New Menu at Avenue One, Hyatt Regency Boston

Avenue One in the Hyatt Regency in Boston invited the Boston Brunchers to enjoy a brunch buffet featuring a sneak preview of their new menu items outdoors on the terrace.  For $25, we received unlimited trips to the buffet, coffee, juice, smoothie shooters, and breakfast cocktails.

Chef Kelly Armetta spoke passionately and enthusiastically about each table at the buffet and his desire and intention to focus on fresh local ingredients.  The lobster eggs benedict in Boston may not be on the menu at a Hyatt in California; they’d have their own local twist on eggs benedict.

The ingredients in the bread or cheeses may vary week to week depending on what is locally available.  Chef Armetta grows his own raspberries in his garden, hand picks them, and turns them into delicious raspberry jam.  The jam is served with his homemade gluten free granola and greek yogurt.  He also makes a gluten granola, but featured the gluten free granola for us bloggers.  It was my favorite food at the buffet.

I planned to pace myself and sample a little of everything at the buffet.  I started with some yogurt, granola, and jam, some pastries, and a shooter of muesli.

I love muesli so this was a nice treat for me.  Avenue One’s is extra full of cinnamon and has whole grapes.  It was delicious.  I also tried yellow watermelon.  It was pretty good, but not as sweet and juicy as pink watermelon.

Next I moved to the egg station, where we were offered any omelet we desired or their signature omelet with portobello mushrooms, caramelized onions, and cheddar cheese.  The description also listed pecan cranberry toast, but I didn’t see any toast around.  Perhaps the toast is part of the future menu offering?  The other signature dish was coddled eggs on top of baby arugala salad with poached fruit.  I opted for the signature omelet.  The caramelized onions were perfectly sweet and the omelet was a good size to taste but not fill me up too much.

I saved the best, in my opinion, for last.

I love carbs for breakfast, especially pancakes.  The presentation of these chocolate pancakes was elegant and I was pleased with myself for sampling everything I wanted and saving room for the pancakes.  But when I tasted the pancakes, I wasn’t overly impressed.  The pancakes were light and fluffy, but didn’t taste special. I think mine were a little light on the chocolate to deserve the name Triple Chocolate Pancakes. I couldn’t taste the espresso in the espresso chocolate sauce, and the white chocolate butter had completely melted after a few hours in the sun.  I couldn’t taste white chocolate or butter.  The berries on top were fresh and juicy though and paired well with the chocolate and pancake.  I didn’t try the french toast, but general opinion was it was average french toast, but the topping was really good.

I hadn’t planned on having a breakfast cocktail, but when mimosas and bloody mary’s were passed around, I didn’t want to miss the opportunity.  I’ve been feeling salty rather than sweet lately so I chose the bloody mary.

The bloody mary was one of the better bloody marys I’ve ever tasted.  It was peppery, but not too much, and I tasted the tomato juice not the vodka.  Sometimes bloody marys taste like cold tomato soup with vodka, but this one was close to perfection for me.

The relaxing ambiance of the terrace added to the dining experience.  It was wonderful to eat outside, and we lucked out with the sunny weather.  The sun came out shortly after this photo was taken.

If you’re craving a buffet of comfort food, The Avenue is a good choice.

Special to June’s Boston Brunchers event, Michelle and Colleen represented EverSave and every blogger in attendance received a $10 credit in their EverSave account.  EverSave also raffled off a few Saves to local restaurants.

Disclaimer: The Avenue put this brunch together specially for Boston Brunchers and this brunch buffet menu is not a typical dining experience.  I was not obligated to review the restaurant and all opinions expressed are my own.