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This past weekend, Amanda and I ventured out to Kittichai in SoHo with a couple of our friends. We’d been there before for their prix-fixe family style dinner for Amanda’s birthday and were very impressed by the quality, taste, and presentation. So we happily went back, but this time, for their prix-fixe brunch.
Kittichai offers a pretty full brunch menu with Thai items or traditional breakfast items with a Thai twist. We only got a taste of a small section they call their “Thai Brunch Classics”…but this section includes unlimited cocktails featuring blood orange mimosas, passionfruit bellinis, and bloody marys. Between all of us in our group, we were able to taste all the cocktails and four of their brunch items.

Ok, so bad news first. I have a soft spot for omelettes so I’ll always try one given the opportunity. I ordered the omelette with Thai sour sausage and lump crab, which unfortunately fell a little short. The sour sausage was yummy and reminded me of the chinese sausage that my parents would make back home. The lump crab wasn’t very memorable or flavorful and didn’t have a big impact on the the overall dish. I was also looking for something gooey to bind the ingredients together, but alas there was none…a definite deal breaker for me.

Now for some good news! We also tried their eggs benedict with smoked salmon with curry based hollandaise sauce and also their five-spice french toast served with fruit compote. I loved these two dishes, mostly because they stayed true to the original breakfast item. The eggs benedict came on a biscuit and either canadian bacon, smoked salmon, or morning glory (water spinach). The eggs were poached perfectly but the curry hollandaise sauce was excellent and flavorful. The french toast came as thick triangle slices of bread dipped in a five spice batter, cooked until just crispy and dusted with powdered sugar. It was served with a sweet berry puree, instead of syrup, and pear (apple?) and blueberry compote. Again, the construct of the dish remained true to the original, but was able to provide an Asian flair with the five spice.

One of our friends also had the pad thai, which was not too oily or too sweet and just light enough to enjoy for brunch. The egg pancake on top was a nice, almost Korean, touch to the dish – besides, you can never have enough egg in the morning.
Out of the cocktails, my favorite was the passionfruit bellini – pleasantly tart and sweet, bubbly, and not overpowering. Amanda’s favorite was the blood orange mimosa, partly because, she says, orange juice in the morning is such a rarity in our apartment, coffee being our default beverage. It’s hard to believe the cocktails are around $12 each, because I’m sure we each had 4 or more…score $20 prix-fixe

Continue reading Brunch at Kittichai