Sara and I just tried Budders for brunch, and this place seriously impressed us. Great food, really…read moregood portions, fair pricing, a clean and comfortable space, and genuinely friendly service.
We got to meet the owner, Sean, who was incredibly nice. He told us his wife, Sarah, is behind a lot of the sweet stuff, including the banana bread and baklava cinnamon roll. She knows what she's doing.
We started with the fried deviled eggs, baklava cinnamon roll, and banana bread.
The fried deviled eggs were good. Nice crunchy outside and a little sweet sauce on top, although I wish the filling had a stronger flavor. I'd give them around a 6/10. Still, fried deviled eggs beat regular deviled eggs any day.
The baklava cinnamon roll was awesome. Warm, gooey, sweet, covered in honey and full of that baklava flavor. If you like cinnamon rolls and baklava, somebody basically decided there was no reason you shouldn't have both at the same time.
But the banana bread was special. It came out warm with a slight crisp around the edges, then they added peanut butter, honey, fresh strawberries, bananas and walnuts. I had no idea banana bread and peanut butter worked that well together. All those flavors together were fantastic.
For my meal, I had the fried chicken Eggs Benedict with the cheesy hash brown casserole. Think Southern biscuits and gravy, fried chicken and Eggs Benedict all getting married on the same plate. The biscuit had a nice crisp on the bottom, the chicken was tender and well fried, the gravy was good, and once you break that egg yolk over everything, it all comes together. I'm normally not even a big Eggs Benedict person, and I loved this. I also ordered the creamy grits, because I like judging breakfast places by their grits. These definitely passed. They're so creamy that the texture almost reminded me of mashed potatoes, but they still had plenty of flavor.
We also tried the pancakes, and those are legit. Slight crisp around the edges, soft inside and enough flavor and sweetness that you could honestly eat them without syrup.
They had a weekend fall special, pumpkin bread French toast, and that was another winner. Rich, sweet and definitely something I'd order again.
Sara had the avocado toast with the hash brown casserole, topped with avocado, cottage cheese and cherry tomatoes. Fresh, colorful and another really good plate.
The restaurant itself is spacious and clean with a modern look mixed with a little old-school café feel. They also have a patio outside. Even the bathrooms were spotless -- and yes, I'm mentioning it: they had some surprisingly fancy toilet paper. It's the little things.
Overall, we had a great experience. Good portions, reasonable prices, friendly people and a menu that's actually fun to explore. There are already several things I want to come back and try, especially from the lunch menu.
Budders suddenly became one of my favorite brunch spots in the area. Definitely worth checking out.
