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| - With a wink and a nod to kitsch in both menu and design, my recent trip to breakfast spot Rise and Shine managed to entertain and disappoint on many levels. I dined with two other guests, ordering the New York Steak, Spinach, and Benedict Bagel.
In a nutshell:
Possibly the worst hollandaise I've had in ... well, ever.
My guest had ordered the smoked salmon benedict and had the same reaction. It lacked all the classic hollandaise flavor notes, almost as if the sauce broke and they opted to serve it anyways.
Cloying balsamic reduction drizzled all over my steak wasn't listed in the menu description and muted an otherwise perfectly cooked, well seasoned New York Steak.
Spinach wasn't cooked for some reason, not even blanched a bit.
My other guest was also straddling the fence on his dish. He had perfectly cooked eggs with his giant bone-in country ham steak breakfast. Our eyes lit up when the ham arrived with those beautiful cross hatch char marks from the grill. But the cost of those char marks was a very dry piece of meat that he ultimately left behind.
On the plus side, damn amazing pancakes. Fluffy in height yet dense with flavor, spiced with cinnamon and topped with a cinnamon syrup. It was a good thing I saved it for last so I could end on a high note. Honestly, if I came back I'd be all over the griddle menu.
Kudos to our waiter who was friendly and quick to offer up refills, checking in often.
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