UGOT — Showing what brunch can do
Brunch is one of those really strange meals. You never know what it’s meant to be or when you’re meant to eat it and most of the time that leads to overrated, overpriced, social media hype machines. UGOT Bruncherie though, is different. By staying close to its values and unique twists at a great price point, it shows restaurants just how great brunch can be.
As you might have guessed from that intro, I’m always pretty sceptical of brunch. Despite it not being a well established culture at all here in Spain (UGOT was one of the first when it was founded eight years ago) there are now dozens of places dotted around the city. Most shoot for social media success with viral-friendly colour schemes and bring influencers in left, right and centre but almost all of them charge far too much for below par food you can only access after queuing for hours.
UGOT is different in almost every regard and it was like that from the start. Initially founded by an Israeli, it takes influences from her home land and combines them with Mediterranean flavours and classic brunch dishes for a truly unique menu. Sure, you’ve had eggs benedict, but have you had bulgogi benedict? Have you ever thought about throwing some halva on your French toast? Now you are starting to get the idea.
The restaurant itself plays into the wackiness too. ‘Vintage’ is probably the best way to describe it but its very style makes it almost impossible to nail down. Think classic china tea and coffee cups with 20th century radios on the wall and carefully selected tat all over the place. Normally, it would look confused but the way the restaurant embraces it means that instead, it fits right in.
I sat down after my meal with head chef Marco, who has been at the restaurant for just over a year. It was really interesting to chat to him about the uniqueness of working in a bruncherie. The hours, of course, are completely different to the unsociably late nights that define most jobs in the industry: that alone has been life-changing for him. What is more, although building a brunch menu can be difficult, Marco told me how exciting it was for him to have that level of freedom. As he put it, “there are no rules”, and the team has a liberty to pair flavours that they simply wouldn’t normally get.
That much is evident nowhere more than their famous cheesecakes. There’s a special one every weekend and in the past these have included every from artichokes to olives (we’re talking even wackier than here!). The raspberry one I had was much more traditional but no less tasty. The cheese itself was perfect with a tart jam and fruit topping all on top of a biscuit base just crumbly enough to add flavour and texture but not too heavy to dominate.
That aforementioned benedict bulgogi is yet another example of experimentation coming good. All eggs are served atop the house brioche which is made from the same recipe that the founder left behind when she moved on years ago. This is the kind of thing that leaves you very skeptical when you first see it but has the benefit of soaking up all the egg yolk and sauce much more than sourdough. The soy really comes through in the bulgogi sauce, so much so that you do lose the taste of the pork at times, but the eggs work perfectly well with it and the sweet brioche.
Shakshuka is another brunch classic but again UGOT spices it up (quite literally at times) with it’s own twists. Mine was the ‘Balkan’ and throws aubergine and goats cheese into the mix. I must say that this was my least favourite of the three dishes, perhaps because of just how spoilt I have been with fresh Spanish tomatoes recently. The ones here just didn’t have as much flavour as I would like despite the goats cheese and eggplant being good additions.
A quick word now on price points because as I wrote earlier, this is where many brunch restaurants fall down. Here, that couldn’t be further from the truth. The benedicts are the most expensive items on the list at €13.50 but elsewhere pretty much everything lands around €10. Omelettes and scrambled eggs on toast start as low as €6.50 and all of the French toasts are just €10.50.
Indeed, it was French toast that stole the day for me. At the owner’s suggestion, I went for the ‘Beirut’. That brioche recipe really shines in a more familiar French toast form and is delightfully light and buttery. On top of that in this dish are layered halva, pistachio, date honey, and fresh strawberries with a yogurt ice cream on the side for you to add yourself. Honestly, it was sensational — the halva adds a slight bitterness to the indulgent mix and the yogurt melts into everything perfectly. Being from Kent, I have pretty high expectations for strawberries but these were top notch and if you’re looking for ultimate indulgence, then this is the dish to go for.
Be sure to listen to the podcast episode at the top of page for even more of an insight from Marco but what UGOT are pulling off completely changed my opinion of brunch. Instead of messy and confused you leave feeling like it was fun and unique. The problem is, it might have set the bar even higher for this frustratingly timed post-night out tradition going forward!
Originally published at http://olieatsitall.wordpress.com on October 19, 2023.
