New brunch menu at City Perch - here's my review (Video+photos)

City Perch at Pike & Rose in North Bethesda has a new brunch menu, and I stopped by this past weekend to try it out. New menu items include French toast; Eggs Benedict; Arugula+Endive salad with grilled shrimp, candy-striped and yellow beets, poached pears, goat cheese, candied walnuts and a maple balsamic vinaigrette dressing; The Roma sandwich with mozzarella cheese, tomato, pesto, and arugula on toasted sourdough; a crispy chicken waffle sandwich; crispy latke fries with applesauce and sour cream; Monkey Bread Babka; and smoked salmon-stuffed popovers.

Video: 

Brunch at City Perch

Central to the new brunch is the Brunch Box concept, which pairs any entree with a cocktail or non-alcoholic beverage for $19.99. You can upgrade to bottomless beverages for a $10 fee. Other high-end upgrades include truffles and caviar.

While they have a great Bloody Mary here, I chose a mimosa because most of the food I was ordering wouldn't pair well with tomato juice.

There was a strong flavor of freshly-squeezed juice in this classic brunch cocktail.

City Perch has been recognized by even the notoriously Montgomery County-averse food critic Tom Sietsema for its bread basket. Now you can order a special brunch version, which when I visited included a chocolate croissant, a lemon poppyseed muffin, and a walnut croissant, all new. Also in the basket were two favorites from the dinner version, the honey-dipped cornbread and orange-sage biscuit. Spreads included were Trickling Springs butter and strawberry jam.

Walnut croissant

Honey-dipped cornbread
with goat cheese and
toasted corn kernels on top

Orange-sage biscuit

Chocolate croissant

Lemon poppyseed muffin

City Perch plans to have a different kind of muffin in the bread basket each week. The lemon poppyseed muffin lived up to its name with a lemon zing to balance the sweet and very moist cake. Surprisingly, I found I liked the walnut-stuffed croissant as much as its dark chocolate-stuffed twin. Both are even better with butter added. If you remember my City Perch dinner review, you'll recall I highly rated the cornbread and orange-sage biscuit. Together, the brunch bread basket rates five stars.

Monkey Bread Babka
with a pitcher of
Nutella syrup

Another new bread item is the Monkey Bread Babka. Stuffed with even more dark chocolate than the croissant, it is a cross between a frostingless Cinnabon cinnamon roll and a popover. Inside the layers are coffee and cinnamon, and there is a small pitcher of Nutella syrup. I would give this four stars. However, while I ordered this to test out for purposes of this review, normally this would be too much bread following the bread basket.

In that case, I would advise going with the bread basket, unless you are a Nutella fanatic. For $5 more, you get a variety of breads and still get chocolate in the croissant. Either bread order is more than enough for two people.

Now, on to the main course - French toast. This isn't a diner recipe, that's for sure. At City Perch you get two thick slices of brioche with ricotta cheese, bananas, candied pecans, powdered sugar, and with a lemon-and-orange cornflake-encrusted bread crust for extra crunch. But don't stop there. At upscale Pike & Rose you can upgrade your French toast to "decadent" for $4, which adds farmers market berries on top, and mascarpone cheese between the slices of brioche.

I also added a side of two scrambled eggs to a meal desperately in need of protein. The eggs were perfect, and I didn't need to add any salt or pepper.

Lemon and orange-flavored
corn flakes add crunch to
the crust of the brioche

A generous portion of
farmers market berries
atop the toast

Warm mascarpone
oozes out from between
the slices of brioche in
the "decadent" version

The result is an off-the-charts-rich French toast, the soft bread and fillings contrasting with the crunch of still-crisp corn flakes and berry seeds. Unless you are a traditionalist, this may be the ultimate French toast in town. Perhaps not surprisingly for a restaurant known for its bread, this new French toast earns five stars.

All of the items and upgrades I ordered added up to $43.45. Assuming you get only one bread side, you could knock $4 (Monkey Bread Babka) or $9 (brunch bread basket) off of that price. And, of course, with no bread, you could get the French toast and mimosa for $19.99, and the eggs for an additional $4. Not bad for this price-point of restaurant.

Brunch at City Perch is an excellent and convenient choice when you are catching a Saturday or Sunday matinee at the iPic Theaters the restaurant is part of.

I had extra carbohydrates
to go

Pike & Rose is
decorated for Halloween