so it comes out soft and crisp instead of soggy (which is my pet peeve of french toast!)  I powered through and was able to finish it after giving my sister half of a piece, but felt SUPER stuffed.  

My sister's omelette was supposedly delicious, and she would highly recommend it if you like eggs.  Her favorite part, however, was the banana muffin with the preserves.  I tried a bite and could vouch for the fact that it is a very good muffin.  Their preserves also cannot be ignored, and if you really like them you can even buy a jar to go.

Overall, I highly recommend coming to Sarabeth's for weekend brunch in the city.  They have locations on the upper west side, upper east side, central park south, tribeca, and on park ave, so there is bound to be one near you no matter where you are in the city.  My recommendation would be the fat and fluffy french toast, which I preferred over the almond crusted french toast.  Don't let the crowd outside fool you; the wait flies by and it is well worth it!

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