This Cafe Orlin NYC brunch review is is one of our many NYC Restaurant Reviews. Visiting New York? See all of our posts tagged NYC.
Cafe Orlin came up awhile ago when I was doing a search for pumpkin pancakes. It's in St. Mark's, which isn't far from Union Square, which we often go to for Trader Joe's and the Union Square Playground, so today the munchkin and I continued our quest for the best pancakes in NYC.
As with many popular NYC brunch spots, they don't take reservations, so I was a bit worried when I saw a number of people waiting outside Cafe Orlin's entrance. Fortunately, when I went inside and told the hostess we'd like to put our name in for two, she did a double take as she processed the fact that the 4-year old looking hopefully up at her was part of the two, and then with a smile she beckoned us to another side room. I was thrilled that we weren't being seated in the main part of the restaurant, which was almost raucously loud, since the side room she led us to was a lot quieter and even seemed to have more natural light.
Shortly after we sat down, our cheerful and very young server came by with menus. I was about to go ahead and order the pumpkin pancakes for the munchkin, when I saw that in the Brunch Specials insert there was a seasonal special of sweet corn pancakes…I was intrigued. I asked our server if we could add blueberries to it, and she responded cheerfully with “Sure, I don't see why not” so we created our own sweet corn-blueberry pancake special. Since the prix fixe brunch specials seemed quite a good deal with their inclusion of freshly squeezed orange juice and a cappuccino, I also ordered the brioche french toast. Other options for the prix fixe include Eggs Benedict, Norwegian Smoked Salmon benedict, Eggs Blackstone, and Eggs Florentine. There were plenty of other egg dishes, some with Middle Eastern flair, and I like the fact that Cafe Orlin uses organic eggs. Here's the Cafe Orlin Brunch Menu:
Pretty quickly the freshly squeezed orange juice and cappuccino that came with my prix fixe arrived. It was just a small glass of fresh squeezed juice, but delicious–the munchkin wanted to drink it all. Fortunately he hasn't acquired a taste for espresso yet, so the cappuccino was all mine. It was perfectly foamed and well made.
Given that Cafe Orlin was completely full when we were there, I wasn't surprised it took a little while for our brunch dishes to come, and it wasn't an unreasonable wait. My brioche french toast came with real maple syrup, some apple slices and orange garnish. It was good, but a bit plain–next time I'd see if I could add bananas or blueberries or both to it:
The real star were the munchkin's sweet corn blueberry pancakes, which came garnished with strawberry. They were piping hot and scrumptious. I was a little worried he'd refuse to eat them because of the corn, but he didn't even comment, and dove right in. I had to convince him towards the end, when he started to slow down after eating almost all 3 pancakes, that he was full, since he wanted to keep eating them, they were that good. I think there was some corn flour in the pancakes, in addition to the abundance of sweet corn kernals, and they managed to have some nice crispy edges while still being tender inside. I can't guarantee they'll be on the brunch menu when you go, but if you see them, order them…with blueberries, as we did. You can thank me later.
The verdict: While we never did try the apparently very popular pumpkin pancakes, if the sweet corn pancakes are anything to go by, pancakes are the way to go. Unfortunately they're not on the prix fixe list, but I'd recommend ordering them anyway, even if it means shelling out a bit more for a fresh squeezed juice and/or a cappuccino or coffee. The other thing I really liked at Cafe Orlin was the service–it makes such a difference, to me anyway, having a cheerful, helpful server. I'm always happy to tip well for great service like this, and far more likely to return. Given the no reservation policy, I'd highly recommend getting to Cafe Orlin early for weekend brunch. We were there around noon and lucked out with the two-top in the side room, but if I was going as a party of 3 or more, I'd aim to get there by 11am. My husband, hearing our account and a huge pancake fan himself, is already insisting we take him here soon…and I have my eye on the millet pancakes, served with homemade chicken pistachio sausage and goat cheese and beet salad. At only $12, sounds like a bargain. Oh, and points? We earned over 150 Ultimate Rewards points, getting 5X with the Chase Freedom card.
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