One of the best ways to experience a 3-star New York Times restaurant at a fraction of the cost, is to go for lunch or in this case for brunch. The Dovetail brunch is very dessert heavy. It includes a basket of fresh baked bread items; canapes, which include a yogurt parfait and a duck meatball amuse; a main course and a mini-dessert sampler. I should note some of the unique and heavy-duty savory brunch items such as short rib lasagna (!) and sirloin eggs.

It’s interesting that Dovetail has such a dessert-heavy brunch.   I have long been aware how how great their desserts are but I didn’t know their customer base felt the same as me until I saw the 4-dessert sampler and additional bread pudding pre-dessert. By the way, who ever heard of a pre-dessert for 3 course brunch?

My guest and I both thought the bread pudding, which came as the “pre-dessert”  was the best offering.   It was more like like a perfect, syrup-soaked piece of french toast.   I also really liked the devil’s food cake which packed a strong chocolate flavor but was not too heavy.  The apple crisp, which has been part of this brunch for a while is also very good.  The apple crisp is excellent, it’s very fresh and not too sweet.  The cheesecake, like the devil’s food, is a one-bite dessert that has a lot of house-made  components, such as the flaky cookie base and a blob of jelly.   The final dessert-bite was a brownie with whipped cream.

Recommended: Bread Pudding, also sometimes available as a “pain purdu”.

Dovetail is located at 103 West 77th Street.

Posted by JK on Sunday, February 21st, 2010 at 7:20 pm.