7th Anniversary Brunch at Water Works

Water Works has always been intriguing with it's location along the Schuylkill River. It is a touch pricey, and I haven't heard enough rave reviews to commit to trying it out. I saw a tweet about their 7th Anniversary brunch and figured this would be a good opportunity to try it out. Every weekend they do The Grand Sunday Brunch, which is usually priced at $40 for adults. In celebration of their 7th year in business, they offered the full brunch buffet for $7, which included coffee and a mimosa. I made a reservation and moments later, it was booked solid.

The restaurant was a little hard to find at first, but we made it. It's behind the Art Museum, down the hill on the river. We got to see some pretty little sights on the way down though.

I was nervous that there would be way too many people there, and incredible lines. We waited about 3 minutes to be seated, and then had our waiter introduction and drinks about 5 minutes later. In the main dining room where the buffet is set up, there were several empty tables. I assume they capped the number of people they would have for this (Thank God). We sat at a booth inside facing the window, so we could see the river. I was actually thankful we didn't eat outside because it was incredibly hot and humid outside.

  

We got our water, coffee, and mimosas, and immediately hit up the buffet. I had a wait a few minutes in line, but it wasn't so bad. There were three main areas to the buffet, first the hot food/breakfast side. This included biscuits, bagels, lox, bacon, sausage, two kinds of potatoes, fruit, pancakes, French toast, and a made to order omelet station.

As you can see, I went with a biscuit, which was actually really good- very moist and buttery. I normally don’t go for sweet breakfast foods, but I did try the French toast. It was just ok. The flavor was good, but it was a little soggy, like it was made in mass quantities and had been sitting for a while (casualty of buffet foods). I had to get bacon and sausage too, which were both really good. The omelet was also great. I went with crab, spinach, tomatoes, mushrooms, and feta. I was pleased that they had two people cooking them, so it moved fast.

The other side featured more of the lunch items- salad, cous cous, cold pasta, cheese plate, cooked veggies, raw oysters, mussels, shrimp cocktail, cooked salmon, beef tips, sweet potato puree, fried chicken wings, a carving station with prime rib and ham, and a made to order crepe station.

The oysters, shrimp, and salmon were really good. The mussels were a touch dry. The roasted Mediterranean veggies were also good, seasoned and still a little crispy. The fried chicken wings were nothing to brag about, because they were pretty cold. What isn't pictured is my 2 lbs of cheese cubes (blue, cheddar, gouda, Swiss). The beef tips were a little dry, but had a good sauce on top (almost tasted like a bbq sauce). The prime rib was nicely flavored, and pretty juicy. I really didn't have room to try much else.

They also had made to order waffles and a huge table of very fancy looking desserts. I'm not a dessert person, so I didn't really eat any. I noticed some little cheesecake bites, cups of chocolate mousse, pastries, cakes, etc...I wish I got a picture.

The best part of this restaurant was the atmosphere for sure. Great views, both inside and out. Especially for a buffet, the food was great!