I have been here 5 times since they have opened! Partly, I'm American and have been missing large portions in restaurants (often enough to take home half!) and partly I've wanted an enormous milkshake or a build-your-own burger (there are about 40 different toppings to choose from), and partly I've just wanted to see what all the excitement was about.
So here is my mixed bag review. Overall, good, with one negative (large group, being seated downstairs, and one timid waitress).
So, brunch is a great meal: breakfast, lunch, what's not to love. They do a good job of giving you the enormous American pancakes and the huge brioche French toasts and gigantic omlettes (I couldn't finish mine and took half home). If you are seated upstairs, I think you'll be lucky because that's where the most attentive service is. As is evident from the queues to eat on Saturdays and Sundays from 11:30am-2pm, this is one popular brunch spot and you may be out off by having to put your name down and wait anywhere from 10 minutes to 45 between those hours. I highly recommend getting up just a teeny bit earlier to beat that rush to get a table straight away at 11am. In the evenings, you can book a table which I think is absolutely necessary with a large group and optional with pairs.
Now to some details. I LOVE their sautéed greens side. Completely Southern and very tasty. Another amazing side is the macaroni & cheese. People love their sweet potato fries, too. I enjoyed their side nachos and personally think you could make them a meal with the generous helping of ground beef. Also amazing are their crayfish tostadas. If you are very hungry, it's possible the crayfish tostadas won't fill you up, but they are amazing. Highly recommended. The omlette was a bit dry/slightly slightly overlooked. Nothing terrible, just what I noticed (it is eggs, afterall and the version I ordered had a lot of meat in it that also needed to be well-cooked). The full breakfasts are what you would expect only much larger portions than at a place like Bruno's or Loudon's or Montpelier's (which all do brunch but in more normal sized portions). The pancakes are a bit floury for my taste, but they are that kind of hearty American pancake breakfast and the maple syrup is real. (Thumbs up for that) They also have root beer....yummm. American expats, this is your spot for a rootbeer float (it was good, although I don't know why it looked pink). They do build your own burgers with almost any topping under the sun including things like pulled pork and fried eggs and various kinda of cheese and guacamole. The bean burger, which my friend had one of the times looked especially awesome for those vegetarians out there. I have yet to try the build-your-own-donut, but it's only a matter of time. The milkshakes look like your classic American diner milkshakes and are so filling you'll need a separate trip to enjoy one. For a memorable main, I had a tempura sea bass pasta dish where the pasta noodles were deliciously spicy and the fish was good. Another friend had the now classic waffles and chicken fingers which looked good. Someone else had the chicken Ceasar salad which was fairly decently large for a salad although I don't know if you'd want to eat that if you're hungry. I wish I had photos of all the dishes, but I'll upload the ones I do have.
If you are a student, you are going to love their discounted Tuesday night dinners. The steaks on the menu aren't included in the discount, but almost everything else is and it is a whopping 50% off! Honestly, it is a fantastic deal. One of the Tuesday nights I are there (I've been twice), I paid a total of £7 for a side, a main, and a dessert. It is hard to cook for one person for less than that! So I recommend the Tuesday night deal.
And for the one negative aspect. They are very very busy with the opening. They're still waiting on their liquor license to sell, their inventory can sometimes have off-days (no truffle oil), and their new staff are trying to keep up. I had a great experience with service on all but one occasion when one of the shy waitresses misinterpreted how I spoke to her and, I think, took offense and when I asked her to turn down the music, bring another menu, and to return after everyone had made their decisions to order. In fairness to her, I basically shouted at her to ask the music to be turned down and bring another menu. It was unintentional, but that's what happened. However, after that she didn't have the courage to come back to our table to take our orders and as we were a large group, it was going to take some time. So, it was disappointing to have our table avoided while she served other groups. Eventually the manager stepped in and looked after us, but this all did take some time and, all told, from the time we walked in the door until we finally placed our orders it was about an hour. Not a stellar moment.
All in all, a good new spot with generous food portions. Just book ahead! read more