NYC : Restaurant Review - Tavern on the Green

Tavern on the Green, Central Park - brunch on November 19, 2016

I mentioned in the previous post that I was late getting to Tavern on the Green thanks to GPS deciding to dump me at the museum instead. And, cutting through Central Park, it wasn't like there were well-labeled streets. Nope, just a bunch of walking paths so the directions were "in 200 feet, turn left", regardless of whether there was a left turn or not. And don't get me started that I almost missed Tavern on the Green regardless of the fact that it was standing in front of me once I had arrived. Not like they went in for super signage or anything.

Fortunately, I had perused the menu online the night before and had been able to text Shawn my order so she didn't have to wait for my 1.5-mile hustle to the park and could put in my order when she did hers. Consequently, the waiter brought out our food as soon as I had arrived, huffing and puffing with a flurry of apologies for having a lame GPS function.

The food was good, if a bit overpriced, but I'd gotten used to that in New York...and everywhere else. I ordered the steak and eggs which came with crispy hash brown potato cakes that were divine. The steak and eggs themselves could be had anywhere but still, by then I think I had walked at least 8-9 miles already on an empty stomach so I wasn't complaining. Too busy scarfing the food down.

I was feeling fine after the brunch (meaning comfortable, not full but not hungry anymore) but then we decided to order dessert. Despite the fact that I was carting around the sucre plaisir from Laduree and a 5" red velvet cake from Two Little Red Hens. No matter, we were there and so was the dessert menu.

This is another one that falls under the "no regrets" column, although I did go past comfortable once I'd eaten it. But it was warm chocolate bread pudding with speculoos (cookie butter) sauce. Yes, it was as good as it sounded and as it looked. I actually preferred it without the speculoos sauce but it was still delicious, no matter what. The bread pudding was made with challah which is my favorite bread. Just the right amount of chocolate and a perfect bread pudding texture. Okay, that was worth ending up in the wrong place, wandering all over Central Park and walking half of Manhattan. If you ever go to Tavern on the Green, try this dessert - it was fantastic.