Friends With Benedicts Mimosa House — Restaurant in Folsom

Just because it’s yellow doesn’t make it Hollandaise.

I spent twenty years as a cook, and for about seven of those years I made Hollandaise sauce virtually every day. I learned to make it from a born-and-raised French chef, whose father was a chef. I’ve made well over a thousand gallons of the stuff in my lifetime.

Hollandaise is egg yolks and clarified butter, with a little acid thrown in, either vinegar or lemon, and a pinch of salt and cayenne pepper. Period. It’s buttery and rich. It’s delicious.

It’s been thirty years since I’ve had good Hollandaise. I don’t know what’s gone wrong. Chef’s have forgotten how? Restaurant owners have gotten food poisoning paranoid and won’t allow it to be made correctly? It costs too much? For whatever reason, American diners seem to have accepted it and put up with swill. It’s gotten so bad that I never order it.

But then, this place named their restaurant after a classic dish, of which Hollandaise is the signature element. It makes the dish. So, I thought, they must know how, right?

What a colossal disappointment.

Whatever that yellow stuff was, it wasn’t Hollandaise. It was closer to a white sauce with some egg yolks tossed in. It had virtually no flavor. It certainly wasn’t buttery and rich.

The rest of the meal wasn’t much better. I had the “Smokey Ben”. The smoked salmon was good. The asparagus had not had the woody ends snapped off. The poached eggs were virtually hard-boiled. So much for cutting into the warm egg yolks and having them run all over everything and make a delicious mess. Instead of the classic English Muffin, the whole thing was served on a too-big bagel that made the dish too dry The Hash-Browns were properly cooked but had zero seasoning and were tasteless.

The restaurant was too loud for my taste, but not to the point of losing a star. The music was up, and the floors and walls are all hard surfaces with nothing to absorb the noise, so it’s a big echo chamber.

The server was pleasant and efficient. The extensive Mimosa menu was fun, and the Prickly Pear Mimosa was good, but it would be hard to screw up champagne and fruit syrup. Two stars. Zero stars...

I’ll preface this review by unequivocally stating that I am an eggs Benny aficionado. I’m fussy about how my eggs are poached and the quality (and quantity) of hollandaise. While I love making my own - with perfectly-poached eggs and velvety hollandaise with a light lemon punch, I also enjoy the search for a great Benny while on the road. ‘Friends With Benedicts’, from all outward appearances, should’ve hit the mark for me. Sadly, it left me loathing my decision to drive a half hour out of my way. Let me expound: We walked in within 20 minutes of opening on a Friday to a mostly-empty restaurant (just one other couple). No music. Nobody to welcome us. We stood awkwardly for more than five minutes and finally saw our server. While not greeting us (a” Good morning “ would have been nice), he told us to sit anywhere. He quickly brought menus, delivered coffee, and took our orders. I opted for the version with spinach and avocado, while my hubby went for a gluttonous helping of biscuits and gravy. Our breakfast arrived quick enough, and waiter offered to refill our coffees, I didn’t hanger my first bite until he’d refilled and disappeared. I immediately found my hollandaise to be cold. Not tepid. Not warm. Actually cold. And don’t get me started about the lack of lemonyness. 😕 I mentioned this to my hubby who mentioned his gray also lacked heat, although when I tried a bite of his it was actually warm (but definitely not hot). After waiting a few minutes, hoping our server would ask how we were enjoying our meals, I came to realize we might not see him again. And we didn’t until he presented the payment machine. I regretted asking for cold fruit, as hubby’s hash browns were plenty hot and would’ve probably had been good to mop up the hollandaise (which although cold was indeed plentiful - not often the case with restaurant Bennie’s). The fruit was fine. I ate my cold Benny (at least the eggs were somewhat warm and definitely perfectly-poached) and eventually cut my losses. I hope to find somewhere better over the next few weeks...

Craving for an egg benedict near Folsom and I found this restaurant. We went there for a breakfast around 9:30am. The restaurant was almost full but we were seated right away. We ordered florentine benedict, chicken & waffle benedict, and one stack of strawberry shortcake pancake for my kid. The service was pretty fast - we got our food withtin 15 minutes of ordering.

The florentine benedict was good. The hollandaise sauce was decent and I wish the canadian bacon was a bit thicker. The poached eggs were cooked perfectly with runny yolks. However, the hash brown was crispy but it was very bland - no seasoning at all.

The chicken and waffle benedict was good too. The waffles were fluffy and delicious! The gravy & fried steaks were yummy! And again the poached eggs were perfect but the hash brown was very bland.

The strawberry shortcake pancake was the star! The pancake was fluffy and DELICIOUS! I could taste the buttermilk in the pancake. My kid only put a small amount of syrup on the pancake and he finished it in no time.

Overall, the food was good and I'll definitely be back again to try different menu. As we left the restaurant (around 10:30ish), it became more crowded, so if you want to avoid line up, go there in the morning. They also has a bar and I'll try their mimosa the next time I go there because it looked so good!

The restaurant is located in Palladio shopping center. There is a parking lot right behind...