Food and Dining Review: Jane Restaurant NYC

Jane Restaurant in New York City

One of the very very popular brunch spots. So popular that when we had a reservation for 2 at 1 PM, the lady said they are running behind. To top it off, we arrived 20 minutes later than our scheduled reservation. So right off the bat, not to fond of it and then the waiting games begin. My friend and I waited outside the door for about 20-25 minutes I believe until another lady guided us to our table.

Walking into the back of the restaurant and it felt like the space is quite small for a brunch hotspot, but it still felt cozy. Falling comfortable into our seats, we scanned the menu quickly and saw what we liked. Being myself, I looked up the menu online and decided a couple of dishes (betting that my friend will pick the same dish I want). So we order the Benedict Jane and Benedict Johnny (turns out we wanted the same dish, then we laughed).

They look like this:

Benedict Jane

Benedict Johnny

We shared the dishes by exchanging 1 Benedict. I'd have to say both were not what I was expecting. I thought both dishes will have an explosion of flavors, but turns out I detected faint acidity from the hollandaise and the richness from the egg yolks.

Benedict Jane has 2 Poached eggs on a bed of Spinach under a Crab and Crawfish Cake, with a Tarragon Hollandaise. (From Jane Restaurant Menu)
I cut into it the yolk was oozing everywhere, which looked so good! After a few seconds of fumbling to get every element on my fork, I took a bite and the flavors were 1 dimensional. The crab cake wasn't seasoned that well; all I tasted was lemon, pepper, and a hint of crab. The texture was actually very soft, but I wanted the crab cake to be crispy and provide the texture dimension that was needed in this dish. The hollandaise was good and buttery with a good acidity; somewhat difficult to tell that it was tarragon hollandaise unfortunately. After taking a few bites, I realized that the only flavor that really stood out when eating each element is the very bland spinach that needed a lot of salt.

Note: Not too happy about the dish overall,

Benedict Johnny has 2 Poached Eggs on a Chicken Sausage under a corn pancake with a roasted tomato hollandaise. (From Jane Restaurant Menu)
This also had the sexy waterfall of oozing egg yolk. The main flavor was coming from the Sausage, which was wonderfully seasoned. The pancake was oddly sweet and dissolved when it touched the egg yolk puddle, so there wasn't a solid foundation for the sausage to sit on. The hollandaise was done well; I tasted a faint tomato flavor and it tied to the Benedict together.

Both of the Benedict dishes came with HOME FRIES!

If you haven't noticed the word home fries, above, is in caps; that would mean that they were GOOD!!! I said to my friend that if I had a plate of these Home Fries, I'd be happy! These were seasoned nicely (needed a touch more pepper for my taste) and crispy all around! I wanted to order another plate, but I knew we weren't going to be able to finish it. So I ended my meal by eating ALL the home fries and cleaning the plate of any leftover egg yolk puddles.

At the end, when we finished our plates, I mentioned about a drink at Jane that had positive reviews. Its called Cucumber Ginger Ale. We order this drink to share and it was SO REFRESHING! With bits of cucumber floating around the drink submerged in ginger ale that was lightly sweetened was a matched made in heaven, especially when it was summer months. I would order this again if I go back again.

So overall my experience was enjoyable, I was satisfied with my food (thank god the home fries were there), and the drink was Excellent! I'd recommend the restaurant itself, not so sure about the Benedict. You can try to see if you agree with what I say here. Please let me know what you think about Jane restaurant in NYC!

Side note: I know I haven't posted any pictures for a while now, and I plan to once I find the time. I'm currently in my last month of my culinary program and believe to be doing fine. Hope to post the pictures from a month ago, I was proud of what I've produced and I hope you will too.