Recommend: vegan protein salad, garlic and cheese pizza, dessert
Do not recommend: salted caramel protein smoothie, Beyond burger, creamy mushroom pasta
Here is a very much talked about Brunch spot in the heart of Dubai, at Wasl 51. Floral accents, pastel interiors with a touch of earth, high airy ceilings and pretty food; as you can already envision, Brunch and Cake offers a cozy setup that diners would enjoy, especially in the daylight.
I had visited this spot on Christmas Day, after hearing much about the experience, and especially the ambiance, which I must admit, does wrap you up in the chic warmth of picturesque decor. Even the powder room was dressed up like a spa. The wait time on a busy Friday was only 30 minutes, good enough to promenade around the area or even grab a quick drink from a nearby cafe.
For a vegetarian/borderline vegan like me, the menu was indeed impressive, with enough vegetarian/vegan options to keep a plant-based eater’s tummy filled from drink through dessert. I must have had my expectations quite raised because of all the talk, but what was truly delivered to the table was disappointing, to say the least. Brunch and Cake has done a wonderful job describing its food with flowery ingredients in the menu, but failed to live up to the menu’s hype in reality.
My drink for brunch was the salted caramel protein smoothie that was made of banana, oats, dates, maple syrup, oat milk and amazonia powder with a garnish of edible flowers, powdered pistachio and a chocolate protein bite. The smoothie was all but a banana protein smoothie, with no hints of salted caramel whatsoever. All I can say is: eye-raising presentation, bland banana flavor, impressive chocolate bite.
For the mains, we ordered the garlic and cheese pizza, the Beyond burger, the vegan protein salad and the creamy mushroom pasta. The pizza was what you’d expect of the description: garlic cream and cheese: simple and pleasant, no fluff, and a Brunch and Cake bestseller. The Beyond Burger is a dismay for vegans out there: besides the paper thin layer of cashew cream cheese sauce, everything else was dry. The vegan protein salad was probably the highlight of the mains, with a comprehensive toss of protein-packed ingredients: lentil, spinach, seeds, quinoa and vegan scrambled eggs. Finally, the creamy mushroom pasta was exactly what it reads: cream and mushrooms. One would think that minimal effort was put into the dish, which is not necessarily a good thing.
At last, dessert talk. I was accompanied by a group of friends, of which it was one’s birthday. The complimentary dessert, on the house for the birthday, was a mere Santa Claus cupcake. Folks, I have had far more intricate complimentary dessert on the house, from comparable restaurants. The only redeeming point was the birthday song sung by the staff, and that delectable buttercream frosting on the cupcake.
All in all, Brunch and Cake does fit the bill when it comes to a nice aesthetic-filled brunch, but I cannot really claim the same for its food. The restaurant boasts a 4+ rating on Zomato, making me wonder if it was just I that suffered a bad food day. Or perhaps my order was flawed.
