I’d eaten at Full Plate Cafe for brunch before, but never for dinner. When we arrived a bit later on a Thursday night, it was pretty empty. I didn’t mind that fact at all. E went with the crab cake sandwich, served on challah roll. And you know how big of a fan I am of challah. She had no complaints. But really, that slab of lettuc and tomatoes, what the heck are you supposed to do with that? Put it on that giant sandwich? Impossible!R got the tuna melt. There was a bunch of random veggies thrown into her tuna melt, but she still liked it, she just picked them all out. It looked a little hard to eat though, the whole open-faced-ness of it all.
We also got an order of hush puppies and a side of mac and cheese. Hugh puppies were good, but it seemed like they didn’t have enough onion flavor. I really enjoyed the mac and cheese, but it was extremely cheese heavy. But I liked it anyway.
I got the pulled pork sandwich, also served on a challah roll. It had some slaw on the sandwich. This was pretty good. The meat was a bit too shredded for me, but it still tasted fine.

The service was so so. There was only one waitress and probaby only one person cooking, so everything was slow. We waited a long ass time. But once we got our food, we were pretty happy. I would imagine the service and speed of food is much better for brunch on a weekend. I think I’ll probably stick to Full Plate for non-dinner.

Yeeha! W wanted tapas for dinner and I threw out Distrito as an idea. Then my brother balked saying he didn’t want mexican food. I insisted anyway. And W agreed. I quickly made a reservation, just to be safe, and we headed out. It was super early (early bird special early) so a reservation probably wasn’t necessary. The place is huge and gawdy, something fierce. Terribly bright and colorful, but I didn’t mind. It was supposed to be overly stylized. I personally loved the wall of lucho libre masks.
So if you know Jose Garces restaurants at all, you know he’s all about the small plates. This one is his mexican variety. We just got a crapload of stuff. Let’s begin. Ceviches – camarones and hamachi. The shrimp one was good, so was the yellowtail one. However, the sangrita sorbet on the hamachi ceviche? Weird. It was spicy, it kinda creeped me out. I did not enjoy that sorbet.
Onto the ensalada: chilango chop. I think. Simple, yet good.
Los Tacos! My favorite part. From the top: camarones y chorizo, carne kobe, and pollo. Ok, I didn’t taste the shrimp and chorizo ones, but W and Moms weren’t too crazy about them. They liked em, but not as much as the others. The carne kobe, oh my word, freakin kobe steak, with truffles, mash, and little french fries, topped withi cilantro greens. Seriously folks, one of the best things I’ve eaten all year. I could eat these all day long. But you know what? I could totally eat the chicken ones every day too. The chicken tacos were also so amazing! Super flavorful chicken ropa vieja, with queso fresco, radish, and a big hunk of avocado.

Onto the Tradicionales: Esquites. So simple, yet so good. A glass with sweet corn, queso fresco, chipotle, and lime. Hard to imagine putting these things together, but once it’s done, it was so surprisingly good.

Here’s the craziest thing we ate from the Mar Y Tierra section: Tuetano! Yes folks, I tried bone marrow! It was served with bacon marmalade, chopped jalapenos, and chopped onions. It came with tiny corn tortillas, and you scoop out the bone marrow, put on some toppings, and make yourself a little bone marrow taco. So what’s bone marrow like? Well, it’s fatty. Soft, melts-in-your-mouth, fatty. And when used as the meat for a little taco, it’s quite good. Now I’m not going to say I want to eat this all the time, but for something I’d never had before, it was great. I’m glad I tried it.A few accompanamientos: plantains, and black beans and rice. The plantain came on top of some pureed black beans and were topped with queso fresco. It was great. The beans were great too. It’s a teeny little serving, don’t think that’s a giant cast iron cauldron of beans. It was petite, but tasty.
Desserts! Flan, churros, and the cha cha cha. The flan is served with chantilly cream and coconut tuille. I didn’t taste this, but W loved it. The churros were lovely! The coffee ice cream that came with it was awesome. Some of the best coffee ice cream I’ve ever had. And the mexican hot chocolate to dip the churros in was strong, thick, and perfect. This cha cha cha was coffee, kahlua, and cinnamon.
The service here was great. Since you’re sharing and trying tons of stuff, they come and give you clean plates and utencils several times during the meal. It’s a pretty well oiled machine. Everyone was nice and helpful. The food comes out as it’s prepared, not in courses. So you’re just constantly eating all the time, which is nice. We all loved everything we ate. We were all quite happy, full, and satisfied. And in the end, it really didn’t end up being that expensive. If you take out the fact that the bro drank two strong and expensive margaritas and that desserts isn’t something I typically do, it was quite reasonable, and only about $25 per person. That’s not expensive at all for the quality of food and service that you’re getting. They do have this VW bug booth. I want to eat there some day. I’m a fan of Jose Garces. I can’t wait to see what else he comes up with.

PS – They have tons of individual bathroom stalls, with a shared trough style sink. Not sure how I feel about it, but that’s just as gawdy as their other stuff.

Over the long labor day weekend, somehow I ended up going to Beau Monde for two brunches in a row. Not complaining, but it was just unplanned, unexpected, and something I don’t typically do (go to the same restaurant two days in a row). On Saturday, the place was unusually deserted for a Saturday at 11AM. Perhaps everybody had left to get a last weekend in down the shore? And there were even tons of tables outside.

Moooooooooooo…I just liked this tin measuring cup the sweeteners came in. Me and my macros. So sue me.
The savory crepe special of the day… Pancetta, eggplant, tomatoes, and other stuff. Tasted sort of like thanksgiving stuffing on the inside, with pancetta on top. Really quite delicious, and worth the price. Their specials are always pretty pricey.I wanted the same pancetta / eggplant savory crepe special on Sunday, but they did not have any savory specials on Sunday. But we did manage to get an outside table in about 15 minutes. Score! Moms got the same scrambled egg with blueberry and maple syrup crepe she got before. Way to go mom, for being adventurous and trying something new.
W went wild and got the ham and cheese. The bro went real buck wild and got the chocolate, toasted coconut, and coffee ice cream sweet crepe, without the toasted coconut. But oh yeah, even though he asked for no coconut, it came with it anyway.
For me, I got the scrambled eggs with roasted poblanos, tomatoes, cheese, avocado corn salsa, and caramelized tomato sauce. This was seriously so damn good, and so filling, that I could not possibly finish it. We also got a side of the baby red potatoes, which were also quite good. Service was fine, nothing spectacular, but nothing to complain about. And I took a bunch of their matches. Still one of my favorite places for Brunch.