Andersonville is home to so many great restaurants offering weekend brunch. Where to begin? My husband and I tried two different places, on two consecutive weekends. This is Big Jones versus Bongo Room, head to head! Let’s check out Big Jones first.
Our meal kicked off with some complimentary beignets. They were okay – just fried dough really, a bit bready. The powdered sugar helped make them tastier.
Hubby ordered the Bayou Teche, a very flavourful omelette with meaty crawfish, cream cheese, and andouille sausage. Both our entrees came with a choice of grits or hashed potatoes (which we picked, they were crispy just how we like them.)
I ordered the Eggs New Orleans – Crab cakes stuffed in a popover (reminded me of Yorkshire pudding), topped with perfectly poached eggs and Hollandaise sauce. This was honestly the best interpretation of a crab cake benny I’ve ever had.
We both liked our entrees so much, we came back a second time and ordered the exact same thing!
Big Jones has a good selection of loose-leaf teas, served in a beautiful glass pot:
Hubby got the Bloody Mary Jones. On a separate visit, I tried the Morning Dove brunch cocktail – the fresh grapefruit juice pulled me in. It was okay, but nothing spectacular. The Intelligensia coffee however, is spectacular, so I’ll stick to coffee in the future.
We shared the buckwheat banana pancakes at the end of our meal. We asked our server to make sure the pancakes arrived after our savory plates were done, and he happily obliged. The pancakes were fluffy and delish, served with crunchy pecans and caramel sauce.
Everything about this meal was fantastic – the food, the atmosphere and the service. I would recommend making reservations however – on our second visit, we were treated like second-class patrons since we had not made a reservation. What was supposed to be a 10 minute wait for a table turned into a 35 minute wait, and left a bitter taste in my mouth. Maybe this is an opening for another restaurant to stake claim as Andersonville’s top brunch spot?…
Info: Big Jones, 5347 N. Clark Street, Chicago, IL 60640 USA