7-8-7 Sears Fine Food

7-8-07

Sears Fine Food

439 Powell St., San Francisco CA

http://www.searsfinefood.com

"Two Poached Eggs, English Muffin, Canadian Bacon, topped with Hollandaise Sauce served with Hash Brown"

Preface: forgive the less than excellent picture. There was a wardrobe malfunction which resulted in the camera being left behind. Will not be repeated.

The Eggs: Very well done. Just runny enough in the middle, not congealed or lumpy. One of my pet peaves with eggs benedict is when the eggs are so overcooked that they sit on the muffin like a marble on a dinner plate. these were spread out just enough. 9 

The Ham: Unexceptional. Tasty, but nothing special. I'm trying to think of something else to say, but honestly, it was utterly unremarkable, which accounts for the relatively low score i've awarded it in spite of being acceptably tasty. 7

The Hollandaise: Quantity, lamentably, is no replacement for quality. It wasn't bad. It wasn't good. It was bland. 6

The Bread: This is the only component in exceptionality is generally a bad thing. It was an english muffin, which is precisely what i wanted. 9

Total Dish: I wouldn't send it back, but i probably won't be going back either. It was fine, but clearly no a dish they'd invested any real effort into. 

Summary:

+plenty of hollandaise

+well done eggs

-mediocre hollandaise

Score: 26/40

7-7-7 The Butler and The Chef

7-7-07

The Butler and The Chef

http://www.oralpleasureinc.com/cafe

155A South Park, San Francisco

"Two organic poached eggs with your choice of Niman Ranch ham, smoked salmon, or tomatoes, basil & herbs covered with fresh-made hollandaise sauce. Served on toasted organic olive bread with an organic baby spinach salade"

The Eggs: As evidenced by their presence in the name of the dish, eggs are rather key to eggs benedict. While allowing that not everyone loves their egg yokes runny, on eggs benedict any other way is simply wrong. The eggs in this instance were very tasty, but simply overcooked, and not remotely runny. 6

The Ham: Further proof of my food ignorance is the fact that i had to wikipedia "niman ranch ham" to discover what was supposed to be special about it. I guess its organic or something. Regardless, it was very tasty ham. There was a bit much of it, which i'll discuss a bit later, but the ham itself was just the right degree of salty. 8

The Hollandaise: Just the right degree of tart, not too thin. If i had any complaint about it, it was simply that there wasn't enough of it. 9

The Bread: Traditional Eggs Benedict is done on english muffins. This is the easiest element of the dish to experiment with, and as such its frequently done, often to less than stellar results. The Butler uses "olive bread" in its eggs benedict, which i was more than slightly skeptical of initially. In execution, its actually very tasty, but not without complications. Its toasted, and the crust was not forgiving. 7

Total Dish: While each element of this particular plate was very tasty, the combination was ultimately disappointing. Part of what makes eggs benedict great is the combination of all the elements, and as such if i can't get some of everything in every bite, i'm disappointed. Between the excess quantity of ham, the hard to cut bread, and eggs that were overcooked, i really ended up eating ham and eggs with toast. oh and there was a little hollandaise in the mix too. 

Summary:

+Tasty Ham 

+Great Hollandaise

-Not Enough Hollandaise

-Eggs Overcooked

-Difficult to eat

Score: 28/40

Admission and Introduction

Allright then, lets get a few things straight, up front. 

i don't have a clear idea of how this all started. 

i am not, in general, a foodie.

these reviews reflect my personal opinion. i'm a little... particular... about how i like my eggs benedict. 

so hows this gonna work? I go out every weekend. i eat eggs benedict. i come back, and i write about it. Each component will get a rating, and a nonaverage total. Service, atmosphere, these will not be rated. im only interested in the eggs benedict. 

so there we have it. next stop, the first review.