Another Broken Egg

If you are looking for a great breakfast or brunch spot here in town, Another Broken Egg is the place. About a year ago, Another Broken Egg opened their Tuscaloosa location at the new River Walk. Just off Jack Warner Parkway, this location has great views of the river, a patio, and the quality food that you get at all their other locations. Of course this is a pretty casual place since its breakfast and lunch only. But they also have a full bar which means mimosas and bloody marys. And they serve their coffee in these really cool mugs.

Menu with signature coffee mug

I have been several times for lunch and breakfast since they opened, but I always get breakfast food. On this last visit I had the veggie omelet with spinach, mushrooms, tomatoes, and goat cheese. The omelet comes with their potatoes and English muffin. I love the way goat cheese tastes in the omelet.

Veggie omlet

Another one of my usual items is the skinny omelet that also has goat cheese, asparagus, and tomatoes but is made with only egg whites. Both omelets are delicious. And there is a lot to love about the potatoes and English muffin. The English muffin is denser than one you might buy in the store. Oh, and it comes with whipped butter that is light and fluffy. The potatoes have always been fresh with just enough crispiness but aren't overdone. They have a light seasoning on them.

I went with two girlfriends this trip after we visited the farmer's market one Saturday morning. Deidra got the black bean sliders. I didn't try them but they looked really cool so I wanted a picture for the blog. She said they had a little bit of a kick to them. I think it was the "slaw" topping that had some peppers in it.  The black bean burger was between two small pancakes and topped with the slaw.

black bean sliders

It has been great to add a breakfast spot to the mix here in T-town. And, it is even better that the food has been delicious each time I have been. The only complaint, or more of an issue, is the wait that you will often find, especially on a Saturday morning. But, that is a good sign and of course you can't really do much about that.

Birmingham food

Saturday Dinner

Ok, so for the final round of birthday fun, we spent Saturday night in Birmingham and did dinner Saturday night and brunch Sunday morning. Birmingham has really become somewhat of a food destination. I have been hearing all kinds of great things about lots of different restaurants downtown. We were excited to have a night out and then follow up with something yummy on Sunday too.

I had gotten a gift card to Ocean and we had saved it for out birthday celebration week! I had heard great things about their food and it was all true. Everything we had was fresh, unique, and delicious. Everyone gets bread with olive oil and a cucumber, tomato, red onion, feta, and olive oil salsa type spread. I must say the fresh tomato topper was one of the best parts of the meal. Even Wes, who isn't a big fan of anything like that, really enjoyed it. I tried to take a picture but I just couldn't capture the real essence and deliciousness with a picture.

Our first item ordered was the calamari appetizer. This is always one of Wes's favorite starters, so when I see it on the menu I usually want us to try it. This was perfectly breaded and tender! One of the worst things is getting really chewy calamari. Of course, this one was perfect. And the sauce!! It was described as a remoulade. You know I have a hard time waiting to eat until I have taken the picture. As you can see, this one was no different.

Calamari appetizer

I followed this up with the Ocean salad. This was the best part of my meal! Imagine a Greek Salad topped with fried feta cheese. Yes, fried feta cheese. In the picture below, the piece of cheese look like croutons, but no, it's cheese.

Ocean salad- with fried feta

For my entree, I ordered pan seared scallops. Not only do they offer several special meals, they also offer a list of meats cooked in a variety of ways (pan seared, greek, fried, etc). All of these came with sage mashed potatoes and root vegetables. I chose the scallops with mashed potatoes and vegetables instead of doing the special meal with risotto. I know I would have like the risotto better than the sides that I had with mine. But, the scallops were perfect.

scallops, mashed potatoes, and vegetables

Wes went with the grouper. His sides were white cheddar cheese grits and a crawfish cake. Everything on his plate was delicious. It all has lots of flavor and as I mentioned before, you could tell it was all fresh.

Grouper with cheese grits and crawfish cake

I find that no real dinner is complete without a dessert. And I especially feel this way at restaurants like this with specialty desserts that I can't find just anywhere. So, I politely asked the waitress to hold off on bringing us the dessert menu until I was a little less about to pop. And, we were so glad that we did. The strawberry shortcake was spectacular, mainly because of the tempura battered pound cake. Neither of us were sure about the basil whip cream. It was wonderful consistency, but the flavor just wasn't my favorite. It also came with white balsamic sorbet. I thought the tangy, crisp, and fresh flavor was really interesting. Wes did not.

strawberry shortcake

All in all, this was a great night out at a really delightful restaurant. I told Wes I would give it 4 out of 5 stars. I think a big reason for this is the fact that I didn't order the risotto. Risotto is always my favorite. When I didn't really like the sage in the potatoes, I knew that the risotto would have made all the difference.But what we had still made for a wonderful night out on the town.

Sunday Brunch

Sunday morning, we got up and headed over the mountain to Chez Lulu. Even though we had asked a few people their suggestions for brunch, we just used the handy iphone and asked yelp for some brunch ideas. We narrowed it down to 3 and honestly, I probably picked this one because it seems French-ish. I am currently all about anything French in preparation for our big trip. This quaint restaurant is in Mountain Brook. With cute little tables outside and Christmas lights up inside, it was an adorable spot for brunch.

The bakery next door is also a spot where you can pick up items like croissants, muffins, and pastries and I am sure that all their offerings would be as tasty as the things we had at the restaurant. They start you with a very European breakfast option, bread and olive oil. There was a variety of bread, of course we tried them all, and were quite pleased with this start to our meal.

Bread at breakfast!

For my meal, I decided to go with a crepe. It was a French inspired place, right? With a wide variety to choose from, I decided to go local and chose the Chilton county peach crepe. Light, flavorful, and yummy whip cream on top, made this a great selection.

peach crepe

I also ordered the white cheddar biscuits. This was to share with Wes, but, who can resist trying some cheddar biscuits.  My comparison here would be the asiago cheese bagel at Panera. I love the way the cheese is delicate in the bread and not overpowering. But, you still get such a strong flavor. They also served these with fresh jam which made these biscuits Amazing!!

white cheddar biscuits

Wes has the daily frittata special. I now can't remember what was in it, but the bite I had was delightful. And, I didn't take a picture of his either. Oops.

This is a really cute place for brunch and I can imagine their lunches are just as great. I wish I had stopped in the bakery and picked up a couple of things to go. But, the weekend of food had to stop somewhere.

Good Weather Good Food

The weather this weekend was fabulous as February weekends go. Wes and I wanted to enjoy the sunny days, so we stopped by our favorite patio spot yesterday and had brunch with a hint of outside today after church.
If you know Wes and me at all, you know that we really like, ok maybe love, to go to Innisfree Irish Pub. And, when the weather is nice, we like it even more. When Innisfree moved to it's new location in Ttown, they really did an upgrade. They built in an old garage and have a wonderful patio and garage doors that open to the back room. So, there is plenty of seating for those wanting the fresh air. Not only that, but the food at Innisfree is much better than your regular bar food. We really have tried almost everything and are usually always pleased. For anyone looking for traditional Irish fare, the Shepards Pie is delicious. But, my favorite is the grilled chicken sandwich made into a wrap with Irish Gold sauce. It is just enough kick and not too heavy. And, it is hard to beat the $4 pitchers. We enjoyed the sunny Saturday on the patio.

Today after church, we wanted to enjoy the nice weather again, so we headed to Five for brunch. The small patio out front was full, but we were able to grab a high top table in the front of the restaurant near the open garage doors. We grabbed one of the last open tables and there was actually a wait for the regular tables. Why is that worth noting? Well, about a year ago, there were very few places open to eat on Sundays. Once the alcohol sales on Sunday passed, many places started opening on Sundays for lunch or brunch. Certainly not everyone in the restaurant was having a drink, but the place sure was full. And, there was still a wait when we left.
Five is such a cool new spot in Tuscaloosa. It has only been open about a year, but Wes and I have quickly made this one of our favorite places to eat. The atmosphere is really cool, hip and the food is always really good. The idea is that there are five options-- five entrees, five appetizers, five wines, etc. On Sunday, they have a jazz brunch. Yes, live Jazz that was so enjoyable. They also have a bloody mary bar and a selection of delicious food.

Today, we both had the wings and waffles.The wings had a really nice breading to them that certainly didn't taste like your traditional wings. And the waffles had a sweet taste and were really good. I was very pleased with my selection! We also had a couple of the $2 mimosas. If you are in town and want a great spot for Sunday brunch, then I would definitely suggest Five.