Classic Eggs Benedict @ Walter's
Walter’s is always a popular brunch spot, but we were able to get seated right away, even a little after they opened. What’s also nice is that it’s right across the street from the Fort Greene Farmer’s Market, so if you want to go full on Brooklyn Saturday, this is a good place to start. The eggs benedict was a traditional listing, but the presentation was...different. And not in a great way. Let’s break it down.
Um, yeah, all the sides are under my benedict
Base: English muffin. They were toasted well and a nice size, but nothing else aligned with it. In this case, smaller may have been better. So it’s a solid, if large, foundation, but things get weird in a second.
Score: 3
Non-Egg Protein: Grilled Ham Steak. Clearly not the typical thinly sliced ham, but one big piece to cover both muffins. The ham itself was thick and delicious, and while it was strange to have just one piece, that fact that it was at the same time almost too much meat was equally as strange.
Score: 4
Eggs: Pretty good. Both had a lot of great runny yolk, even though one was slightly over. But the odd presentation hurt here again. The eggs were too close together and one broke while I was trying to separate them to get some egg towards the edge to eat all the pieces together. Premature yolking is no fun for anyone. Some of the water used to boil the egg found its way into the dish, and it had a hint of the vinegar often used to keep eggs together while poaching. Not something you really want in your benedict.
Score: 7
Good egg broken too soon
Where is all the hollandaise?! This egg is naked!
Sauce: Hollandaise. The taste and consistency were good, but there was not enough and it was only on the eggs. Again, wouldn’t be a terrible thing except that the eggs were only in the middle of this giant piece of ham. So unless I did the work to move the eggs around (breaking one in the process), I would have only had eggs and sauce in the middle of the dish and dry muffin on the edges.
Score: 4
Sides: Potatoes and like one piece of a pepper. This might be the weirdest part of this dish. Not only was everything hard to cut because it was sitting on a pile of pieces that can move, trying to eat them was difficult because they were the support structure of the benedict itself. And they were hidden. Potatoes are a side. They should be served on the side, not underneath. The only thing that saves them is that they at least tasted decent.
Score: 3
Bonus: None.
Total score: 21/30
