Ever since I first visited HARBS a while back, I have become a big fan of their cakes. I also loved their omelet sandwich too. We’ve enjoyed their cakes many times over since the first visit. But, we haven’t really had the chance to go back for another brunch. As I was checking a current menu, I discovered that their Chelsea location offers pasta dishes! And they all sounded really good… So, we decided to get some brunch there.
They actually call it “Lunch Set” that is offered every day, and comes with a side salad. The salad had minimum dressing which was great. I am not a fan of salad that is swimming in oily dressing. They had salt and pepper grinder on the table, so we can add them on dishes as we wish without asking for it. Thanks! The salad was very fresh and crisp.
The Lunch Set also comes with a choice of a Cup of Coffee or English Breakfast Tea. We both went with the tea, and each tea is made to order. They won’t bring you any milk or lemon, unless you ask for it. The tea was really good, and they do have extensive tea offerings that I really want to try…
Now, the food. I went with Bolognese ($25/Lunch Set), made with Beef, Pork, Tomato, Carrot, Onion, Celery, Parmigiano and Parsley. It was large in portion, much bigger than I expected. It was delicious, comforting with a subtle sweetness. It had a good amount of beef chunks. The pasta was cooked perfectly, and had great texture. Each bite was pleasant, we really enjoyed it. And yes, it was quite filling!
My hubby went with a seafood pasta, Pescatora ($25/Lunch Set). It is made with Shrimp, Squid, Cod, Mussels, Tomato Sauce and Parsley. This one looked great too, with a large shrimp placed on top like a shiny prize.
It only had about a couple of each seafood and shellfish pieces, but somehow substantial enough. They were plump and perfectly seasoned. Tomato sauce had nice sweetness to it. It was really tasty!
At this point, we requested a refill on our tea. As I mentioned, each cup of tea is made to order, so you don’t want to wait too long before asking for the refill. The Lunch Set coffee and tea comes with free refill, but since the cup is rather large, we only needed to ask for the refill once. And this time, we also asked for milk, to prepare for desserts…
Did I mention that the Lunch Set also comes with dessert??? Oh yes, it does! You get to choose from several “today’s cake.” It is nice that they give you some options to choose from.
The “Lunch Slice” that comes with the Lunch Set is about the half portion of their regular slice. I went with Green Tea Mousse, made with bittersweet green tea sponge and mousse, with Dainagon red beans, covered with fresh whipped cream. My hubby went with Irish Cream Cheesecake, made with rich cheese tarte, topped with Irish whisky infused cream. Again, about the half of regular slice. The Irish Cream Cheesecake was nice, you can really taste the liquor, especially in the cream. Green Tea Mousse was as great as always, still one of my favorite! They were both really good, rich, high quality, flavorful and simply delicious.
They had mostly Japanese staffs, and the service was polite, although not overly friendly. We bought a few more slices of different cakes on our way out, you can never have too many HARBS cakes… They have other cakes and Lunch menu items that I really want to try, so we need to make more trips to HARBS for some tasty brunch!
HARBS – 198 9th Ave, New York, NY 10011