Life with a baby certainly changes things. Obvious statement right there! I’m not complaining about it one bit since having Autumn has been that best thing ever but that meant that we missed going out for one of our best friend’s birthday festivities. We wanted to see him and celebrate so we figured out getting together for a brunch would work well.
Neither of us had been to The Cottage in Chestnut Hill, which is actually part of Boston, Newton, and Brookline. Weird little factoid there! It’s a cute village that has some great stores, some of which are in a newly redeveloped shopping center along Route 9.
The Cottage serves lunch and dinner and have a great selection of appetizers, salads, sandwiches, and entrees. They even have a wonderful gluten free menu that is more than just ‘can you please hold the bun on my burger’. As well, their brunch menu is a nice mix of breakfast and lunch options. Price had The Garden Fresh Vegtables Omelet ($13) and our friend had the Fish Tacos ($15). They both enjoyed each of them. But let’s focus on the best brunch entree ever (besides waffles)… Eggs Benedict!
Aside from my typical Eggs Benedict, I always like to get Bloody Mary’s. I like the savoriness of it and how it has a kick from the spice and the vodka. Mimosas are fun but I like how Bloody Mary’s come with accessories. Hello celery. Hello lemon. Good Bye Olives. Okay, so I don’t like olives but Bloody Mary’s are still so cool in my book.
This Bloody Mary has a nice crispy flavor from the house-made mix. I really enjoyed how much horseradish they used as well.
I loved the look and feel of The Cottage. I would love to come back in the winter to sit by the fireplace.
olferman’s english muffin, canadian bacon, poached eggs that are topped off with a house-made hollandaise ($14). And then there is a crispy crabcakes instead of the english muffin and canadian bacon for $15. Both come with homefries. I chose the later Eggs Benedict option since I enjoy crabcakes so much.
Man the thing I love about Eggs Benedict is that runny egg and that buttery hollandaise sauce that just soaks into the Eggs Benny base and the homefries side. This Eggs Benedict was perfection in that regard.
The crabcakes that the Eggs Benedict were built upon provided a great foundation for dish. The crabcakes were made with large pieces of crab and little filler allowing the shellfish to star at center stage. My only critique of the crabcakes is that they were not very crisp. I would have preferred for them to be crisper as the crunch was needed to balance out the interior crabcake texture as well as the runny egg yolk and the Hollandaise sauce.
The egg was the perfect kind of sunshine yellow that eggs should be. It was only slightly, every so slightly, undercooked (to my preference) where there was some clear albumin not fully cooked. It was slight but something that I had to pick out. Again it might not bother some but I’m a bit picky about the albumin not being fully cooked. Regarding the actual flavor of the egg, it was super fresh and the texture of the egg was lovely as well.
The homefries acted like a perfect little sponge to soak up any yolk that made for a quick escape. They were seasoned well, as nicely cooked with a tender center and crispy exterior.
I would order this again but might specify that I’d want the crabcakes to be very crispy. Kind of like when ordering hash and getting it extra crispy. uummm hash… Oh man, don’t even get me started on that.
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Rating
Crab cake– 32 pts
Poached Egg– 23 pts
Hollandaise Sauce– 25 pts
Hash-brown and Greens– 8 points
Total: 88/100
Boylston Street
Chestnut Hill, MA
What a nice, cozy place to eat in winter.
I would really love the ‘Crab-Cakes Eggs Benedict’ & fries, shame that they were not crispy, it’s essential to have that crispy-coating, especially with having Eggs Benedict on the top, it does look delicious with the runny yolk poached egg, shame the whites were under-cooked, that would spoil it a little, although very fresh eggs do have whites that are difficult to cook whist keeping the yolks runny, yet they should be well practiced in managing this everyday…
I would have to pick my brunch to pieces to avoid the egg whites, which would essentially spoil the whole dish for me, I guess I’m far too particular in what I like, on that note it’s so easy just to pierce the whites to ensure that they’re fully cooked through.
Still I would thoroughly enjoy having the meal made for me, providing the whites were cooked fully, I’m the same with boiled eggs like them cooked to perfection with runny yolks & must have white’s cooked fully..
I suppose that’s one of the problems of being a chef for many years, it has made me far too picky about food, especially when it’s problems that are easily avoided.
I’m the same with hard-boiled eggs being overcooked, something else that’s a pet hate of mine.
I would always profess that I would never serve any food that I wouldn’t be happy to eat myself, which I never did, thankfully.
Yorkshire puddings have to be perfect, crispy roast potatoes, parsnips, creamy mash, sprouts, etc not overcooked & so the list goes on, it’s probably the reason I have family for the holidays come to me, as basically I’m a ‘pain in the butt’ for having things just-so…
At least I’m well aware of my faults & freely admit to them, not that it’s any excuse, I would never complain to anyone that does cook for me, as it is wonderful when I’m not having to always stress out over each dish having to be ‘just right’, which I still do after all these years, silly really & I know it…
Many thanks, Odelle Smith. (U.K.)