H20 Sunday Brunch

Hi there!  It's been some time since I've posted and I'm sorry for neglecting you.  My goal is to provide you with honest comments about our local restaurants.  I rarely eat at chain restaurants unless absolutely possible (when eating with non-foodies).

My latest post is about the Sunday Brunch at H20 at the Hilton Garden Inn on Pensacola Beach.  We chose to eat there following our 25th Wedding Anniversary Vow Renewal and party the weekend following Labor Day.  The beach was almost deserted. 

Brunch is $23.95.  They have $6 bottomless mimosas and $6.95 bloody mary bar.  We choose the bloody mary bar.  Three types of vodka...Sobieski (great Russian lower-cost vodka, absolute, and I don't remember the 3rd).  They used Mr. & Mrs. T Spicy Bloody Mary mix.  The bar contained everything you could think of...horseradish, okra, grilled asparagus, green onions, celery, baby corn, tabasco, Louisiana hot sauce and chrisoulas hot sauce, Worcestershire, olives (big ones!) and there was other stuff there but I don't remember (bloody mary bar totally worth it because you make it yourself-hence I don't remember ;) ).

On this week's menu, sushi...including florida roll with blue crab, salmon and cream cheese, and veggie roll, all fresh; beautiful prime rib with a flavorful ajus and horseradish, amazing fried chicken (fried chicken is difficult to hold on a buffet without drying out), collards (more on these later) and black eyed peas, biscuits and some amazing mac and cheese. 

The next room was the breakfast haven:  omelet bar, waffle bar, eggs, breakfast meats, grits, sausage gravy, fried potatoes and eggs benedict.

On the outside bar was a salad bar with fruit, veggies, steamed shrimp, various breakfast breads. 

There was also a dessert bar.  I mentioned on facebook seeing a skinny heifer walking away from the breakfast bar with a full plate and a huge smile on her face.  One of my friends commented that she would throw it up after brunch...  There was an amazing chocolate bread pudding with a Caribbean feeling on it with pineapple and coconut.  And a beautiful bombe with a raspberry-filled sponge cake and pastry creme.  Light and not too sweet.  Among these things were the normal Cisco foods, pre-prepared cheesecakes, key lime pies, pecan pie, etc.  fresh fruit, whipped creme and other breakfast pastries.

Karl, at my recommendation had a 3/8" slice of prime rib and put two poached eggs on top with some hash browns (hash browns were moist and soft).  The eggs benedict were medium-well (probably been on the bar for about 1.5 hours) but still, he enjoyed the unctious egg yolk, the potatoes and the prime rib. 

I had the florida sushi roll with crab, and the fried chicken was amazingly moist and flavorful. There was also a pork dish, asian-inspired, that would have been good fresh, but we were there around 11:30 and the pork was mealy with a weird mouth feel.  Good flavors though.

Let me talk about the collards. I am not a collard eater because every time I give them a chance, they are gritty, and H20 didn't fail me this time either.  I was really looking forward to trying them again and I was sorely disappointed.  It's not that hard to get the gritty sand out of the leaves.  It just takes some time.

Overall, I would say that the raspberry-filled sponge cake with pastry creme was great, the fried chicken was great, and the florida sushi roll was good.   The flavors on the asian pork dish were good, but the meat didn't hold well.  The boiled shrimp were prepared well.

Our total tab was around $75 and we tipped $20 because the waitress brought us a box to put all the prime rib fat in for Tito.

I would definitely recommend trying it again, and one great benefit is that if you want to ride the mimosas for a while or the bloody mary bar, you don't have to have the brunch bar.  There is also a beautiful menu to order off of with some beautiful salads that I saw being served.

I look forward to trying it again!

I would like to try it again soon...I hope you try it out.  Become a friend/fan of Dan Dunn on Facebook and he'll post the special feature that he's preparing on Friday or Saturdays.