Liberty Tavern

Generally I try to avoid brunch buffets. They're usually overpriced and consist of food that has been dried out sitting on hot plates all morning. Liberty Tavern, in Clarendon, is an exception.

Liberty Tavern serves a bountiful amount of fresh food, both hot and cold, at their (unsurprisingly) popular Sunday buffet for a reasonable $17. The buffet begins with homemade mulled hot apple cider, which, other than coffee or fresh squeezed OJ, is perhaps the only acceptable non-alcoholic brunch beverage. At least two dozen buffet items follow, most of which are fairly original and well-prepared. Their homemade frittata with tomatoes, rapini, and mozzarella and their inventive pizza with prosciutto, apples, and sauteed onions were highlights. Most of their other hot dishes were made with interesting ingredients to distinguish them from ordinary buffet items. The scrambled eggs were combined with a touch of cream and applewood smoked bacon. The potato gratin had broccoli and sharp white cheddar. And there is a carving station with roasted turkey and pork loin with assorted gravies (the turkey is recommended).

For the cold dishes, I was immediately impressed by their Irish smoked salmon, which had a good amount of accompaniments. The salmon was fresh, though a little salty. They have assorted homemade breads and cakes -- my favorite was a cranberry pound cake with walnuts, which produced a really nice salty-sweet combination. And they have a few forgettable pasta salads.

Perhaps the biggest draw is there dessert buffet, featuring a large selection of vintage candy, such as whoppers milk balls, bit-o-honey, neccos, dots, and my personal favorite Mike and Ikes. That was complemented by a homemade shoofly pie which was sweet and delicious.

The coffee, which is not included in the buffet price, comes in a very elaborate presentation. It features a 3-serving french press with an hourglass that informs you when it is time to press the coffee. The resulting brew is nice and rich with a flavorful aroma.

Contact information after the jump. Continue reading.



Liberty Tavern
3195 Wilson Boulevard
Arlington, VA 22201
(703)465-9360
Sample brunch menu.



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Meritage

[Ed. Note: This weekend I was invited to attend a food bloggers brunch at the Meritage, the restaurant at the North Bethesda Marriott. The purpose of the brunch was for local food bloggers to get together and to give us the opportunity to describe the restaurant to our readers. Thus, consider this a description rather than a review.]

The Sunday brunch at Meritage features both a hot and cold buffet, coffee, and one mimosa, bloody mary, or glass of champagne for $24.95.

The buffet is extensive. It has a cold antipasto bar featuring various salad ingredients and prepared salads such as a shrimp salad and a cherry tomato and mozzarella salad. The cold offerings also include a shellfish displace with shrimp cocktail and crab claws -- shells pre-cut and with two dipping sauces. It also has smoked salmon with accouterments, and a tapas selection including roasted peppers, olives, sundried tomatoes, and others.

The hot buffet has various breakfast items like scrambled eggs, bacon and sausage. It also has chicken and fish entrees that change weekly as well as homemade potato pancakes and blintzes. To complement that, there is a omelet station with a variety of choices, and there is a carving station with roast beef and turkey with a choice of sauces.

For dessert they have a large variety of cakes, pastries, and pies as well as a large fondue selection with a tower of liquid chocolate. They also have mini creme brulees.

The hotel is situated across the street from the White Flint red line metro station in North Bethesda.

Contact information after the jump. Continue reading.


The Meritage at the North Bethesda Marriott
5701 Marinelli Road
North Bethesda, Maryland 20852
(301) 822-9234
Brunch menu


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Levante's

Levante's is a Mediterranean restaurant south of Dupont Circle. For brunch they offer a large buffet with both hot and cold dishes, breads, fruit, Mediterranean spreads, fish, and an omelet chef. As is often the case with buffets, the cold dishes were a lot better than the hot ones.

The cold section of the buffet consists of fruit, smoked salmon, breads, cakes, various vegetables, salad, and spreads such as hummus, baba ghanoush, and tzatziki. Most of these dishes were solid, though not extraordinary. The hummus, baba, and tzatziki, appeared to be home made and were well-done, the baba particularly so, and the salad and fruit were fresh. Given its presentation, the salmon was probably purchased elsewhere but it was still good and had a nice selection of accoutrements.

The hot food, unfortunately, suffered. The pides and other bread-based dishes were situated under a heat lamp and were all dried out. Other dishes in heated buffet containers looked like they had been sitting out there for a while. The eggs benedicts were not bad, but the Hollandaise sauce looked like separated, presumably because it had been sitting out there for a while. The highlight of the hot food area was the omelet chef who makes omelets to order with a variety of ingredients -- staples such as peppers, onions, and ham, and more interesting and Mediterranean options like feta cheese and shrimp.

For $20, this is a decent deal. I would recommend sticking with the omelets and the cold dishes.

Contact information after the jump. Continue reading.

Levante's
1320 19th Street NW
Washington D.C. 20036
(202)293-3244
http://www.levantes.com

N.B. They also have a location in Maryland but I have never been there.


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Hinode

As most veteran brunchers know, brunch is more than just eggs, French toast, sandwiches, and salads. It's also all-you-can-eat Japanese buffets. I recently made the trip out to Bethesda to visit Hinode Japanese Restaurant at the suggestion of Washington City Paper's consistently excellent young and hungry feature. Hinode offers an expansive buffet of both sushi and hot food for an astonishingly cheap $12 (lunch/brunch only). While I think you can rightly be skeptical of eating that kind of volume of raw fish for that cheap, Hinode's buffet was actually fairly fresh.

The hot food area consisted of tempura, various vegetable dishes, a few chicken dishes, rice, and dessert. The tempura was the highlight, especially if you get to it right as they're putting it out. The steamed dumplings were also good and came with a nice salty dipping sauce. But the real reason you'd go here is for the sushi. Overall, the maki was more impressive than the nigiri. The nigiri is mostly rice with a small amount of fish. That was not unexpected since all-you-can eat joints generally try to overload on the rice to fill you up. However, many of the rolls were good. The highlights were the spicy tuna roll, which was surrounded by salty tobiko; the crab stick, which is not usually my favorite but it was topped with tangy spicy sauce; and the tempura rolls, which were crunchy and good. The tuna and salmon rolls were competent but not outstanding. They also have some more obscure items like mussel nigiri. Overall a solid bang for the buck and is worth the trip out to Bethesda.

N.B. They have locations in Rockville and Frederick in addition to Bethesda.

Contact information after the jump. Continue reading.



Hinode Japanese Restaurant
4914 Hampden Lane
Bethesda, MD 20814
(301) 654-0908


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