Claire B.
Yelp
I found out a new branch of G Street Food was opening from an article in the Washington City Paper. I was particularly intrigued by its street food brunch menu. As I'm always excited by new brunches in the city, I was eager to try it out and expected bold, bright flavors.
Alas, that wasn't to be. A quick glance at the menu- spam, porchetta, fried doughs and meats of all kinds- should practically guarantee a morning chock full of sodium. However, the majority of what I tasted at our brunch was bland, flavorless, vastly lacking in seasoning. That was the most disappointing aspect of my brunch here. The strong flavors I expected from the eclectic international menu simply were not there, and I'm not sure if, despite being a new restaurant, more time and more tweaking will help fix what is ultimately a fundamental problem with the recipes and the approach.
The atmosphere wasn't much to speak of; not intrusive, fast casual, and very empty.We were the only ones at brunch on a Saturday morning. The service was attentive with drinks but our waiter seemed exhausted despite us being his only table. There were several items on the menu that they were "out" of, such as the sesame doughnuts, charred duck wings, and Mexican breakfast; not a minor number of menu items, but I do expect this will improve over time.
We ordered a mix of appetizers and entrees:
Ukoy: baby shrimp and sweet potato fritters. The first few bites were an absolute pleasure; the pungent shrimp paste that became an acquired taste for me growing up eating Filipino food, balanced out by the sweet softness of the sweet potato. Soon, however, the dish became entirely too greasy and fell apart as I tried to eat it. The sweet and sour sauce helped cut out a bit of the grease, but I couldn't finish it.
Fried ju mok bap: I'm somewhat incredulous at the rise of spam in restaurants. Unfortunately in this dish the spam was not prominent at all. What little bits of it were lost in the rice ball. What you had in the end was a crispy, pink rice ball with the majority of flavor coming from the pineapple and pork bits provided on the side. I couldn't finish this either.
Jagerschnitzel mit eir: To be fair I knew i couldn't tackle this dish after so many appetizers, and simply out of an inability to eat so much protein; this came with an entire schnitzel, three eggs, frankfurters and breakfast potatoes. I barely touched it in the end because it lacked salt. It was the most bland breakfast dish I ever came across. The salt and pepper shakers at the table barely helped; each component really should have been seasoned properly while cooking. The breakfast potatoes were practically cubed mashed potatoes; no crispiness whatsoever. The schnitzel tasted entirely of oil. The only saving grace was the frankfurter, which would be hard to mess up in any case.
My friends got a variety of other dishes, such as the chicken tamale (one liked this, one didn't); the french toast benedict (which they thought was okay but could have used more syrup; I completely agree. The eggs were interesting at least; poached and then fried); the BBQ hokien mee (my friend liked this; essentially lo mein with a lot of smoke flavor); and the risotto arrancini (not as sweet as we thought it would be, but still decent).
I'm happy that I tried G Street Food and I'm happy that a new brunch is in town. There's a lot of potential in the menu, and no doubt there may be new dishes from a multitude of other countries to try. But for now this brunch is middling and I wouldn't return anytime soon; I would sooner go to Masa 14 for the strong, vibrant flavors I expect from an international brunch assortment.