Delicious Chicken & Waffles made with tenders!
Bread Basket with butter and house-made jelly!
We sampled City Perch’s updated menu in the fall, and it was delicious, so we were thrilled to recently revisit the restaurant to check out their brunch menu. City Perch is definitely worth the trip to Maryland, praise I usually reserve for recommending (to DC-focused friends) a certain Bethesda BBQ truck, Hardy’s.
City Perch’s Brunch Box is $19.99 and includes one entree and one drink (coffee, tea, juice,
soda, house punch, sangria, mimosa, bellini, Moscow mule, or bloody Mary). Add $10 for bottomless drinks.
We tried Chicken & Waffles, Slow Poached Egg with Short Rib, and the off menu Bread Basket, all three of which were excellent choices.We did not need to order dessert, since the bread basket is more of a pastry basket.
The Chicken & Waffles is much better than the versions we generally see on brunch menus, included delicious and well-coated fried chicken tenders, and is alone worth the trip to City Perch for brunch. It is listed as a sandwich on their menu, which is incorrect. We preferred the vanilla maple syrup to the spicy bacon maple syrup, but you can certainly request for both syrups and decide for yourself.
The Slow Poached Egg with Short Rib includes tender and flavorful slow cooked short rib, creamy mascarpone polenta, and wonderfully-executed bacon braised kale. You see, we aren’t anti bacon!
The Bread Basket is a signature item from the previous menu that is presently an off menu option. As mentioned, it’s more of a pastry basket than a bread basket. It can function as a nice selection whether at the beginning or end of a meal for a group, and contains a butter croissant, chocolate croissant, cornbread soaked in honey butter, orange sage drop biscuit, and seasonal muffin, which in this case was orange cranberry. The pastries are made in house with the exception of the two croissants.
We also tried the Crispy Latke Fries, which we’d personally prefer as a non French fry version of potato pancakes.
Maryland (MoCo) diners should be happy to have access to such a wonderful dinner and brunch restaurant. Even DC diners should consider a trip to City Perch, and those are strong words! You may want to plan to see a movie after brunch; the iPic Theater on the same floor is owned by the same company as the restaurant.
-JAY
I am not a fan of kale salad. I know it’s a superfood and quite the trendy green, but it’s just not my cup of tea. When the plate of Warm Kale Salad was set in front of me, I’ll admit, I turned my nose. But being the type to try anything at least once that’s set in front of me, I dug my fork in and gave myself a hearty helping. Let’s let’s start with this first…this salad was warm. Not a straight out of the icebox salad, toss some toppings and dressing on top kind of salad. The kale was warmed up which made it more tolerable for a non-kale lover to endure. But the best part of this salad was tossing in of the roasted Brussels sprouts. I love a salad that crunches and the Brussels sprout’s crunchy saltiness really brought this dish to life. This salad was everything that I’ve ever wanted in a salad: salty, sweet and crunch. The baby potatoes were roasted until the skin was crispy; the brown butter vinaigrette gave them a light sweetness. I won’t go as far to say that this salad changed my opinion of kale but I will go as far to say that I will not hesitate to order this salad from this particular restaurant again.
A new twist on surf n’ turf. Earls’ version of surf n’ turf is sushi and steak which is fine by me! I love sushi and I love steak so it’s an incredible combination. The steak comes out on a sizzling pan with great sushi flavors. I felt that the marinated steak was a tad salty but had a great citrus flavor. Two rolls are available: a California roll with pacific crab and a classic dynamite roll. Most sushi connoisseurs turn their noses at a California Roll as not being “true sushi” but this is made with real lump crab with a tempura crunch. The Dynamite Roll is probably not best judged by me since I am not very tolerant of spicy foods, but there was a nice chunk of pineapple in the roll that helped cool down the heat.
The next 3 dishes are not new to their menu but a reminder of some of their classic menu items.
Have I expressed that I enjoy crispiness? The Earls Bigger, Better Burger was crispy! How they got that onion ring on the burger to be so crispy is beyond my understanding. This burger had no need for extra condiments such as ketchup because what seemed to be some kind of pico de gallo concoction of sweet tomatoes and onions gave the burger a powerful flavor.