Metropolis, South End, Boston, MA

It is not always the case that Brunch is a beautiful experience where you eat perfectly cooked fresh delicacies and you attain a Zen level of relaxation while you enjoy your OJ and coffee. Sometimes, you have the experience we had in Metropolis this last weekend.

Let us start at the beginning. Our friends Alejandro and Melany (who have been mentioned in this blog a few months ago in our excursion to Jane's) were visiting for the weekend and we decided we had to take them somewhere cool and relaxed in the South End. Metropolis had been on our radar for some time an we decided to give it a try. The place is perfectly located a the heart of this trendy neighborhood right on Tremont St. and just across the street from its sister establishment, Aquitaine, which we have tried for dinner and liked quite a bit. Although the place is small, it is very nicely decorated. The bar is inviting and the tables comfortable. The floor is covered with small white tiles and the atmosphere is great, making the place quite cozy. Although our table was next to the restroom, I have to say I enjoyed the decor. The food was the problem..

We ordered coffee, which Ana complained was too light, and OJ. As for the main dish, Ana went with a simple enough option: Eggs (over easy), home fries and toast. While her eggs were ok, the home fries were bland and uninspiring. I ordered the daily special. It was described as an Andouille sausage, goat cheese and spinach omelette. Sounds tasty, right? Wrong! My omelette was completely dry and tasteless. It seem like it had been made with one of those artificial egg batter mixes you buy in the supermarket. Not only that, their idea of an omelette was to make a disk of that egg batter mix, fully (over) cook it and then toss some ingredients in the middle, fold and serve instantly. More like a disk of egg with a side of ingredients that happened to sit on top of the disk. If that was not enough, the ingredients were scarce and devoid of taste. The Andouille sausage amounted to two pieces of some baseball stadium quality hot dog. Goat cheese meant some sort of philadelphia type cream cheese spread. Spinach was one leaf of oil soaked green vegetable. This "omelette" was served with a side of the same bland home fries Ana had.Very poor. And that was their special!!!

Unfortunately, it was not just my dish that was subpar. Alejandro ordered Eggs Benedict, and I have to say that the Hollandaise looked more like a mix of flour and water than the actual sauce. Melany ordered scrambled eggs and smoked salmon. Although I did not try the fish, I can testify that her eggs looked exactly like little pieces of the same type of over cooked batter used for my omelette. Very disappointing, in deed.

Lastly, to add insult to injury, the waiter asked, very politely and in more than one occasion, if everything was of our liking. I kept replying: "Not so much" or "Not great". He just smiled and went about his business as if I had said "Perfect!"... I guess waiters are not really listening when they ask:

"How is everything?", :(.

I have to say I was pretty bummed by the whole experience. It is really a shame that a nicely setup establishment in a cool location, belonging to a nice family of sister restaurants serves just unacceptable food. Also, if I go back over all the postings Ana and I have written here on QPB, I realize this is the first truly negative account. Oh, well... Not all Brunch experiences can be the Perfect Brunch!