Superb brunch at Sarabeth's

Our trusty Hudson concierge recommended Sarabeth’s as a perfect late brunch place that was fun, family friendly and located close to Central Park. We were meeting H, R and KK who having rented an apartment just off Time’s Square had actually moved to Manhattan (albeit temporarily) and were exploring the delights of Central Park on this ever so crisp Sunday morning. Actually it was unbelievably chilly but coming from London this wasn’t as huge shock whereas DD, being more accustomed to a Sydney temperature, had a huge culture shock. How lucky he’d picked up a little Armani (did I get that right, DD?) cashmere scarf yesterday whilst on his major shopping excursions yesterday before I’d landed. As we crossed endless streets on our way to Central Park we pondered what delights we’d like for our brunch and I express a particular desire for that stalwart of brunch menus – eggs Benedict, possibly with the more traditional ham or as I’d missed the salmon in my bagel this morning, maybe with smoked salmon.

When we arrived at Sarabeth’s we could see that it was enormously popular, apparently when H and R had passed by earlier with KK in her pushchair there were queues around the block. By the time everyone arrived the queues had fortunately abated and all seven of us were led to the back room to a big round table. KK was tucked up underneath a cream cashmere canopy with no evidence of her presence except a highly desirable cute pink pair of Converse All Stars (I think they’re called Chucks!) poking out the bottom. She slept on whilst the grownups perused the menu.

And it is, as expected, the perfect brunch menu. Under the heading of ‘extraordinary eggs and omelettes’ there is the Smoked Salmon Eggs Benedict I’ve been hankering after but there are plenty of other options I would have been happy with. What about Goldie Lox – scrambled eggs with smoked salmon and cream cheese or the extremely tasty sounding Farmer's Omelette - leeks, ham and chunks of potato with Gruyere or Green and White which is scrambled eggs with scallions and cream cheese? There’s also fat waffles and the intriguingly names Baby Bear, Mama Bear, Dada Bear and Big Bad Wolf porridge. I may not be a fan of porridge but I do like the names!

My eggs Benedict dish with Irish smoked salmon is exactly what I was craving and hit the spot perfectly. I don’t think I’ll ever tire of a well-made classic Hollandaise sauce or a perfectly poached egg.

And because we felt it had to be tried H and I shared the Individual apple Crumb Pie with the caramel ice cream, and rather good it was indeed. As KK had just woken up I thought she may want to join the girls in a not so girly dessert of sweet crunchiness, soft apple and gorgeous ice cream but she was really only interested in collecting all the spoons, she seems to like spoons! I was a very tasty dessert and crowned a perfect New York brunch, two forks for the two-named Sarabeth.