Palatte

For brunch today, we tried Palatte. There have been quite a few discussions on Chowhound regarding Palette and I've been wanting to try it out for myself.

When we first entered the place, I stood there for a few moments trying to figure out what to do. It's definitely not intuitive. Luckily, an employee came by and told us how it worked. Basically, you take a menu (which is behind you as you enter), order and pay at a counter (which is not immediately visible), and find an open table. Drinks and food are brought to your table. The layout of the register is puzzling. I'm not quite sure why they don't switch it around so the register faces the door.

We ordered:
1. Classic "Mish Mash" (egg scramble w/ fine herbs and tomatoes) w/ cinnamon cranberry toast and fresh fruit ($7).
2. Buttermilk Griddle Cakes (warm lingonberry and citrus butter) w/ bacon ($6.50).
3. OJ (can't remember the exact price but it was around $3)

I liked the general atmosphere - kind of a french country/eclectic interior. Here are some pics of the place:

The food was another story. Look closely at these photos:


Let's start w/ the Classic. The eggs were very runny and lacked flavor. Except for a few speck of chive and parsley, can you see any "fine herbs" in the picture??? The fruit salad was ok - consisting of nectarines, plums, strawberries. I thought the toast was the best thing on the plate.

The griddle cakes were a disaster. As you can see in the picture, they were drowning in a lingonberry compote/sludge. The kitchen needs to work on their plating skills as it was definitely unappetizing to look at. The pancakes were mushy and tasted like they were made from a box mix. The bacon was ok. It was typical bacon - the kind of bacon that you get at Denny's, IHOP, etc. Nothing like the killer bacon at Matt's Big Breakfast.

The OJ was fresh squeezed.

Overall, I thought the food quality was worse than what you can get at Denny's or IHOP. What a disappointment! I really like the place itself so I'll probably give it a second chance. I'd also like to try the lunch options.

For now, I'll stick w/ Matt's Big Breakfast and LGO. 4 (out of 10).

Here are a few of the discussions I mentioned above: 1 , 2, 3