Petrossian Brunch

On Sunday, I had brunch at Petrossian. I have walked past this restaurant countless times on my way to central park; in fact, I have even purchased baked goods from their bakery next door. I never thought I would eat a "real" meal at Petrossian. It is fancy and pricey, so as you can imagine this wasn't just any old brunch. My aunt and uncle were in town, so my grandmother made a reservation for all of us to have brunch. With the busy schedules of Memorial Day weekend, this was the perfect way to catch up, and eat some great food.

Before discussing the food, I want to mention what we witnessed while waiting for our table. We got to the restaurant before it was open (who doesn't open before 11:30am for brunch?), so we had to wait outside for a bit. This normally wouldn't have been a big deal, but of course right on the corner of the block where the restaurant was, a man was getting arrested. I am not sure what he did, but he was not going down easy. A crowd started to develop to watch this guy get thrown to the curb, as he screamed profanities that I will not repeat here. At this point, I really wanted the restaurant to open. Some more cops came and we saw after we were seated from our table, that he was taken away in an ambulance. This is not my preferred way to start a nice meal. As we sat and looked at the menus and ate food, the memories of this ordeal faded.

The restaurant was decorated elegantly and the food was presented beautifully. But, I would have to say that if they spent as much time on presentation as flavor it would have been a home run. I am not saying that the food was not good, it was; but, it was missing a certain "umph." We all ordered the brunch prefix meals at $31 each. I started with the cassis poached pear & la peral cheese salad with a toasted walnut vinaigrette. I was not sure what la peral cheese was, but now I know it is a mild blue cheese. The presentation was beautiful, although at first I thought the pear was beets because of the color. I am normally not a fan of blue cheese; however, this went perfectly with the sweetness of the pear and the nuttiness of the walnuts. My aunt got the field green salad with perigord truffle vinaigrette and my grandmother and uncle got the smoked fish & bagel platter, which had smoked salmon and smoked sable. Those first courses looked good as well.



I am a big fan of eggs benedict with salmon or spinach, so choosing my entree was simple. I ordered the eggs benedict with smoked salmon and sauteed baby spinach. Again, the presentation was beautiful and the food tasted good. But, it was not great. I have had better eggs benedict and I could barely cut through the english muffin. However, the eggs were perfectly cooked, the smoked salmon was delicious, and so were the fingerling potatoes it came with. My grandmother got the petrossian signature cobb salad that was very colorful and almost looked like a flag in presentation. Everyone else at the table got the seared wild salmon with roasted butternut and smoked sturgeon hash. I split my dish with zachary, so he gave me some of the salmon. The salmon was cooked to perfection, but just wasn't something that I would crave or rush back to eat.



My favorite course was dessert. Unfortunately, I do not remember the exact names of the desserts. I got the berry souffle with toasted almonds. This was a winner, in my opinion. It was beautiful to look at, had a delicious berry reduction, and was so light and flavorful. My uncle and zachary got a strawberry rhubarb tart, which looked amazing and tasted good. My grandmother got some sort of chocolate cake and my aunt got chocolate ice cream.



Overall, it was a great meal. I do not think I will be going back on my own, but I wouldn't hesitate to go back with family. I believe that half of what makes a great meal is the company you share it with. So, despite the lack of "umph" in the food, our conversations made up for it. Also, all the pictures in the post were taken by my uncle!