Weekend Brunch At Smith and Wollensky

You are spoilt for choice for brunch in London, with a vast number of restaurants and bars offering weekend brunches. Whether you are looking for a healthy option, something to fill you up till you burst or just a place to catch up with friends with a load of small plates, London has it in abundance.

Smith and Wollensky is one of London’s best American steakhouses and having visited Smith and Wollensky a couple of times previously and eaten a large amount of steak, I was invited to pop down on a weekend to check out their new brunch menu.

The restaurant is a typical higher end American steakhouse, grand open planned restaurant with large tables prepared for a feast. The waiters are dressed in a smart uniform and all very friendly and knowledgeable, offering up their favourites and a couple of recommendations.

Smith & Wollensky brunch is £22 per person for two courses and £26 for three, with the option to add-on bottomless Prosecco for £22 or champagne for £50 when having two courses. If bubbles aren’t your thing then they also offer Bloody Mary’s and a selection of brunch cocktails. Plus don’t feel obliged to stick to the order of the menu, if you really want three sweet dishes they will happily arrange it or if you were particularly hungry then opt for two of the larger middle dishes. As you might expect from a good steak restaurant they offer steak with the brunch as a main and also a trio of burger options.

FIRST

For starters we went for a variety and took a couple of the waiters recommendations, starting with everyone’s favourite brunch dish avocado on toast. The portion size was large and the sourdough toast was cut thick with the avocado being chunky and seasoned well with a good mix of finely chopped spring onions, which added a good twist of flavour and a slight crunch to the smashed avocado.

We also had one of the smaller dishes, the salad of quinoa, avocado, fennel, sweet potato and minted yogurt. The salad had pomegranate seeds which complimented the strong taste of fennel and worked well with the flavour and texture alongside the avocado and sweet potato. The dish was just big enough for a starter and set us up well for our second courses.

SECOND

Another recommendation we took were the USDA prime meatballs in tomato sauce & melted mozzarella. The meatballs were a good size and had a nicely seasoned herbed beef taste, the mozzarella was high quality and melted throughout the dish which gave a rich and creamy taste to a nice and fresh tomato based sauce. 

We also opted for the smoked bacon hash & poached eggs, bacon hash isn’t something you usually get in London and so it leapt out from the menu to me. The crispy smoked bacon lardons throughout the potato hash gave a really nice smoked and salty taste that worked with the poached eggs really well. Unlike many other poached eggs dishes I have tried, the eggs were cooked well and thankfully runny inside. Definitely one of my favourite brunch dishes I have had over the last couple of years.  

THIRD

Dessert is usually not my favourite course, but when the buttermilk pancakes arrived it quickly became it. The pancakes are served with blueberry compote and freshly whipped cream, large and fluffy pancakes which tasted like the best muffins, yes muffins not pancakes, you have eaten. I struggled to get through half of them but would have happily taken them home for later, which is available in form of a doggy bag.

The second dessert was the milk chocolate & hazelnut mousse, it was presented lovely and tasted like it was a grown up’s Nutella dessert, rich, light and a great blend of light milk chocolate and hazelnut. 

We both enjoyed our brunch experience at Smith and Wollensky and as you might guess I will be ordering those pancakes as soon as I sit down.

Smith & Wollenksy brunch is available on Saturday’s between 10:30am-4:30pm and 10:30am-3:30pm on Sunday’s.

To book or view the menu visit Smith & Wollensky.