The taste of YUMMY: Mistral

This weekend one of my favorite people came to visit from NYC, and per our usual behavior we had a food-fest. After scouring the internet for reviews on popular brunch places in Boston, I finally decided on taking Daniella to Mistral, in Boston's South End.

Mistral has been voted one of Boston's top 50 restaurants, and during the week is one of those places that earns the "$$$$" symbol on Yelp. However, their brunch menu is remarkably affordable and delivers the same caliber of food that you would expect during dinner time (except maybe minus the truffles and gold flakes...).

To start off, I couldn't say "no" to the hot Callebaut chocolate with hand-crafted marshmallow: while it looked delicious though, the marshmallow ended up being too sweet and too large - filling up about a third of the mug (hard to appreciate in the picture because most of it is below fluid level. Or perhaps I should more accurately say - below foam level)

Pictured next is the complementary apple cinnamon cake that came with each of our meals: the top was nicely crispy, and the inside was warm and fluffy

After asking our server for recommendations, Daniella and I also ordered the pear bignets. Per our server, they "melt in your mouth." He wasn't joking. This little babies were amazing, and the caramel-pear sauce served on the side wasn't too shabby either

For an entree, Daniella opted for the smoked salmon benedict with citrus Hollandaise sauce. While the eggs were perfectly prepared, she wasn't actually a fan of the citrus in the Hollandaise.

I decided on the rosemary ham and Gruyere omelet with shallot confit: this was probably one of the best omelets that I've had in a while. The creamy-appearing confit had a hint of sweetness to it and was a surprisingly perfect pairing for the rest of the dish

Our entrees were accompanied by a side of the Pommes Lyonnaise (home fries): again these were very well prepared, but unfortunately we were too full to make much headway with them