I think it’s about time that I stop having business meetings at restaurants. Seriously, this isn’t working in my favor. The last few meetings I’ve had, regardless of the topic, started off well, turned into a blur, and then ended on a good (yet confusing) note. It wasn’t until my brunch at Wildcraft in Culver City that I realized that I lose concentration whenever I see food. It’s Food Attention Deficit Disorder (FADD). Pretty sure I made that up but as I sat outside with TJ, TN, and Armen, I could feel it coming on as my food came out of the kitchen. I got nervous that the guys would soon sound like adults in Charlie Brown. Nothing but: “whomp, whomp, whomp”. Luckily, TN halted all business talk until we finished our food. Maybe he has FADD too?

Even though we already ordered, one thing that I couldn’t get past was their menu. It was kind of odd that their menu didn’t have defined names but that each item was simply a description of ingredients strung together with commas. Not a big deal, but for the sake of the blog and you reading this, I’ll make up names. To start, Armen and TJ both ordered the same dish: the Eggs Benedict ($14). It comprised of Berkshire ham, polenta, poached eggs, heirloom tomatoes, and a hollandaise sauce. It sounded like a nice combination, but when it came out it kind of looked like a cluster of food smashed on each other. The presentation was not the strong suit of the dish, so I wasn’t too inclined to dive into it. As TJ and Armen ate and ate, I thought to at least take a fork of it before it was all gone. In my opinion, it was just ok. The fries were a little tougher than I would prefer and there was too much liquid once the poached egg opened and mixed with the hollandaise sauce. I would have given it another shot, but TN said I could take pictures of his food.

TN ordered the Breakfast Hash ($12). It was made with pork belly, carnage hash, Italian sausage, pancetta, bacon, potatoes, mornay sauce. Definitely meaty, right? I snapped a shot or two of his brunch and took a quick bite and it was ok. Just like with the eggs Benedict, there wasn’t much here that made me want to steal more bites of it, let alone fall in love with it. My suggestion, if a breakfast hash is what you order wherever you go, then get it for yourself. If not, then go for a different item on the menu.

Then there was me. The first thing I had was a Sparkling Passion Fruit Lemonade ($4). The lemonade was incredibly tart, almost too tart. The lemonade leaned heavily to the sour side with little incorporation of any sweetness. Although it was still a light drink, there was more acidity to it than I would have expected. I did drink it because it wasn’t so bad once the ice began to melt and water it down.

Then there was my Chicken and Biscuits ($17). This is really the only dish that’s preventing this post from being under the “Chef Letter” category. Although the dish didn’t have any visual appeal, there were parts of it that were good. Unfortunately, it wasn’t the chicken. The chicken was a bit dry and salty, but the gravy and biscuit with the egg was the saving grace. The biscuit was soft and fluffy and the egg was cooked closer to the harder side as I would like in this case. The gravy was a bit thicker than I would prefer, but since it eased the dryness of the chicken it was good.

Brunch at Wildcraft was straight down the middle ok. There seemed to be more things that geared to the negative side than the positive, but the good things were strong enough to make me enjoy it. Basically, I really mean that my food was better than what everyone else ordered. This is the type of restaurant where you have to ask the waiter questions on how the food is prepped and then be very specific on how you like your food. “Do you think the chicken is salty?”, “Can you go easy on the sauce?”, etc. Sure you may seem picky, but I’d rather end up coming off as particular when ordering, than unhappy when eating.

Follow Them.
Address: 9725 Culver Blvd, Culver City, CA 90232
Phone: (310) 815-8100
Hours: (Lunch) Monday through Friday – 12:00pm to 3:00pm, (Dinner) Monday through Sunday – 5:00pm to 10:00pm, (Brunch) Saturday and Sunday – 11:00am to 3:00pm
Social: Website, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.