The Search for the Perfect Birmingham Brunch

The Search for the Perfect Birmingham Brunch

I have never been much of a brunch person. I really don’t even like breakfast foods overall so I don’t typically eat until lunch. If I do breakfast, it’s a small something that isn’t a typical breakfast food.

My fiancé is way more into brunch than I am and she has taken me to multiple places for brunch while traveling the country this past summer. We ate at some amazing restaurants in cities such as Las Vegas, Orlando, Austin, Waco, Chattanooga, Seaside, Atlanta and more while traveling around including some of the best brunch food I have ever eaten.

One place in particular was insanely good – Tupelo Honey in Chattanooga. We ate brunch on all of our trips but this place took the top prize. I had very good fried chicken and biscuits there, along with the same dish at The Hill in Serenbe in Georgia (although I proposed to my fiancé right after that so I guess it has a special place in my heart outside of the amazing chicken).

This fall, I started doing a new radio show on Sunday mornings from 9-11 am called The Morning Scramble where we recap all of the college football action from the day before and look ahead to the NFL slate that day. Since we get done at 11 am, it’s a perfect time to go grab Sunday brunch at some local hot spots around town. After so many magical brunches on the road this summer, I wanted to find the best brunch spots in Birmingham and maybe find something that can match the amazing food, drink, service and atmosphere we had in all these other locations.

Each week we my fiancé and I will try a new place and I will review them below. I’ll admit, I am not a brunch aficionado but I love some good food so these places better bring it.

Know of a place we need to try that hasn’t made the cut yet? Let me know on Twitter @jlunce!

Week 1: Roots & Revelry (8/10)
Week 2: Galley and Garden (4.6/10)
Week 3: The Yard (5.3/10)
Week 4: Habitat Feed & Social (8.3/10)
Week 5: Harvest Restaurant & Bar (8/10)
Week 6: OFF
Week 7: Bricktop’s (7.3/10)
Week 8: Grille 29 (7/10)
Week 9: Village Tavern (6.6/10)
Week 10: The Lab (7/10)
Week 11: Fleming’s (8.3/10)
Week 12: The Fig Tree (8.7/10)
Week 13: OFF

Click the name of the restaurant to jump to that review!

Price Guide:

$ – Around $15 or less per person
$$ – Around $15-$25 per person
$$$ – Around $25-$35 per person
$$$$ – Around $35+ per person


Roots & Revelry (Week 1)

1623 2nd Avenue North
Brimingham, Alabama 35203

Overall Rating – 8/10

Service – 8/10
Food & Drink – 8/10
Atmosphere – 8/10

Menu Variety – 8 starters, 13 entrees

Price – $$$

Parking – Valet. There was no one at the valet stand when we pulled up, so after waiting a few minutes we pulled off to find our own parking. Then as we pulled away someone finally came out and yelled for us to back up, so we tried to back up on a one way street in traffic. We didn’t have to pay anything for the valet parking.

Food Eaten – Cheeseburger, Chicken & Waffles, Grits, Frozen Mimosas

We had frozen mimosas to start which was a great twist on the standard mimosa with an orange slice attached.

Although it’s not a typical brunch food, I had the cheeseburger. I was about to get the chicken and waffles but they brought the burger out for someone else and it looked good, so I changed my mind. I should have stayed with the chicken and waffles. The burger was alright but the bun was big and hard which made it hard to eat. However, the fries were good.

My fiancé did get the chicken and waffles and I tried some to find that it was a very good dish with excellent chicken and very good waffles. It came with syrup on it, but she left it off.

Overall, it was a pleasant experience. My biggest complaint is that our reservations were at noon and we got there about 11:40 am due to not knowing exactly when I would get free from work, and they wouldn’t seat us despite most tables being empty. They made us stand up against the wall awkwardly and wouldn’t let us sit at a table near the bar. We could only go to the bar to order a drink so we just waited on the side, but it’s not a very big location so we were constantly in the way. It took them about 20 minutes to seat us despite there being so many empty tables.

I would recommend this place if you haven’t been before, I’ve heard really good things about their dinner menu as well.


Galley and Garden (Week 2)

2220 Highland Avenue South
Birmingham, AL 35205

Overall Rating – 4.6/10

Service – 3/10
Food & Drink – 4/10
Atmosphere – 7/10

Menu Variety – 6 starters, 5 entrees

Price – $$$

Parking – Valet. The attendant was nice enough but it was kind of awkward to figure out where to go. There is a driveway to pull in because it looks like a house, and we didn’t have to pay for the valet. When we left, they pulled our car out to the street instead of the driveway and it was a little weird.

Food Eaten – Rhubarb Stuffed French Toast, Shrimp and Grits, Eggs Benedict, Mimosas

We started with stuffed French toast for an appetizer that had some berries and powdered sugar on it. It was ok but kind of mushy which was a turn off for me.

Shrimp and grits is usually a go-to for me so I went for that, however, it was like eating soup, I am not sure if there was any grits in there or not. It didn’t taste great and was mostly liquid, what I assume was supposed to be some sort of sauce or something. I have never had shrimp and grits like this before. I didn’t get a spoon to eat it with either so I ate the little bit I could with a fork then was left with a bunch of liquid I couldn’t eat.

Overall, what started out as a good experience turned into an awful experience. After being seated immediately in a somewhat empty restaurant, our server was very polite and brought us mimosas. Then the service turned terrible after a group of older women walked in and sat next to us. We had already ordered before they came in, yet they were able to be seated, order their food AND get their food in the time it took us to get ours after ordering. The waiter started completely ignoring us for whatever reason. I don’t know if he saw us as two kids and these older women were good for a bigger tip or what, but it was a terrible way to treat a customer. We couldn’t get out of there fast enough after that.

I would not recommend Galley and Garden due to the poor service and mediocre food for the price.


The Yard (Week 3)

1928 1st Ave North
Birmingham, AL 35203

Overall Rating – 5.3/10

Service – 2/10
Food & Drink – 7/10
Atmosphere – 7/10

Menu Variety – 5 starters, 4 salads, 18 entrees

Price – $$$$

Parking – Valet. It was an easy enough process but the place to pull over is actually the Marriott next door so they had to go get someone to come out from the Elyton hotel. Then we had to go in and stand in line at the front desk and pay $7 before going to eat. Getting our car out was easy enough.

Food Eaten – Mozzarella in a Carriage (Fried Mozzarella), Mobile Bay Omelet (shrimp/lobster), Eggs Benedict, Hashbrowns, Grits, Mimosas

The fried mozzarella was really good, although it was just three small pieces. My omelet was good, and came with a biscuit and cheese grits. The grits were good but not really cheesy. The biscuit was decent. However, part of the reason the food gets a slightly lower score despite the high comments so far was because of two things:

First, I got hash browns on the side with it and it was a potato cake that was hard as a rock. I could hardly cut into it with my fork. It’s the only thing I didn’t finish on my plate because I couldn’t eat it.

The other is – I got an omelette that had nothing in it. It was formed like an omelette but it was just egg. It was supposed to have shrimp and lobster in it but there were a couple of small pieces of lobster and three shrimp on top of the egg. The shrimp still had the tails on them too and it was just three plain shrimp.

The service was really bad overall. Our hostess was nice, but she tried to seat us at the bar when the place was virtually empty and we could have sat at any table. We asked for a table and were seated by the window, then we ordered mimosas and were given water all by the hostess who seated us. Our waitress finally came and took our order after a few minutes, brought the food about ten minutes later then never came back. I am a heavy water drinker at any meal and I never got a refill. My fiancé had to actually yell across the restaurant to finally get our check after about 45 minutes of never being waited on. Then she brought the check like we were staying in the hotel and didn’t come back until I flagged her down so that I could pay with a card. She didn’t have a great attitude in our limited interaction with her either.

The food was decent, although a little weirdly prepared and slightly too expensive. I would probably recommend it, but with caution.


Habitat Feed & Social (Week 4)

2655 Lane Park Rd
Birmingham, AL 35223

Overall Rating – 8.3/10

Service – 8/10
Food & Drink – 8/10
Atmosphere – 9/10

Menu Variety – Buffet with many different options for breakfast/lunch

Price – $$$ ($35 per person buffet)

Parking – There is plenty of self parking around the Grand Bohemian Hotel or I guess you can valet at the hotel if you want to.

Food Eaten – Scrambled eggs, Grits, Pork & Chicken Sausage, Bacon, Waffles, Biscuits & Gravy, Three-Cheese Ravioli, Sliced Turkey & Gravy, Rolls, Fried Chicken, Fresh Fruit, Pecan Pie, Chocolate Eclair

First off, yes – I ate all of this. However, it was more of a sampling of everything, one or two bites of it all. Habitat Feed & Social is the restaurant at the Grand Bohemian Hotel in Mountain Brook. The hotel is very nice, we stayed there once during an in-town getaway and I’ve heard many great things about other stuff you can do at the hotel including wine tastings, a great spa and more.

Habitat does a buffet style brunch in the morning that is really more like a standard breakfast buffet with some added in lunch foods if that’s what you want. I started with a plate of breakfast food, all standard fare that you see listed above. They have a chef there to make you an omelette and the ingredients looked really good and fresh, I just didn’t get one. All of the breakfast food was fairly standard, nothing ground breaking but still very good.

I made a lap around the buffet room (it was a separate room that was off the hallway to the restaurant which made it a little awkward to walk around but not too bad) and noticed that there were other non-breakfast foods. I went back a second time and sampled some of that. They had a really good three-cheese ravioli that I ate, some fried chicken that was good, plus a chef there to carve some turkey for you with gravy and rolls. They had a few different types of salad that I didn’t eat plus some other vegetables.

There was also a dessert table with all kinds of great choices. I tried the pecan pie and chocolate eclair. The eclair was good but the pecan pie was out of this world! It wasn’t a slice, it was one of those mini pies, but I highly recommend you save room for that!

The service was fine for a buffet. You get non-alcoholic beverages included in the buffet but I just had water. My fiance had a mimosa which was extra but all of our drinks were brought in a timely fashion and he water was kept refilled. There isn’t much service when you serve yourself, however they did remove the plates in a timely fashion and brought the bill at a perfect time when they noticed we were done.

I’ll also say that the atmosphere of it was really cool. The inside was nice but the outside has some very colorful tables and chairs that look like they are right out of a fairy tale. It was very cool.

I would definitely recommend it if you are looking for a good buffet on a Sunday morning. If $35 per person seems a little expensive, you can definitely eat your way through it and get your money’s worth!


Harvest Restaurant & Bar (Week 5)

2101 5th Ave N
Birmingham, AL 35203

Overall Rating – 8/10

Service – 8/10
Food & Drink – 8/10
Atmosphere – 8/10

Menu Variety – Buffet with many different options

Price – $$$ ($29 per person buffet)

Parking – Valet. We just valet parked at the Redmont Hotel, which is where this place is. There is a large lot across the street where our car was parked, not sure if we could have just self parked there. Our valet was validated at the restaurant so we didn’t have to pay.

Food Eaten – Shrimp & Grits, Sausage, Egg, Waffles, Bacon, Au Gratin Potatoes, Chicken Fingers, Steak, Bagel, Assorted Fruit, Mimosas

Before I go any further, full disclosure – we were invited and received brunch for free. That said, this is an honest review.

This was the second buffet in a row on our brunch tour and it was very good. The perks of a buffet is that you get to eat what you want, avoid what you don’t like, and be adventurous with food that looks good but you aren’t 100% sure on. Like the buffet at Habitat, Harvest had options for both breakfast lovers and people looking to dive into lunch.

We had a party of four for brunch this time, and the tables were a little close together where I could tell one person in our party was uncomfortable the whole time because they were backed up against another guest. There was a DJ playing music. I was worried about it because it’s a fairly small restaurant but it actually was pleasant and not too loud.

They had an assortment of mimosas if that’s your thing. My fiance had a standard one with orange juice and champagne but she got a strawberry garnish. They had different juice options like grapefruit and cranberry juice plus a few different garnishes, so you could get something a little different from the norm if you wanted. I’m boring and just went with water. One thing I always look for is if they keep my water refilled (see past reviews where they didn’t) and they did a good job here.

The food was very good and there was a lot of it. The buffet line got crowded at times because it was a little bit of a cramped area where they had a lot of food, but I was able to get a couple of plates full to “sample” everything I wanted. I was able to toast a bagel and they had cream cheese and salmon to go with it (I just did butter). The sausage was out of this world and they had good steak slices too. Plenty of options to make little sandwiches if you wanted to. They had assorted breads like muffins, bagels, sliced bread and more.

One of the main attractions was the shrimp and grits. It was very good, but in the first round we ate – the shrimp still had the tails on them. It’s not a problem if the shrimp are just laid on top, I’ve had plenty of places leave the tails on if it’s not mixed in, but these shrimp were all mixed in to the grits. So you would pick up a bite with your fork and then have to grab the shrimp out, peel the tail off, then eat it while getting your hands covered in grits. However, they had put a second batch out when I went back for more and it had the tails off. Not sure what was up with the first batch but that was kind of a pain and messy.

After eating a bunch of normal food, I wanted something sweet. They had french toast with powdered sugar and you could add syrup and other stuff to it to make a nice, sweet french toast dish for yourself. I opted to go for a waffle just to try it and their waffles had a sweet taste to them as well, almost like an icing of some sort. I’m not sure what it was but I liked it.

All in all, I recommend it. It is very similar to Habitat Feed & Social in terms of what you are going to get food wise, although it’s a much smaller place. If you are downtown and looking for a good brunch buffet, go check out Harvest. It’s right inside the door of the Redmont Hotel so it’s easy to access. It was a good meal and I definitely recommend checking it out.


Bricktop’s (Week 7)

2800 US-280
Birmingham, AL 35223

Overall Rating – 7.3/10

Service – 8/10
Food & Drink – 7/10
Atmosphere – 7/10

Menu Variety – 5 appetizers, 4 salads, 16 entrees, multiple oyster selections

Price – $$

Parking – Self parking. There are plenty of places to park.

Food Eaten – Lobster Bisque, Black Bean Chili, Sausage, egg and cheese casserole, Eggs Benedict, Mimosas, Warm Chocolate Chip Cookie

We took a week off for vacation as we traveled to Los Angeles to attend Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios. It was a good experience, but we didn’t have brunch!

Back to the grind in week 7 as we tried Bricktop’s on Highway 280. I had never eaten here before but almost everyone I know has. No one had given it a real glowing review for dinner, but I thought the brunch was fairly good. It’s not the best I’ve ever tried, but it is worth checking out.

The atmosphere is very interesting, almost old school like you would see at The Club in Birmingham. The waiters are dressed fancy and the service was fairly good. I should say that I am almost always wearing gym shorts when we go to brunch (I know, I know), but I am coming from an early shift at the radio station and my fiance gives me a dirty look when I say I need to change to something nicer so I stay with the gym shorts. I am waiting for somewhere else to treat us differently like Galley and Garden did earlier in the year, but this place did not. The service was good.

For an appetizer, we each got soup. I ate the black bean chili which was a special that day and it was fairly good. My fiance got the lobster bisque and it was pretty good.

For my entree, I ordered the Eggs Bricktop’s which was good, but I probably should have gone with something different. My fiance said the same thing with her Eggs Bendict. It’s not that it was bad, we just saw other people order much better food. The chicken & waffles looked amazing.

For dessert we got a warm cookie with ice cream on top and it was outstanding.

Overall, it was pretty good but not amazing. I’d recommend it if you have easy access to Highway 280 to check it out. Other than that, there are better options around town.


Grille 29 (Week 8)

971 Brookwood Village
Birmingham, AL 35209

Overall Rating – 7/10

Service – 7/10
Food & Drink – 7/10
Atmosphere – 7/10

Menu Variety – 14 entrees (mix of breakfast/lunch)

Price – $$

Parking – Self parking. There are plenty of places to park.

Food Eaten – Seafood Mac & Cheese, Chicken and Waffles

A fairly simple brunch for week 8 as my fiance had just flown in from her bachelorette trip. We went to Grille 29 at Brookwood Village (although it’s outside kind of in it’s own area). I had not eaten there since it changed from a McCormick and Schmicks a while back.

For some reason, I hadn’t heard a lot of great things about Grille 29 before going in there myself, but it wasn’t a bad experience. My fiance and I were both tired and so we just got an entree each and left. I decided to step out and get seafood mac & cheese and it was an interesting choice for brunch but not bad. The mac and cheese part of it was good but the seafood taste was strong. It supposedly had lobster, shrimp and crab but it was all mixed in and I honestly couldn’t tell what was what – I thought I could at least pick out the shrimp. It just had a strong seafood taste like the seafood had been pulled straight from the water. Once again, not bad, just kind of hit me weird on that first bite.

My fiance had chicken and waffles and while the chicken was good, it had a bone in it. That’s the first time I’ve seen chicken and waffles with a bone in the chicken. It’s usually a boneless filet or chicken tenders with it.

The atmosphere is pretty nice, they didn’t get too mad when my fiance had to run to the bathroom after being on a plane for so long and I waited at the counter to be seated. It was very crowded and they handled the crowd ok, but I always go back to my water glass and how often they keep it filled and this was not a time that it stayed filled much.

Overall, I’d say it’s worth checking out once, but only if you are in Homewood and want something a little different.


Village Tavern (Week 9)

101 Summit Blvd
Birmingham, AL 35243

Overall Rating – 6.6/10

Service – 9/10
Food & Drink – 6/10
Atmosphere – 5/10

Menu Variety – 23 brunch entrees plus the full menu available

Price – $$

Parking – Self parking. Parking is a little tight with Fleming’s right next door, but you can park somewhat close usually.

Food Eaten – Hot Crab Dip, Breakfast Burrito, Breakfast Bowl, Potatoes, Mimosas

I have never eaten at Village Tavern, but I go to Fleming’s regularly and always see it next door. When we went it was around 11:20 or so and it was packed out the door. The bar area was full, the entire restaurant was full and the wait was approximately 45 minutes for walk-in guests. I say all of that to say – GET A RESERVATION! We had an 11:30 reservation and were seated about 11:40.

The atmosphere definitely follows the “tavern” feel, but the booth was uncomfortable. It wasn’t the worst thing in the world, but I think my seat was broken somehow. Our server was very pleasant, definitely one of the best we’ve ever had. That saved this from being a mediocre review.

We ordered crab dip for an appetizer and it was phenomenal. Not too fishy tasting (especially after eating fishy tasting seafood mac and cheese the week before) and the toast points that came with it were…on point. (sorry)

For our entree, the one thing I will say about their menu is that there are almost too many options – not quite Cheesecake Factory bad, but they had their entire menu available plus another 20+ brunch specific options. My fiance and I couldn’t figure out what to get and we both probably could have made different choices.

My fiance got a breakfast bowl, which was basically grits as the base with a couple of poached eggs, bacon, guacamole and pico de gallo. She got it without the guacamole and pico which might have made it better overall, but what the end result was basically left her with some grits, a couple of eggs and a couple of strips of bacon. The eggs were basically hard boiled sitting on top of the grits and the bacon was super floppy (if you’re into that like I am) but had a sweet taste to it. The grits were not good and it was basically just a bowl of grits. It sounds better on the menu than it looks like and tastes like in person. If you want grits – go with shrimp and grits instead.

I got a breakfast burrito and it tasted like a gas station burrito. Now, let me clarify – I love gas station burritos. There is a certain essence to gas station burritos that can’t be matched. Don’t ask me why I like them, I just do. The problem, however, is that a gas station burrito is $2 and this was $13 dollars and I expected more. It was definitely good, but I do expect something a little different and better.

We also both got “hash browns” (mine came with my burrito and she ordered them extra) and their hash browns are basically mushy chunks of potatoes. Basically take a red potato, cut it in half and that’s what their “hash browns” were. When you google hash browns, it is supposed to be shredded potatoes or very tiny cut potatoes, not large chunks that you have to break down even further. Once again, the taste was good, I just expected more.

Overall, I think this place is worth trying if you’re on a mission to try different places like we are. I think we just ordered the wrong things because that crab dip was out of this world amazing, but it kind of stopped there and that is the only reason the food score isn’t around a 3. I don’t remember our server’s name, but you could tell she loved coming to work and she passed that on to the customer. The atmosphere only gets a low score because the crowd wasn’t being handled super well and our booth was broken, plus they seemed to have extra tables in the middle of the restaurant and it made it hard to get out.


The Lab Bar and Kitchen (Week 10)

808 20th St S
Birmingham, AL 35205

Overall Rating – 7/10

Service – 6/10
Food & Drink – 9/10
Atmosphere – 6/10

Menu Variety – 17 appetizers/flatbreads/salads, 10 entrees, 3 desserts

Price – $$

Parking – Self parking at the hotel deck the restaurant is attached to. You can probably valet with the hotel but we weren’t sure. There is a deck close enough though.

Food Eaten – Charcuterie board, Shrimp and Grits, Cheeseburger and Fries, Gooey Butter Cake, Mimosa

I should start off by saying, this wasn’t really brunch. It was just lunch with the same menu they seem to have all day every day. There is a cafe next door that seems to be more about coffee, sandwiches and small bites but we ate in the main restaurant.

The place is nice enough, it is not too big and is basically set up like a sports bar and would probably be a good place to watch a game if you were downtown around UAB and other options like The Woolworth were too crowded. The biggest reason the atmosphere gets a low rating is a couple of things:

First, there was nobody there. We were literally the only two people in the building the entire time we were there until a pair of women came in as we were leaving. It was kind of awkward being the only people there. I’d say it was too early at 11:30 am, but everywhere else we go is packed. It’s always funny when my fiance goes up and says we have a reservation and yet we could have our pick of any table we would want. Part of why the service is so low is because despite being the only people there, our waitress hardly ever came by our table. They failed the water glass test pretty bad.

Second, our booth was awkward and uncomfortable. The seat was hard despite it looking soft. Maybe I was just sitting in a bad place, but I was sitting where I had to in order to eat properly at the table. The booth was a semi-circle booth with the table in the middle but the semi-circle wasn’t even half of a circle. It almost looked like it was built so anyone sitting there would be facing the big TV’s at the bar (once again, it would be a good place to watch a game if you were just there to drink and watch). The seat just seemed like it need about another foot on either side.

Third, they had TV’s on ESPN, Fox and CBS. ESPN had the typical NFL preview show and CBS/Fox were primed for the upcoming NFL games. However, the sound coming through the speakers was an ESPN+ fantasy show that was nowhere on any of the TV’s. And it was LOUD! I wouldn’t want the actual TV’s to be up that loud, but to be playing some internet only fantasy football show that loud when I couldn’t even watch it to see what was going on…that was a mistake. They eventually changed it as we were leaving about 12:30 to be on Chiefs/Vikings, which helped, but they turned more TV’s on that game (and the sound) than the Titans/Panthers which is way more of a local game.

I know it seems like I have only complained so far, but let me get to the point of brunch – the food. The food was outstanding. We got “The Chef’s Board” which was a charcuterie board that had some good stuff on it including good sausage, some great smoked cheddar cheese and other good meats and cheese. Like with every charcuterie board, some of it is hit or miss, but the stuff that hit was amazing. My fiance also got a mimosa that was…not really a mimosa. It wasn’t very good and was the one bad spot on an otherwise great meal.

For our entrees, I was going to get the shrimp and grits but then my fiance ordered first and got them so I tried the burger. I did eat some of her shrimp and grits and the shrimp was done well along with decent cheese grits, there just wasn’t enough. My burger was very good but the selling point was the fries. They were cut in a weird spiral of some sort but they were deeply fried to be crispy and were very good.

For desert, we tried the gooey butter cake. The cake came in a miniature mason jar and had marshmallows on it. The cake itself was good, but not great. The selling point with the desert was the chocolate toffee and caramelized bananas that we basically a garnish on the side. They should offer those as their own dessert because they were both very good. We ate more of that than we did the actual dessert…(who am I kidding, we ate it all)

This place has a few things it can easily fix to change up the atmosphere and make it really great. The food was on point for the most part and if we just had a server who actually paid attention to us (when we are the only ones there!) and they just worked on their seating a bit, it could have been #1 overall so far this season as it had the best food of any of the restaurants we have eaten at. The buffet’s are a little different since we can be very choosy with the food we eat and how much of it we get.

I’d recommend checking this place out, and I bet it’s a fun place to watch a game if you want to go on Saturdays.


Fleming’s Steakhouse (Week 11)

103 Summit Blvd
Birmingham, AL 35243

Overall Rating – 8.3/10

Service – 7/10
Food & Drink – 9/10
Atmosphere – 9/10

Menu Variety – 9 special brunch entrees, 4 sides, plus full dinner/dessert menu available

Price – $$$$

Parking – Self parking available or complimentary valet.

Food Eaten – Filet Mignon & Waffles, Chicken & Waffles, Potatoes, Lyonnaise Potatoes, Chocolate Gooey Butter Cake, Chocolate Lava Cake, Mimosas

I’ll start by saying this – I eat at Fleming’s all the time. It’s the perfect place to go when you want to celebrate or have a great meal on a special holiday. It’s pricey so it’s not a go-to all the time, but it’s definitely the perfect place to visit when there is an occasion. That said, I didn’t realize they did brunch until my fiance found out and decided to take us there.

They do offer the full dinner menu if you would like, but we stuck to the brunch items. They have a few things that look good, but didn’t do it for me, such as the Salmon Cobb Salad, or the Cinnamon Apple Brioche French Toast. My fiance always orders the eggs benedict and then immediately regrets it, so she didn’t do it this time. However, there is a really good looking version of it where you can choose between filet mignon and hollandaise sauce or a crab cake and tomato hollandaise sauce (or both).

Before I get into what I ate, I have to say that Fleming’s has the best bread in town. They bring you bread with two different types of spreads, one is a brie infused butter of some sort (or as we lovingly call it “cheesy buttery”) and then a seasonal spread. The seasonal spread was pumpkin flavored so I wasn’t a fan, but my fiance liked it.

I ordered the Filet Mignon and Waffles while my fiance got the chicken version. My only complaint, and why this isn’t a 10/10 for the food is that it came with a horseradish sauce (which I don’t like) and so when I left that off, it was kind of plain. It just was what it was – a filet and waffles. However, the filet and waffles were very good. I took the brie spread from the bread and put it on the waffles like you would do with butter, and it was out of this world. So I recommend that. My fiance’s chicken was fairly good, but I preferred the steak.

We got dessert because I have always loved their chocolate lava cake. This time was no different, so I highly recommend you try it any time you are there. It comes with vanilla ice cream and a really good cookie and chopped pistachios. I’ll also say, for those of you with a sweet tooth, their mimosas were great. It has orange sorbet in the glass that melts over time and is very fruity and tasty.

All in all, it was a great experience and I expected no less. The only sub-par thing was the service. When we arrived, there were maybe two other tables with people. Our waiter would visit the table, then go back and stand in the kitchen doing nothing while we waited for the next thing to happen. I could see through the glass of the kitchen because it’s only a half wall, and we’d sit there for a while waiting for him to come back when we needed him. They did pass the water test, and that typically happens when there are dedicated waiters to fill your glass.

I’d recommend it if you are looking for something a little fancier for brunch one day. It’s up there among the best brunches we’ve had, but for the price, you may find better options if you don’t want to spend a lot.


The Fig Tree Cafe (Week 12)

3160 Cahaba Heights Rd
Birmingham, AL 35243

Overall Rating – 8.7/10

Service – 8/10
Food & Drink – 9/10
Atmosphere – 9/10

Menu Variety – 13 brunch entrees, 3 appetizers

Price – $$

Parking – Self parking available.

Food Eaten – Truffle Fries, Chicken & Waffles (normal and Nashville hot), Cheese Grits, Mimosas

This was an interesting one. I should start this off by saying, it is easy to miss. It is located behind a nail salon called Resultz Nails. I never would have found it if my fiance didn’t know where we were going.

It is a quaint place, and for the first time reminded me of some of the places we went on our travels this past summer. The atmosphere is like a house, and the main dining area where we sat only had six tables. There was a deck that had a few more tables and a bar we didn’t go in. It seems like they are big into catering too, but the restaurant was very good.

We were seated inside because it was fairly cold, my only problem was that I was right next to the door so every time it opened, it was cold, then warm then cold then warm. It had a cool look to it, like we were literally in a funky dining room or sun room of someone’s house.

The menu had a lot of good options on it for me, something I can’t say for a lot of places we go. I am a very picky eater, but I could have eaten almost everything on the menu. We started with the truffle fries, which were outstanding. It was a bowl of fries and I probably could have eaten five of those bowls.

For our entree, I was going to get a burger, but I didn’t want even more fries. My fiance got chicken and waffles and when they asked if she wanted it normal or Nashville hot, I decided to get the spicy version (I knew she’d go with the tame version). Let me just say this:

IT. WAS. PHENOMENAL.

The only reason I didn’t give the food a 10 was that while it was good, it was VERY heavy. I wanted to clean my plate, and I basically did, but I was feeling it afterward. It was one of those things that I think tasted very good because it wasn’t at all very healthy (aka, lots of butter).

The only real negative (and it wasn’t too bad) was the service. They failed the water glass test, and I needed some water after the spice of the chicken. It wasn’t too bad where you were hurting, but it had just enough of a kick for you to feel it so I went through my water and wanted more. The service was fine when we first showed up because it was about 11:30 am and not many people were there, but it started filling up as it went past noon and that made it slow down.

Overall, this place gets high marks from me. It might be the best food I’ve eaten and for the price it can’t be beat. My ratings don’t really indicate price, but I will say this moves to the top spot for me as of now due to how good it was and how cheap it was compared to other places. I highly recommend it (if you can find it)!

Posted in Featured Top, Food, Personal