Sunday, August 12, 2007

Restaurant review - Browns Social House

A large majority of my friends live in the South Granville/Kitsilano area. I lived there myself for almost 6 years before moving further east, and therefore I know where to eat in Kits if need be. K and L had wanted to try Browns Social House for brunch and I agreed, so off we went.

I want to imagine that this place is much better at night, but I can't help but agree with the first comment I found on DineHere.ca on Browns Social House. The music was super loud, so I had to ask them to lower the volume. And, at best, their brunch food is mediocre. I ordered a basic brunch with eggs with sausage and toast which was overpriced at $ 9.00. I had to customize my order to have it with scrambled eggs (which are in no way close to Burgoo's or Crave on Main's scrambled eggs). My friends K and L requested a chicken salad that was totally drenched in dressing. Overall, not a nice experience.

Now, the staff is totally sweet and nice, but they really need to update their brunch-serving skills. There's an art in how to serve brunch food. You need to offer sauces (hot sauce, HP sauce), refills on coffee and water, jam for your toast and ketchup. I had to request, well, pretty much everything. And the servers (again, totally sweet) looked almost puzzled that we were asking for "can you bring me some HP sauce, hot sauce, jam"?

I eat out a lot, and I am a loyal customer of a lot of different restaurants, from very fancy, high-end to holes-in-the-wall. But I can tell you this much: I am not coming back to Browns Social House. As we say in my family "debut y despedida" (debut and farewell). If I want awesome brunch, I can go to any of Crave on Main, The Nice Cafe, Sunset Grill, and the list goes on. Browns does not qualify in my books as the place to go for brunch. Maybe I'll try it for dinner or drinks. But not any time soon.

UPDATE - I had to edit this entry because my very good friend L reminded me that it was incredible that we had to basically ask for scrambled eggs and that Browns' scrambled eggs do not compare in any way, shape or form to Crave on Main or Burgoo's. So if you want unbelievable scrambled eggs (and brunch, in general) - two of my favorite restaurants, Crave or Burgoo. I recently had brunch at The Nice Cafe and Rhizome, two of my other favorites.

Browns Social House Kitsilano in Vancouver

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

i felt the same as you on my first brunch visit - but last sunny saturday morning i went back for round two. i think they're 'getting thier s%&*W together... i was quick to rank it one of the best. agree'd servers didn't offer the basics, they've still got a aways to go there - but the 'almost famous breakfast sandwich' will definately become a 'weekend staple' for me...pair it with one of their ceasars and your set for the day... i'd challenge u to give it another shot...