Nectar : Mt. Lookout

This was our first visit to Nectar and it was one of the more pleasurable brunch experiences of the past year. Partly due to the novelty: we didn't discover this option until recently. Partly because, in addition to us, there were 6 recent graduates of DAAP, who were experiencing their first taste of freedom in four years. But mostly, the food was just excellent.

It was surprisingly not packed and very relaxed, unlike most brunch places on a Sunday. This is in no way a reflection on their food, in fact we realized later that many of the restaurant's patrons were sitting on the patio out back, go figure! It was a beautiful day.

The eight of us ordered a pretty good spread of the menu. Between us, we ordered the salmon eggs benedict, vegetable frittata, Croque Madame, burger, chorizo scramble, goetta mash, and french toast. Everything either tasted good or looked good, with the Croque Madame probably being John's favorite- ("I only had one bite of the Madame, but the prosciutto, fried egg, and sweet pickle were delish!")

I had a vegetable frittata and John had the smoked salmon Benedict. The best part about Nectar was the freshness of their ingredients and the medley of flavors each dish had. They use locally grown, in season vegetables for their dishes.

Another interesting thing about Nectar is that they truly understand the concept of brunch being an intersection of "breakfast" and "lunch". Many brunch places forget to have substantial lunch items, but Nectar had a good mix of both lunch items and breakfast items. One surprise on the menu was a Green Acres Angus Burger, on which you could get white cheddar, goat cheese, guacamole, and bacon for an additional 50 cents per ingredient.

I loved the frittata because of the crisp chunks of veggies, the freshly grated parmesan cheese, and a touch of pesto for a kick.

The Croque Madame actually looked light and "healthy" (read: it did not come on a buttered croissant), which is not what I usually think of when it comes to that dish and it also came with a side of fresh greens.

In fact, most of the dishes were fairly light, which is a rarity with brunch fare. But nearly all the dishes were perfectly proportioned to satisfy your hunger without leftovers. The coffee was good, not great. We prefer it a little stronger. Beyond that, the only negative aspect of the experience was that the dining room was a little dark for a Sunday morning.

Overall, we would highly recommend Nectar. It competes nicely with the types of places that have upscale dinner entrees in the $20s, but have more reasonably priced brunch options between $8-$13 (think Honey, Lavomatic, etc.)


Nectar website