If there’s one thing my friends and I know how to do — it’s brunch. It used to be our weekly ritual to check out a new brunch place every Sunday, but as we all know, life gets busy with work, kids and just overall exhaustion from adulting.
Fortunately, our schedules aligned and we were finally able to try BREW’d Craft Pub’s new brunch menu, which launched last month and is available 9 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays.
Is it really a brunch if you don’t start with mimosas? As financially responsible adults, we opted to get the bottle; a single glass was $12, whereas the bottle was $46. The Champagne was a Zonin Prosecco and we chose guava and lilikoi for our juices (grapefruit, orange and pineapple were also options).
BREW’d owner Nick Keech and general manager Kimmie Jolley had been talking about offering brunch for nearly a year, so it came as no surprise how extensive and detailed the menu was. It was divided into breakfast plates, “on the sweet side” options, omelets and BREW’d brunch specialties — so naturally we ordered one from each.
Our delightful waitress, Peggy, highly recommended the corned beef eggs Benedict ($22) as one of the business’s most popular items. It came with our preferred choice of meat (other options included Canadian bacon, kalua pork and bacon), a poached egg and hollandaise sauce on an English muffin with a side of home fries.
We learned from Jolley that BREW’d staff braised the corn beef themselves and the sauce it was braised in was truly the star of the show. The home fries were cooked in that same corned beef braising liquid, which resulted in the perfect amount of crispiness.
We also ordered the stuffed French toast ($22), a house favorite that came with four slices of bread stuffed with cream cheese and mixed berries. This dish was absolute magic. One bite and it felt like I was eating a sweet, fruity cloud that left me wanting more. I’m not ashamed to say that I may have hogged the majority of this sweet treat.
The Chicken & Waffles ($19) was one of the BREW’d brunch specialties and another house favorite. The juxtaposition of the savory, flavorful fried chicken breast and the sweet Belgian-style waffle and syrup were absolutely superb.
The BREW’d Special omelet ($23) also stood out. Jolley shared that it was a breakfast take on the restaurant’s signature smash burger and comprised smoked Gouda, bacon and bacon onion jam. The latter ingredient is what BREW’d prides itself on and is known as its “special thing.”
She also mentioned that the omelet, while oddly eclectic, turned out better than she’d expected. And, we all agreed. One bite, and I immediately started doing my “happy food dance.” (If you’ve ever dined with me, you know the exact move I’m talking about.)
The next time I come for brunch, I definitely would like to try another house favorite — the Bangers & Mash ($24), which BREW’d puts a local twist on as the dish boasts two smoked pineapple dinner sausages with onion gravy, mashed potatoes and a green pea puree.
At the end of our meal, we ranked all of the brunch items we ordered. Could you guess which was unanimously voted as the best?
Yep, that’s right. The mimosas!
BREW’d craft pub
Address
3441 Waialae Ave. Ste. A, Honolulu
Phone
808-732-2337
Hours
9 a.m.-2 p.m. brunch
Saturdays and Sundays
11 a.m.-10 p.m.
Sundays-Thursdays
11 a.m.-midnight
Fridays and Saturdays
Website
brewdcraftpub.com
Food: 5/5
Drinks: 10/5
Price: $$$/$$$$
Ambiance: 5/5
Service: 5/5|
Parking: Shared parking lot behind BREW’d Craft Pub and street parking
