Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Cafeteria Boston, Back Bay, Boston (a second review)

It has been quite some time since I wrote about my less than stellar experience for Brunch at Cafeteria Boston.  So after tooling around the Back Bay this past weekend with my family, and finding several other spots were all booked up for lunch/brunch, I thought it might be a good time to stop in again and give it a second go.  Cafeteria, located on Newbury Street, offers sophisticated twists on American comfort food, daring their diners to venture perhaps a bit out of their norm.  At least, that is what they say they do.  My first visit to Cafeteria featured disappointing "truffle" eggs, the disappointment being the lack of any truffle.  I held out hope with the years that had passed and brought my family to Cafeteria.

We were seated upstairs in their very open, bright and airy dining room.  I actually love the ambiance of Cafeteria, all is very white, and the large windows really allow the sun to stream in and illuminate the room.  The brunch menu is very diverse, offering standard breakfast fare, as well as a substantial lunch offering featuring salads, sandwiches and hamburgers. After much debate I settled on their Huevos Rancheros.  I have to say- I often opt for this dish at brunch time- featuring black beans, eggs and a spicy salsa usually, it's a dish that is filling, tasty and right up my ally.  I was thrilled to see that the menu at Cafeteria offered the eggs in the dish "any style" which always means poached to me.  Huevos Rancheros is the perfect dish for poached eggs as the runny yoke is soaked up by the black beans, and the soft egg whites pair perfectly with the salsa.  Knowing this to be the case, you can imagine my sadness when I was informed that Cafeteria does not offer "poached" as an option for their eggs.  Apparently, they are limited on their "any style" abilities.  Saddened, I tried to change my order, but I couldn't find anything that appealed to me as much, so I stuck with my Huevos Rancheros and ordered the eggs scrambled.  My eggs were served bright yellow, and nicely scrambled to a soft done quality, topped with both red and green salsas, next to a pond of slightly spicy black beans and a helping of home fries that looked crisper than they were.  Overall, the dish was tasty.  The salsas had a fair amount of spice to them, and gave great flavor to the eggs.  The beans were nicely cooked, soft and pliable, and as noted, with a hint of spice that I really enjoyed. 

Around the table was a chipotle BBQ burger, served with fried onion rings and french fries.  It was noted that the burger it self was quite good, and cooked to the "well" specification, however the BBQ sauce was too sweet and needed to be scraped off.  However the onion strings were deliciously crisp and the french fries were also enjoyed.  Another diner had the smoked salmon plate which was served with olives rather than the advertised capers.  Finally, the final diner for the day selected the Buttermilk Pancakes served with sausage links and they were declared to be delicious (they actually looked really good).  

Overall, my experience at Cafeteria was much more pleasant than my previous visit.  Our server was kind and courteous, efficient and yet didn't rush us, and the ambiance was lovely.  I am still disappointed in the lack of poached eggs, but it seemed that the rest of the meals had some great high points.  I would return to Cafeteria to test them out non brunch time.

Cafeteria Boston on Urbanspoon

4 comments:

In and Around Town said...

I really wanted to like it Cafeteria but left feeling just OK...sounds like some goof brunch options though, I will keep it in mind on a busy brunch day.

Kristen said...

I can't believe they don't "do" poached eggs. you could always get sunnyside up or over easy and still get a runny yolk!

Meesh said...

cool! I'm glad you liked it better this time. I always enjoy my meals there, as well as the atmosphere.

The Small Boston Kitchen said...

Glad your experience was better! I really didn't like their burger but thought that their fries were good.

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