From pancakes to English breakfast and waffles to oatmeal, the brunch dishes to order – and avoid – when dining out
- Eggs Benedict, chilaquiles and quiche are great options when ordering brunch at a restaurant, but oatmeal and parfaits are overpriced, and easy to make at home
- Three chefs reveal the dishes they’d order at a restaurant to save time and messiness, and the menu items that are expensive, poorly done, and better left alone
Brunch, the meal that falls between breakfast and lunch, is perhaps the most decadent of them all, with an array of typically grilled, fried, baked, poached – and even scrambled – dishes served.
In Hong Kong, there are many restaurants offering hearty plates for this most indulgent of meals, but it pays to bear in mind that some items on the menu may be better enjoyed at home – and cheaper. Accordingly, we’ve picked the brains of three chefs to find out which dishes to order, and which to pass on, when it comes to dining out for brunch.
1. Hollandaise sauce is hard to make, so enjoy it at a restaurant
Hollandaise sauce is a mixture of egg yolk, lemon juice, and melted butter that can be complicated to make at home. It needs to be prepared just before serving and it doesn’t keep well, so it makes more sense to get your next eggs Benedict fix at a restaurant.
Rachel Amiralian, cook and co-founder of Massachusetts-based food delivery service WECO Hospitality, says brunch is the perfect opportunity to savour hollandaise sauce.
“Hollandaise is a pain to make. If you’re not skilled enough, you’ll probably ‘break’ or separate the ingredients, so let someone else do the dirty work for you.”
2. Pancakes are almost always tastier at a restaurant
At a restaurant, you can get some fancy pancake toppings, and private chef and cooking show host Natasha Feldman thinks that pancakes are the ideal brunch treat.