Brunch in Beacon Hill

I'm really trying to not be a negative-nelly, but you wouldn't be able to tell that from the past couple of posts... and [spoiler alert!] this one isn't going to help my new image.

Sunday morning I awoke and made plans to do some jean shopping in the North End with Skylar and Michelle. But jean shopping can be stressful, as any woman knows, so we decided to enjoy brunch before we "enjoyed" squeezing into some denim.

Our brunch spot of choice was Panificio, a bakery/restaurant located in Beacon Hill and Back Bay. When I wandered in I realized it was an order at the counter/sit at a table restaurant (I had thought there were servers?) but the menu looked so appetizing I didn't even care. I could not choose; the stuffed french toast, eggs florentine, breakfast burrito, and huevos rancheros all looked incredible! I ended up choosing the huevos rancheros with "avocado relish" ($11) and a cafe au lait (around $2).

When I had walked in, it seemed that I had missed the brunch rush; there were plenty of tables and I could see the cooks huddled in the back, chatting as opposed to cooking. My cafe au lait emerged at the coffee bar quickly, and Michelle, Skylar and I grabbed a table. My coffee was superb; it reminded me of the coffee I had in London all the time at this great coffee house. It had the perfect amount of "fluff" from the steamed milk and rich coffee taste.

When our food was dropped off, I was already a bit dismayed. Usually brunch is a meal filled with hyperbole-- massive mounds of pancakes, electric yellow eggs, combination platters that include every type of breakfast food you can imagine. But this one was definitely underwhelming. The eggs looked like I had made them (not a compliment); they looked dry before you even tried them.

It looked kind of like an open-faced burrito, and the massive tortilla just seemed to dwarf the ingredients inside it. The avocado relish (which turned out to be be a fancy name for guacamole-- you can't fool me!) couldn't even be called a dollop. And the majority of the dish was black beans that looked like they were straight from a can.

All in all, it didn't taste bad, it just wasn't that great. I'd probably recommend my favorite Starbucks breakfast sandwich (the eggs florentine) over this-- at least that OVERdelivers instead of underwhelms.

Here's hoping that the next restaurant is a positive review!

Love, Dish Gal