David Burke Kitchen at the James Hotel, SoHo, New York

Any restaurant that has the unlucky position of being the host for the final breakfast of a week long stay in New York has big boots to fill.

As luck would have it, David Burke has big feet apparently and so as Sunday dawned after a week of AM Gastronomical Extravaganza, we found ourselves in food heaven. 

We hadn't planned to go there, but as we set off to explore on foot in SoHo, I remembered reading somewhere that the James Hotel had an amazing restaurant for Brunch. The David Burke Kitchen is subterranean - you head downstairs from street level into a modern Manhattan take on a farm stall - cheerful gingham covered tables and fresh flowers with endless displays of fruit and veg. The walls are clad with giant images of grinning people clutching fresh produce - a slightly obvious (and off putting in the case of the lambs) nod to the restaurant's policy of using locally sourced, fresh ingredients.

It should be said that there is a reason it's located in the very trendiest part of Soho - it is uber trend-day and the staff are fairly condescending high end Servers (see I was even forced to use the word Server!). However, our boundless enthusiasm for the incredible menu and what I like to think of as our continental charm, seemed to thaw our allocated Model-part-times-as-a-Waiter and soon we were as relaxed as we had been in Five Leaves.

If Five Leaves hit the jackpot for atmosphere, then the David Burke Kitchen most definitely hits the ball out of the park (ba da boom) for creativity and cooking skill.

Working through the weekend Brunch Menu somehow felt like Alice must have when she first hit Wonderland. How else would you describe finding 'Bacon Brioche Sticky Bun' nestling side by side with 'Pretzel Crab Cake' and being craftily followed by 'Angry Mussels'?

Everything you would expect to find on a Brunch menu was there, but with a gigantic modern New York makeover. For example Ye Olde French Toast, became 'Stuffed French Toast with marscapone and berries' (Yankee and I had it. There are no words).

Or Eggs Benedict came in three versions - Mr Beedub chose 'Kitchen Eggs Benedict' - a humble little combination of perfectly cooked poached eggs on a delicious bed of Italian sausage polenta and garlic spinach topped with a unique tomato hollandaise (English muffins? Don't be ridiculous darling!) 

Fee had the most regular dish of all us - Waffle Grand Slam - another great combination of traditional breakfast farmyard friends and sweet waffles, but even that had a twist, with some cheeky little pineapple stowaways.

I have mentioned the Brunch Drinkie phenomenon several times now and as one of my erstwhile nicknames is Schappsel, I felt that I finally had to conquer my fear of tomato juice and have the Bloody Apple - a devilish take on the traditional BMary made with apple schnapps, fresh apple and tomato juice. Unfortunately even my love of schnapps wasn't good enough to overcome the tomato juice aversion, but Mr Beedub happily used mine up as a chaser to his own DBK Classic Bloody Mary (Yes. There was an entire Bloody Mary section in the menu).

For the pregnant among us, there was a Blended section of juices and smoothies and of course the decaffeinated version and usual eye popping strength coffees.

Our final New York Brunch was made all the more memorable by the arrival our friend Slavalava who we haven't seen for a really long time. She is a real New Yorker born and bred and it was great fun to see a New York brunch place put through its paces and made to earn its keep by one of its own.

Who else would have called them on their ever so slightly pretentious approach to serving everything in jars?

David Burke Kitchen
23 Grand Street
SoHo
NY 10013
Website and Menu
How to Get There