On Sundays, David Burke’s Primehouse serves an American Dim Sum Brunch. Its a buffet brunch served on rolling carts, in the style of Chinese dim sum. It’s a unique idea that doesn’t work.
The first cart featured cold “Asian goodies.” Because the food is served cold, this was one of the better offerings.
Asian shrimp cocktail with seaweed salad, chili miso dressing – the shrimp was cut in half and poached- not bad.
Beef carpaccio on a toasted baguette slice – this was made way ahead of time so the bread was stale.
Tuna and Salmon tartar on a wonton crisp – tasteless salmon and tuna
The next cart was labeled “Brunch and Crunch”
Smoked Salmon Pastrami, red onion, crème fraiche and chives
Oatmeal crème brulee – incredibly sweet
Mini pancakes with mango butter – these were cold. This was to be a constant problem. It seems that it is very difficult to serve food fresh and warm from this type of delivery system.
Yogurt Parfait with Granola and Fruit– I didn’t taste this and John only took one bite
Bread Pudding with Chocolate sauce – this was sickly sweet and inedible.
Cheese and Salmon Strudel – another cold dish with soggy pastry
A plate from the kitchen – Eggs Benedict – John’s dish was fine, mine was cold.
Hot “Asian Goodies”
Tempura Green Beans – think tons of grease
Sesame Crab Balls – completely dried out
Some sort of stale bun filled with ????
Now a cart is wheeled to your table with a hot stone. Pepper-crusted beef tenderloin is cooked to order on the stone. The table next to us ordered their steak very well-done. We ordered ours rare. It is served with creamed spinach.
The steak was OK, but the creamed spinach was poor.
More Hot “Asian goodies”
Pork dumplings and Vegetable Egg Rolls. These must have been fried hours before they were served. Think cold and greasy inedible bites.
Another cart with wonton soup and shrimp dumplings – wonders of wonders hot and tasty.
Oysters on the half shell – John forgot to snap the picture until there was only one oyster left.
Little Hamburgers with a sausage stick. This comes from the kitchen and you order it at the beginning of your meal. We rejected the first burgers as they were medium well. The second batch was very good. It shows that when something is cooked to order, it can be done right.
The dessert cart – we didn’t choose anything.
I should have known better and gone for real dim sum or just let John pig out on pizza. The day before, we had gone to Pizzeria Due and he was one very happy camper.
Refined Palate 