Park Avenue Autumn

For HB’s recent birthday (it seems all I do is post about birthdays anymore! haha), I searched for a long time for a brunch place that would take a reservation for 10.  Unfortunately, all the places we really wanted to try (Danal, specifically, which sounds so good!, or Eatery) would not give us reservations, so we settled on Park Avenue Autumn.  I was a bit wary if only because of my previous experience at its previous incarnation as Park Avenue Cafe, but the menu sounded quite delish and they were willing to give us last minute reservations for the prime time of 12:30 pm, so off we went. 

The interior decor hasn’t changed much from my memory, though we were seated “to the left” of the door, in an alcove, whereas I sat “to the right” last time.  It still had a slightly stuffy air to it- Park Avenue and all that, though the menu nearly made me spit out my water. 

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Fried chicken’n’waffle sandwich?  Really?  I wasn’t sure if they were giving props or mocking it. 

Of note is how annoyingly they assume you know what some things are, such as the “Upper East Sider” which turned out to be a bagel with lox and eggs Benedict both. 

The first was just a listing of what breads we’d get for our table, a nice round offering.

I tred the pistachio scone, which was much drier and crumblier than I expected and did not like.  The brioche and pecan sticky bun was quite lovely though, and the other items must have been yummy since we ate all of it.  (They gave us two trays of the bread for 7 of us.)

The Autumn Haystack was a bunch of julienned veggies, pomegranate arils, and crispy shrimp scattered around the bowl.  We all agreed that it was tasty, but that we could have done with more shrimp; the shrimp was really yummy and I can’t figure out how they must have coated it or seasoned it.  I don’t even normally like shrimp but this was perfect- I think it may have been rock shrimp, even. 

Garden salad with fresh fall vegetables.  I didn’t hear any complaints.

AM actually ordered the chicken’n’waffle sandwich, a boneless fried chicken cutlet between two waffles, and enjoyed it.  She said it was good, though I don’t believe she raved about it. 

The three boys all ordered the “steak & eggs”, filet mignon and sunny side up eggs.  I heard no complaints except that the filet could’ve been bigger, but what do you expect?

The remaining girls, HB included, all ordered the smoked salmon & eggs, creme fraiche, caviar and pressed potatoes.  My bed of eggs was super soft and undercooked, which kind of skeeved me- I’m not into overcooked and dry scrambled eggs, but I also do not like “wet” scrambled eggs, I like them to be just right, moist, but not … goopy like these were.  The salmon wasn’t bad, but way too little creme fraiche.  Caviar was to be expected only so-so.  And what’s up with the potatoes?!  I don’t think anyone was wow’d by this dish nor upset, but it really wasn’t anything great. 

Service was okay, not fantastic or horrible, so I can’t really recommend this place or tell you not to go here.  I can tell you, however, that the food was astoundingly mediocre and completely not worth the prix-fixe price of $32 + tax & tip per person.  (As it was HB’s birthday, we treated her and paid $53 a person [she doesn’t read this blog! it’s okay, and anyway, she was right there, it wasn’t a big secret, I hope I’m not being tacky though], which included three teas and a bottle of still water; everyone else had tap water.  And at that price, brunch was a complete rip-off, not even a complimentary mimosa or bloody mary!)

Yvo says: So not worth it.  Overpriced, mediocre, and really, I don’t see any reason to go here.  They’ve changed their game plan, now changing the name with the seasons- soon to be called “Park Avenue Winter” and supposedly use all seasonal, fresh ingredients but it didn’t make anything taste better, per se, so why bother?  It was very, very mediocre, and I give it a resounding “middle of the road” rating but with the prices in play, it really is just simply….
not recommended