Being a southerner, I was super excited to try
Dante's, a restaurant with the slogan "southern cookin' in the heart of Brooklyn." I initially based my decision to try their brunch on the fact that they had cheese grits-something I have been sorely missing these past few months. We walked into Dante's around 1:00pm, and were the only other group there. There were at least 5 waitresses mingling around the bar area, but it still somehow took us over 5 minutes to be seated. The decor/music of the restaurant was pretty funny. It was an odd mix of 70's soul music, 80's style graffiti art,renaissance style ceiling murals, and... Transformers 2 playing on big screen tv's. Definitely strange. We sat down, and everyone started looking over the menu. It took over 5 minutes for a waitress to take our drink order, and another five for her to bring the drinks out. Usually I understand, having been a waitress myself, but this place was entirely empty at this point. Looking at the menu, I immediately noticed some options that were different from your typical brunch fare. The ones that jumped out at me the most were the
Eggs Sardou ($10 for two poached eggs on an English muffin with a ragout of artichoke hearts) and
Cajun Crab Benedict ($15 for two poached eggs on English muffins with Dante's hand done lump crab cakes and smoked chili hollandaise sauce). Both looked amazing-but the
Cajun Crab Benedict was a little out of my price range, and I wasn't really in the mood for artichoke. I decided to go with the
regular eggs benedict, or the "eggs benny d" as Dante's calls them. My friends went with the
biscuits and gravy, ($6)
the pancakes with sausage, and an
omlette with spinach,mushroom, and onion ($9). It took our food about 15 minutes to arrive, and it all looked really great on the plate! I was really hungry by this point, and dug right into the
cheese grits.
Right from the get go, I was super dissapointed. The
grits were cold, way overcooked, and the cheese flavor wasn't strong enough. I switched to the eggs benedict, which despite looking and smelling delicious were actually disgusting. The
eggs tasted like they had been cooked in a soapy pan, as did the sauce. The
Canadian bacon was cold and flavorless, and the english muffin tasted like it had been microwaved rather than toasted. Gross! I ate as much as I could, and then decided to try my friends meals. The
biscuits and gravy were decent, but I felt like the biscuit was a little to dry and the gravy wasn't thick enough for my taste.
The
pancakes were fluffy and sweet, and the sausages were juicy and perfectly seasoned.
What really stood out though was the
omlette. It was literally stuffed to the brim with spinach, mushroom, and onion, all of which were perfectly cooked! The home fries on the side were also really good; they were nicely seasoned and perfectly crispy.
While my dish was absolutely awful, all of my friends dishes were at least decent. Even with that in mind, I personally wouldn't go back again. If they couldn't pull off basic eggs benedict, I don't have much faith for their other dishes that looked delicious- but more complicated.
Address:153 Roebling St. Brooklyn, NY 11211
Phone Number:(718) 599-1945
Average Price: $9
Grade: C-
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