Casa del Mar, a 1920s Santa Monica hotel with beautiful unobstructed views of the beach, recently introduced a $29 Sunday brunch, with your choice of an appetizer, entree and all-you-can-eat dessert buffet. Sounds great, right? I thought so, too, so I invited a bunch of my friends to try it out yesterday. Boy, were we disappointed.

It wasn’t so much the food, which was fine for the most part, though some of it had its problems, too. It was the extremely slow service that really got us. Since I made the reservation for the meal, my experience with the hotel started before anyone else’s, and it didn’t start off well.

When I called a week ago to make a reservation, I was told that there were two other large groups (we had eight people) that had already made reservations for my preferred day and time and that the restaurant couldn’t fit us in. Really? I found this hard to believe that in this economy any restaurant (with very few exceptions) wouldn’t accommodate a group of people who want to give their business. So after I asked about availability for the following week, the woman on the other end, after checking with the manager, came back on the line to tell me that they would “squeeze” us in after all. OK, great.

Then the restaurant called me back the night before our reservation to confirm. I confirmed. Then I realized that a restaurant with a different name had called to confirm my reservation. I thought we were eating at The Veranda, but Catch called me. So I called back to reconfirm. By this time, Catch was closed so I was transferred to the hotel’s concierge. I explained why I was calling, saying I just wanted to make sure my reservation was made for the dining area that I wanted. The concierge said, “Well, if you’re having brunch, you’re in Catch.” OK, I wanted to confirm since your Web site is kind of confusing, I said, which was greeted with silence on the other end of the line (take a look at the links above: two different venues with different brunch menus). That was pretty much the end of that conversation.

So I was a little apprehensive when we showed up the next day for brunch, but there were no problems getting us seated in the right place. But there were problems with getting our food. It took 20 minutes before our drink orders were taken and another 15 to 20 minutes before our food orders were taken. I ordered a roasted beet salad to start and a lobster club sandwich for my entree. I was then served eggs Benedict for my appetizer. That was sent back, and I got my beet salad, which was good, with red and golden beets topped with goat cheese and frisee. Other people ordered the seafood salad, which they described as tasting like a seafood Caesar with avocado.

Bellini

Bloody Mary

Roasted beet salad

Seafood salad

Then we got our entrees. My lobster club was OK. The bread was on the thin side and grilled like a panini, which was nice, since sometimes too-thick bread makes a sandwich hard to eat. But the rest of it — the lobster, avocado, tomato and lettuce — didn’t have a lot of flavor. The tomato on one half of my sandwich was looking more than a little worse for wear: not only was I given the “butt” of the tomato, the other piece was a mealy mess. And my potato chips were not warm, as the menu said they would be.

Lobster club

Tomato butt and mealy mess (above)

Oh, and remember that eggs Benedict? Two other people at the table had ordered that dish, and it obviously came back because one was cold. That one was replaced with a new one that the manager swore was made 3 minutes ago right before his eyes. And someone else was displeased with her steak frites; she said the steak was unremarkable and was cooked more than she had asked for.

Eggs Benedict

The saving grace of the meal was the dessert buffet, which offered all sorts of sweets, including puddings, cakes, cupcakes, ice cream, tiramisu, crepes and creme brulee. I had butterscotch pudding, which was good (I actually had this first thing since it took so long to get our real food, and just about everyone else at the table ate dessert first, too). I also had some strawberry ice cream with gummy bears (so sophisticated, I know). The ice cream was OK, but the gummy bears were nice and soft. Tara of When Tara Met Blog said that she thought the mini cupcakes came from nearby Vanilla Bake Shop, and I believe her because she’s the cupcake goddess. I didn’t taste any though, because I was somehow stuffed despite not finishing my entree. Perhaps I was stuffed with displeasure?

Butterscotch (left) and chocolate (right) puddings

Mini cupcakes

Tiramisu

Creme brulee (tart?)

And then we got the check, 2 hours and 15 minutes after we had initially sat down for our meal. I had put 2 hours and 17 minutes on the meter where I parked my car, so I was sure I would get a parking ticket. Thankfully, I didn’t. But there was a kicker — we were charged $27 for three bottles of Evian. When we were asked “sparkling or flat,” we said flat, thinking it was tap. I guess we should have realized when our water came in Evian bottles, but none of us did. The server should have asked if we wanted Evian or tap water after we said we wanted flat, but tap wasn’t even offered. The irony is we all got free booze because of a text-message promotion. Casa del Mar: Where booze is free, but water costs $9 a bottle.

The manager seemed to be the only person who was on the ball. We saw him actively directing the wait staff, and he came by more than once to make sure we were OK. And while our server was pleasant, he never apologized for the wait. Well, I’m not apologizing for this post, either.

Evolving flavored iced tea (left), Cava mimosa (right)

Yes, Jose Andres’ Bazaar at the SLS Hotel has been open for a year now, but I didn’t go right away. Why? Because I don’t like being caught up in a scene, and the SLS and everything in it is definitely a scene. So I waited a year to try it, and I went for brunch, not for dinner when I’ve passed by and seen it totally poppin’ off, as it were.

When we (Sam of LAist and Lucy of Edible LA) showed up, it was kind of dead — relatively speaking, of course. By the time we left, there were more people, though most chose to eat inside, which I thought was kind of strange given the beautiful sunny day. We ate on the patio.

I’m not going to dwell on the Bazaar’s food since by now the restaurant has been thoroughly discussed across the food blogosophere and in the mainstream media, so I’ll just give you my greatest hits of this meal.

12 Tiny Eggs Sunny Side Up, or the Huevos a la Cubana “Andy Garcia” ($12): This dish is made with 12 quail eggs topped with Serrano ham shavings, tomato puree and chopped chives sitting atop a fried jasmine rice cake mixed with banana puree. The layers of flavors and textures are amazing.

Olive Oil Pancakes ($14): Oh. My. Gawd. Like I’ve said before, I’m not a big pancake person, but these fluffy disks from heaven may just change my mind. At once moist and fluffy with just the lightest of crusts to keep them from getting soggy in the bourbon barrel-aged maple syrup (an extra $8; regular syrup comes included in the original $14 price), I was so smitten with this dish that I could have easy gorged myself on all four of them and called it a day. Oh, and there’s olive oil butter on top, too. I want some more now!

We also had Air Bread with Smoked Salmon($5 per person), which was basically a puffed pocket of bread filled with tzatziki yogurt and topped with smoked salmon; Eggs Benedict “New Way” with Iberico ham ($18; $12 with Serrano ham); foie gras sandwiches ($15) with quince paste on brioche; and toast topped with tomato and Manchego cheese. All were good, but none of them stood out to me like the quail eggs and olive oil pancakes did.

Air bread with smoked salmon

Eggs Benedict New Way

Foie Gras sandwiches

Tomato toast with Manchego cheese

There was something interesting we discovered during our meal: The food we were served wasn’t prepared the same way Andres himself prepares it. Lucy had attended a press brunch earlier in the week that was attended by Andres, and she noticed a difference between our meal and the media meal. There was much more Hollandaise foam that accompanies the eggs Benedict when Andres made it, and the fruit-flavored “air” that tops the Cava mimosa was nonexistent on the ones at our table. The “Evolving” iced tea was also different; at the press meal, the iced tea was poured over the flavored part, which was a large frozen cube, while at our meal the iced tea came with regular-sized cubes and barely any flavor at all. I’m not sure if this is laziness or what, but if I were to ever go back, I’ll stick with the tried-and-true dishes.

Yes, that's a tree in the middle of the dining room. It's kind of awkward but pretty.

I’ve had a hard time lately with eating out. Not because I don’t like to eat — obviously I do — but because it’s been a while since I’ve really been wowed by a meal. Sure, I’ve had great parts of meals, but an entire meal that’s knock-your-socks-off good is hard to come by.

So when a bunch of us foodies (Esther of e*starLA, Caroline of Caroline on Crack, Diana of Diana Takes a Bite, and Lindsay and Sam of LAist) got together for a leisurely Sunday brunch — on our own dime, thank you very much — at Tavern in Brentwood, I wasn’t sure what to expect. I had high expectations because I had heard good things about this latest Goin-Styne collaboration, but I was also afraid it was going to be all hype.

Hype it’s not. Tavern, at least its brunch menu, is amazing. I truly enjoyed this meal.

Our table started out with cocktails, though admittedly I didn’t order one for myself. But I tasted those that arrived for my fellow brunchers because that’s what we do; we share. The Ginger Rogers, made with gin, mint, ginger syrup and soda, was simple and refreshing. The Queen Mary Bloody Mary, made with gin instead of vodka, and cucumber and tomato, was light while still satisfying. I’m not a big Bloody Mary fan, but this lighter version was more palatable for me that usual.

Ginger Rogers

Queen Mary Bloody Mary

We then moved on to a chef’s choice basket of pastries, which included monkey bread, a cherry-almond scone, and another scone made from cornmeal. All were good, but the monkey bread, which you pull apart to get bite-size pieces of cinnamony goodness, was my favorite.

Monkey bread in the center.

Next came our main courses. I had the brisket hash with fried eggs and horseradish cream. My mouth is salivating as I write this because it was immensely satisfying with the differing textures of the ingredients. I imagine this dish would be great as a hangover meal. It was so good, I found myself mopping up the remnants with bread.

Brisket hash

Also at the table were lemon ricotta pancakes topped with huckleberries, which had just the right balance between crispiness on the outside and fluffiness on the inside and was really lemony, something I love. I’m not normally a pancake fan, but these were nice. (Looks like the new fall menu has pumpkin pancakes with toasted pecans and spiced syrup, which sound good, too.)

Lemon ricotta pancakes

The eggs Benedict was also a lighter version of many that can be found out there as it’s made with prosciutto, a bed of frisee and a lemon-heavy hollandaise sauce. The sauce really made this dish. Notice a lemon theme here? I’m liking it.

Eggs Benedict

There were other dishes — a wild mushroom frittata with spinach and cheddar, a chopped chicken salad, and The Pilgrim sandwich made with turkey, cranberry, stuffing (!) and mayo — but I didn’t taste them. I was too engrossed in the savory warm blanket that was my brisket hash. I mean, just look how happy I am eating it:

From e*starLA

Eggs Benedict

Last week, Pasadena’s La Grande Orange Cafe, which is opening a new location next week in Santa Monica, invited a bunch of food writers/bloggers to “brinner,” or breakfast for dinner. The special menu (you can’t actually order breakfast food for dinner right now, though some dishes may be added to the dinner menu in the near future) included eggs Benedict with the cafe’s signature English muffins, lemon-ricotta pancakes and huevos rancheros.

I had the egg-white omelet with turkey, tomatoes and avocado, which I found nice and light, though there was a bit too much parsley. The eggs Benedict I tasted had great flavor, with the sourness of the sourdough English muffins a great touch. My favorite dessert of the myriad the restaurant gave us to sample was the cucumber sorbet – it was refreshing.

The cafe is adding a pizza parlor in a space adjacent to its patio. As of last week, the space was used as storage for some of Santa Monica’s furniture, but the restaurant says the pizza will be ready to go some time this fall. Pizza will be served from the get-go at the Santa Monica location, and they’ll also be selling packaged English muffins there, too.

Deviled eggs, with basil!

Cinnamon roll. They serve these in place of biscuits.

Malted buttermilk waffles

Key lime pie

Pizza space

English muffin. They gave these to us to take home. No, they do not come presliced.

More photos on Flickr (on right).

[UPDATE: LGO's Pasadena location doesn't actually serve breakfast; it's brunch. The restaurant opens at 10:30 a.m. on weekends and 11:00 a.m. on weekdays. The new Santa Monica location will open at 6:30 a.m. every day for breakfast.]

[UPDATE #2: I neglected to mention the names of the other bloggers at the brinner - e*starla, LAist's Lindsay William-Ross, Caroline on Crack and EaterLA's Yolanda Evans.]