#TBT Restaurant Review: Central Michel Richard

Summer is such a wonderful time for brunch and mimosas. Towards the end of summer, in September 2015 to be exact, we decided to venture out for some brunch action in DC. On this particular Sunday, we decided to go to Central Michel Richard. The restaurant is located on the corner of Pennsylvania Avenue and 11th Street NW, directly across from Fogo de Chão. Central has a bit of outdoor seating out front, which is delightful for some people, but we opted to sit inside. Upon entering, we quickly realized that Central Michel Richard is a very nice restaurant and that we might have been a little underdressed. Nonetheless, we were quickly escorted to a table. It is usually the case that one of us will make a reservation whenever the option is available because being "hangry" is a real thing--and thankfully we had a reservation for brunch.

Central Michel Richard has a prie fixe brunch menu which offers several options for each of the three courses. Daring to be different, we each tried different menu selections for our main course. For the first course, we both chose the Goat Cheese Caesar Salad. The Goat Cheese Caesar Salad is absolutely perfect if you love goat cheese. The salad was crisp, light, refreshing, and had a lot of goat cheese on top of it and mixed in the salad. For the second course, Simone had the Fried Chicken and Waffles. It had a perfectly fried boneless chicken breast on top of some delicious whipped mashed potatoes. The waffles that accompanied the fried chicken were dressed in sweet brown sugar butter and came with syrup on them, which was a really nice touch. Damien had the Croque Madame, which was absolutely amazing. The sandwich had poached eggs on top of it, which were beautifully runny once broken over the bread. Every component of this sandwich--the eggs, bread, ham, and cheese--made it a truly exceptional brunch choice. The sandwich came with a side salad, which was nothing to write home about. For the final course, we both had the Chocolate Mousse. The mousse was light, fluffy, and had a velvety chocolate ganache layer at the bottom of the bowl. Simply put, it was absolutely divine. Our dessert was a great way to end this meal, but even better was the fact that the fixed price ($27) made this brunch super affordable and absolutely well worth the price.

In our opinion, mimosas and brunch go together like peanut butter and jelly or the urge to take a nap after a hard bout of "adulting". We decided to add the Bottomless Mimosas to our brunch because, well, why not? It was a great day for it. Our mimosas were strong and very delicious. Central Michel Richard's brunch offers a few bottomless options, including the Mimosa, Bellini, and Bloody Mary for an additional $15. On this day, our bottomless mimosas were totally worth it to round out our delicious food.

This is now a new favorite place for us. It was so good that Simone just recently returned with her girlfriends for brunch. Overall, Central Michel Richard's brunch earns a 4.5 out of 5, as we think it would be great if they added one or two more selections per course to choose from and Damien's side salad wasn't anything special. But for real, you really should check this place out for brunch. Until next time, treat yourself to an amazing meal!