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Karisa: As the self-proclaimed most-Southern woman of the brunch club, I want to say that I know my Southern cooking, and that Comfort would have to bring their best to impress me. But that would be a lie. I've actually never been much of a huge Southern food girl - probably because I've spent the majority of my adult life as a vegetarian. However, I know of and fully understand the true Southern concept of a "meat-and-three", so at least I've got that going for me. I didn't know if or how this would translate to brunch, but it was good. It was really good actually, but was certainly more of a standard brunch with a Southern slant . I eyed the pimento cheese with fried green tomato sandwich, but eventually settled on the vegetarian version of the soft scramble. It was very tasty, but on the tepid side. I'll blame it on the fan right above our table. And really, aside from this small hiccup (and the frustrating fact that they were out of a lot of ingredients) everything was really great about our brunching experience. Our server was funny and personable (apparently good service does exist in Richmond!), the ambiance inviting, and the food and drinks tasty. Good job Comfort; you made this Southern girl proud. Oh, and the grits are amazing.
Andrea: The moral of the story about Comfort is that the mac and cheese is worth the visit. 'Nuf said. This was my second time eating here for brunch and like the first time, the meal was amazing and the service was great. Although there were several things on the menu that caught my eye, I went with the tried-and-true baked mac and cheese that includes ham and my choice of side (I went with asparagus - seasoned simply with salt and pepper and maybe a little lemon?). The portion is HUGE so I had some for dinner the next night. I would definitely come back here for a meal. Our server had a great sense of humor and enhanced our meal experience with her attention and her recommendations about what to order. My only complaints were that it seemed a little dark for the daytime; it was a bit of a cloudy day, but I can see how it would be really intimate at night. Also, I was very disappointed in my bathroom experience because it smelled horrible. All in all though, a great brunching experience that I will gladly repeat sometime soon!
Michele: Comfort is another one of those restaurants on my regular rotation, especially with friends who are visiting from out of town. Dinner is my favorite meal here - pick your meat and 2 or 3 sides to go with it. It's brilliant. However, this past week was my second great brunch experience at Comfort.
When our waitress arrived to take our drink orders, she told us right off the bat what they were out of. Which was a lot. I ordered my Bloody Mary, and she said, "I think we have one left, and it's yours." I mean, how do you run out of brunch staples like Bloody Mary mix and wheat bread? In any case, I'm happy to have scored the last Bloody Mary at Comfort on Sunday, with apologies to all brunchers who tried to order after me. The drink arrived, and I was very pleased with the level of spiciness. It was also heavy on the cocktail sauce, which is usually a turn-off for me. However, I really didn't mind it in this drink because of the excellent spice. The coffee was tasty too, although it did get cold very fast.
For my meal I decided on the Benedict option, poached eggs and country ham on a biscuit with shrimp and asparagus hollandaise. My plate arrived and I was not disappointed. The country ham was super salty and sliced very thin, just how I like it. The poached eggs were perfectly runny. The biscuit was fluffy without being overly greasy or buttery. Of course, how could I tell that for sure because it was all covered in a delicious hollandaise sauce. I don't recall too much about the sauce other than that there were decent size pieces of shrimp in there. And there was a ton of it. I was pretty obsessed with the ham the whole time. All of the brunch entrees at Comfort come with a choice of a side. I decided on the sweet potato hash, and I was very pleased with that choice. The potatoes and sweet potatoes were cut into cubes and cooked with onions and rosemary. I enjoyed the savory preparation of the sweet potatoes. The hash also did a great job of soaking up the extra hollandaise on my plate.
I will definitely keep Comfort on my rotation list for any meal, especially when I have out of town visitors. It's a cool spot with a cozy decor, great people watching on the street, and killer food on the menu.
Kathy: I've been to Comfort before for a lunch that I very much enjoyed, and a dinner that I hated. So, I was a bit hesitant before this dining experience - I did not know what to expect. This brunch fell somewhere in the middle, though thankfully it was closer to enjoyable. The atmosphere is friendly, the decor is homey and cute, and the menu has great options (when they're not out of food, as was the case for quite a few items during our brunch, including my beloved breakfast tea), all of which make me really want to like Comfort a lot. However, the food did not wow me. My french toast was prepared well, but the bread was nothing special. Special shout out to the apple butter though - I almost wanted to lick the ramekin of it clean. I ordered the sweet potato hash as a side, and took only one bite. Again, they were not bad in any way - I just was not moved by them in the way a great side of potatoes should move you. I also felt neutral about my mimosa, prepared Richmond style over ice in a big glass. However, that's not Comfort's fault - I just generally dislike my mimosas prepared as such. I left feeling that I would certainly return, the brunch having erased memories of that past dinner, but it would not be on the top of my list.
Rating: 4
Food - Good. Nice variety of sweet and savory menu items. Several options for sides that looked enticing. We were bummed that they were out of several things, including shrimp. Karisa's softly scrambled eggs arrived kinda cold (blame it on Andrea's mac and cheese that probably took the longest amount of time to prepare)
Service - Very Good. Although we sat for a little while before the server came, when she finally arrived, she was AWESOME. Personable, funny, attentive. Not overly intrusive. Up front about the items they were out of for the day.
Ambiance - Very Good. A bit chilly in our corner by the window, but oh a cute corner it was! Cool local art on the walls. Not too loud. Pretty tin ceilings. Only complaint by Andrea was the bathroom - although it was quaint and rustic in its decor, it needed a cleaning. Badly.
Coffee/Tea - Good. Got cold quickly, but we all liked it enough for multiple cups.
Mimosa - Good. Standard Richmond mimosa that tastes like an orange-fizzy-watery mix
Bloody Mary - Good. Heavy on the cocktail sauce, but Michele didn't mind it as much due to the super-spiciness. All that was missing for this to have been a VG was a pickled garnish.
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