Wow, I have no idea how I got so far behind in my posts and I am very sorry for doing so as I have about 6-7 posts waiting to be written!! My visit to Plates in Raleigh this last Sunday for brunch reminded me of why I started this blog (my passion for food, service and drinks) and that I need make this more of a priority for myself. Steve Day at Plates helped remind me of this during our long discussion of just that…..food and service at various restaurants around Raleigh. Therefore, I am going to go ahead and write about my visit to Plates, but I have to apologize as I do not have any photos since I was not there with the intent of blogging my visit since I was so far behind.
Any of you who know me, know that I am a huge fan of Plates and go there OFTEN! However, Steve was kind enough to remind me that the frequency of my visits have dropped off since April and May timeframe, which is also the time these posts have been slowing down. I did get a new job, so that is likely the largest culprit that is impacting my free time, but I think I also just got busy with life in general (I do have two kiddos who keep me quite busy along with my amazing husband and friends). Since I don’t have any pictures of the food and Plate’s website does not have any (most likely because their menu options change with what is fresh and in season), I could not steal any from there. However, I will post a picture of Steve so that when you all go in you can say hello. I could talk to Steve all day about food and drinks (he is very big into brewing and infusing of flavors too).
I absolutely love that Plates is open for brunch on Saturdays (my usual visits are for dinner and they just recently revamped their brunch menu). In my opinion, why should one need to wait until 12PM to have a Bloody Mary or Mimosa with their brunch? I grew up in Southern California, so this concept is very foreign to me and if that pisses any of you off, I will not be apologizing for that. Saturday brunch provides this opportunity!!
They started out by bringing out no nut banana bread. I was super excited about the no nuts as most people put walnuts in their banana bread, which I despise…..I think they taste like feet (although their reasoning was for potential allergies). I eat most anything, but I have a few things that I just don’t like and walnuts is one of them. The banana bread was so freaking good – super duper moist!! I pre-ordered by Bloody Mary since we got there at 11:45 and I cannot recall the name of it as there were a few options, but it was essentially the house (they have one with lamb and bacon infused vodka, but I did not get that one). They offer their house Bloody with either their house mix (includes clam juice….holy yumminess) or Zing Zang mix (definitely a good store bought one to use as a base at home too). I opted for the house (obviously), changed my vodka to Tito’s and added their house-cured bacon to the drink. They had several options for additions, including blue cheese stuffed olives, pickled green beans and I cannot remember if there was something else. The bacon in the drink was so fucking good that I literally kept saying it throughout the meal (I am sure annoying the shit out of everyone I was with), but holy hell it was so damn good. The Bloody was too, but that damn bacon!!! Okay, I will stop about the bacon.
For my meal, I ordered the Shakshuka, which is Baked eggs, spicy red pepper and tomato sauce, cilantro, toast. The spicy red pepper and tomato sauce is spicy, so if you do not like spicy and think they might be kidding about it, I assure you they are not. I liked my meal, but if I had to think of something that might take it up a level to epic, I would have added fried potatoes (fry prior to putting them in the sauce to ensure they are crispy….essentially papas bravas and Mateo in Durham makes a slamming papa bravas). There was a lot of sauce, so this would have added a nice additional texture and base to it and maybe I would have topped it off with some crema. However, it was good and I definitely ate it all. I loved that it came with a generous amount of cilantro (you could easily take it off if you are not a cilantro fan) as I LOVE cilantro.
Unfortunately, there were four of us and three of us ordered this same dish, so I only have one additional one I can touch on and my friend was nice enough to make me “the perfect bite”. She ordered the Gravlax Eggs Benedict, which is a Scratch made biscuit, housemade gravlax, poached eggs, crisp asparagus, hollandaise, side salad. I do not think I have ever had housemade gravlax (at least to my knowledge) and when it came out, I was surprised by the color of it as I was expecting for it to essentially look like typical salmon lox. It was actually fairly purple (like a beet) and the plate itself was just really lovely looking. I had this perfect bite (minus the salad) and it was SO fantastic. The gravlax almost tasted like a better version of really fresh salmon sashimi. I am ordering this the next time for sure! However, I did see many people order their Blueberry Cornmeal Pancakes, which have three cornmeal pancakes made with locally grown blueberries, served with our blueberry compote and housemade whipped cream. It looked so amazing and everyone seemed to be wiping their plates clean.
I wish I had a picture of the inside of the restaurant as I just love it. It is simple, inviting and somewhat modern. I will post one when I provide a proper blog post for Plates in the near future. They also added to their outside seating area making it one of the better patio options for those nice days. When it is nice outside, I often pick where I am going to dine by whose patio I enjoy being at and this is definitely one of my favorites!
Thanks Steve and team – I will be back soon and will hopefully leave room for one of your amazing desserts. On that note, they have a sticky toffee pudding that I love and my amazing husband was kind enough a few years back to call them and get a large order for us to have at home. 🙂 I am not a huge dessert person, but I have my favorites around town (I will dedicate a blog to just that in the near term). All of the desserts offered that day looked amazing and I was sad that I was too full to partake. Definitely next time!!
UPDATE: I completely forgot to mention that each and every time I have been to Plates (too many to count), I have always had such impeccable service from the hosts, to the server assistants, servers, bartenders, etc. Keep up the amazingly welcoming attitude!!
#fantasticraleighbrunch, #plateskitchen, #mateo, #amazingraleighpatiodining
Nice review JJ! We’ll get some photos for you Wed’s night!
Jimmy G – we totally failed on the photo front at our dinner! 🙁