This year I spent New Year's Eve in Silver Spring, MD with friends...not doing anything special...just eating, drinking and laughing. New Year's Day we ventured into DC to Pearl Dive...an Oyster Palace to meet a friend for brunch.
The atmosphere of Pearl Dive is rustic but comfy...with it's heavy wood tables and booths. You enter through a hallway looking entrance where you can either sit at the bar or be seated in the dining area. We were seated in the booths which were a extremely close to the 2 rows of tables beside us, a little too close, as a matter of fact I think the couple that sat next to us were a little uncomfortable with certain parts of our conversation lol...but they could not not hear us!! Enough about the atmosphere...onto the food...
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| Deliciousness in a Cast Iron Pan |
We started off with Grapefruit Mimosas, which could have been sweeter but I forgave their bitter mimosa when they brought the Sticky Cinnamon Roll( $7)...which they must have baked fresh because it did take a while to come out. But it was crisp on the outside and warm and gooey on the inside. The cream cheese frosting with real BACON bit sprinkles balanced each other out to the perfect explosion of warm, soft, crunch, sweet, salty goodness in one bite! So Good!!
As an entree I ordered the Sweet Potato Hash with the cheddar scallion biscuit ($13) , the biscuit was good albeit bland...I could visibly see the scallions but I think the biscuits needed salt to exaggerate the flavors. The hash left much to be desired...I actually had to send it back because the poached eggs on top of the hash were so overcooked they could have been mistaken for hard boiled eggs, the yolks didn't run at all when I broke the egg open. They solved the issue but making me new eggs but it still didn't rock my boat...I just realized the actual name of the dish I ordered was Sweet Potato Andouille Hash...but I don't remember a crumb of Andouille sausage in the hash...all the ingredients were diced so small you couldn't tell what they were...and I know for a fact andouille sausage is very flavorful in and of itself so there must not have been that much sausage in the hash to begin with poo poo on Pearl Dive for that and they call themselves being inspired by New Orleans...humph! If the chef ever read this and wants my two cents I say make it a heartier hash, with chunkier cuts of potatoes, peppers and sausage. In New Orleans everything is big! Flavor and portion size...so I kinda felt ripped off...
Another friend ordered the Steak and Eggs ($15), she said it was good but for the price I don't know if it was worth it. Apparently there was a special Dive Burger and Beer for $10 that the waitress didn't tell us about but a local friend, who was running a little late, ordered the special confidently. When the burger arrived it looked delicious and I was sad that I didn't know that was an option...
The service was ehhhh...ok. Like I said my eggs were over cooked. The friend who ordered the burger asked for them to add an egg to it, which they did not AND didn't offer to fix it once she brought it to the waitresses attention. The beer took forever to come and from what I heard it was just ok...the manager of chef came to greet every table except for ours, which I thought was strange...even bad criticism is good criticism...and! A couple tables over...a waiter spilled a Bloody Mary on a guest while we were there...so Idk what to say about the service.
I'm going to have to come up with a scale system for rating these things if I continue to do them all in all...if you're around Pearl Dive...go there for the Cinnamon Roll...and maybe the oysters??
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| Ashley and Shalon and our Grapefruit Mimosas |
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