After having an excellent dinner experience here in the past, when the beautiful wife and I saw that Red Kitchen was having an Easter brunch, we thought it would be a good bet (and having bottomless mimosas is always a plus).
Sunday buffets are sometimes the undoing of places. And unfortunately, Red Kitchen didn't live up to my expectations. It wasn't horrible, but...
Upon being seated, we were told our server would be with us shortly. After a bit of a wait, she showed up. Mimosas were ordered and we headed down to the buffet.
Now, the buffet was set up a bit oddly -- breakfast items were between brunch/lunch items for instance. If there's such a thing as buffet feng shui, they are in dire need of a tuneup. It just felt weird. But as a semi-literate adult, I was able to add items to my plate and head back to the table.
The food was OK -- Eggs Benedict (mostly overcooked, poached should be runny, but hey, they're making a dozen at a time, so I'll give them a break), French toast, bacon, sausage, potatoes, seafood (mostly disappointing - itty bitty crab legs, clams, oysters (not good), shrimp (only good part - fresh and big)).
They had brunch/lunch options as well -- chicken breast, soups (corn chowder and clam chowder), three meats at the carving station (prime rib -- pretty good), a ham, and a lamb (this was probably the best thing they had, especially with the jalapeno mint sauce).
Finally, there were desserts -- white and dark chocolate mousse (pretty good), a creme brulee cheesecake (way better in theory than application), and some other things that weren't sampled.
The mimosas were made with Wycliff sparkling wine (which is a Gallo brand screw top sparkling wine, in case you're curious. It's fairly inexpensive, but gets decent reviews. Much to my disappointment, it has no relationship to Wyclef Jean nor John Wycliffe).
Now, this is fine (hey, it's not like they're going to make it with Dom), BUT the mimosa filling up frequency was less than ideal. We saw plenty of servers walking around with pitchers of juice and a bottle of Wycliff, but only when giving the "FILL US UP NOW" death stare did we get service. And it wasn't really that busy. If they had just dedicated one or two servers to do the refills, they would have been fine.
Finally, while we were taking a bit of a digestion break, our server came over with our check ("take your time").
Damn right we will. We had only been there for about 45 minutes. It was a wee bit odd (and threw me off - I initially filled out the hotel guest version of the bill where you can charge it to a room. Yes, tempting, but I'm an honest egg. Mostly).
So, finally, the price. For the quality of the food and the quality of the service, it felt a bit too expensive ($39.00 per adult).
While this keep me from coming back to Red Kitchen for dinner and drinks? No, because it is really good. But would I go back for another buffet? Very doubtful. read more