Leena Eats, Gourmet Communication ... Food, Travel, Gastronomy

Grilled spicy sausages, one of the good brunch offerings at Chelsea Grill.

So, I’ve been to Chelsea Grill once before for dinner. It was pretty good and moderately priced, so I was pretty happy with the experience. I went again for brunch with some girlfriends, and I have to say…meh. That’s it. Meh. Yes, Chelsea Grill has good prices, especially in this economy. Yes, it had a few decent dishes. But when you combine poor service with a few hit or miss dishes, it just isn’t going to be that successful. Case in point–it was a Sunday early afternoon, and with at least 6-7 tables full in the dining room, only one server on staff. And a manager who seemed quite reluctant to bus tables or bring drinks to customers. It took 20 minutes to get a coffee refill, and my tea? Dreadful. There were a few decent dishes, like the sausages above, and the kick-ass shredded pork chilaquiles.

Chelsea Grill’s chilaquiles with shredded pork.

It was the right balance of corn tortillas to sauce to meat to egg, and just spicy enough to make me happy. The ricotta pancakes and lemon ricotta pancakes were okay…

Ricotta pancakes at Chelsea Grill.

Lemon ricotta pancakes with blueberries at Chelsea Grill.

…they were fluffy enough, that is for damn sure. But the blueberries on top of the lemon ricotta pancakes were super sour, as most blueberries would be this time of year because they are OUT OF SEASON. I hate to be picky about this and sound like a snob, but the fact is, food in season tastes so much better than food eaten out of season. If you have super sour berries, at least toss them in some sugar and make them IN the pancake, or make a quick blueberry sauce. That is what I do when my blueberries suck–I make them better. And if I do serve crappy out of season berries, my friends have a right to cut me. Just a little, so I remember.

The breakfast sandwich at Chelsea Grill, with pancetta, some kind of cheese and other stuff.

The breakfast sandwich was the biggest disappointment, at least for me. I had no clue the cheese on it was going to be SUPER stinky and strong, and it totally overpowered the pork and everything else on the sandwich. Bleh. So some hits, some misses, and really sporadic service makes Chelsea Grill–at least for brunch–not worth the money you would save by eating here. Which is sad. Because look how excited we were before we ate this food:

Three really excited, but ultmately disappointed bitches.

So sad. ~LTG!