Breaking Bread at Bosscat's Brunch

Bosscat Kitchen and Libations

4647 MacArthur Blvd. 

Newport Beach, CA 92660

It's hard to believe that it had been nearly three and a half years since we had visited Bosscat Kitchen and Libations. We had a very solid dinner here, and I have been seeing a lot of shenanigans online about their Sunday brunch over the last few years. The food and the atmosphere I saw in their Instagram posts really intrigued me, so when Angel and Rebekah tasked me with finding a brunch spot for the four of us, it was an easy decision to head to Bosscat Kitchen.

There was one problem. I had waited until Wednesday to make brunch reservations and was told that there were no reservations available, but we were welcome to wait in line and be seated when a table became available. No problem, Katie and I got here extra early and waited in line with about sixty to seventy-five others who failed to plan ahead, like myself. When the doors opened at 11, both the reservation line and the standby line got seated rather quickly. We were told that we had to finish our meal in an hour and a half, which would be no problem since we did not want to hang out with Angel any longer than that.

Bosscat Kitchen is situated a stone's throw away from John Wayne Airport and shares a wall with Ten Asian Bistro on MacArthur. They have been open for four years, and in that time they have won rave reviews for their pork belly poutine, red velvet churros, and their brunch. This is not your typical quiet, sleepy brunch restaurant. It's a young, hip spot, with a DJ spinning a wide array of tunes on the corner of the patio, mimosas and bloody mary's flowing on just about every table, and over the top menu items, many of which bring to mind the fair food that you'd see at the nearby OC Fair in mid July.

Bosscat Kitchen is helmed by executive chef Peter Petro who has been here since the start, which is kind of rare to see in these days of musical chefs. Business must be good for the owners of Bosscat. Not only do they have a line of sixty people waiting out front for a table for brunch a half hour before they open, but they also have a location that opened last year in Houston, and another restaurant concept which debuted earlier last month, also in the Houston area. Since we only had an hour and a half to eat before our table would be turned over to the next party with reservations, let's take a look at what we ate here on this Sunday morning.

See what I was saying about not your typical brunch? Katie and I started with The King ($15). This Elvis inspired breakfast dish had blue suede pancakes as its base, which was really just pancakes that were dyed blue, a maple peanut butter sauce, a few pieces of crumbled bacon, and a banana cream pudding? As you can see from the picture above, I think they forgot to add the banana pudding, which would have helped this out a lot. The maple peanut sauce was very good, but they really skimped out on the crumbled bacon, which is not the way this dish is presented in the numerous pictures on Yelp. Without the banana pudding, lack of bacon, and a blue dye that surprised us later, this was kind of a lackluster start to our brunch. 

Angel and Rebekah did not want to be outdone by Katie and me, so they also started with a sweet option to start off their brunch session, the "Fruity Pebbles" French Toast ($14). Again, this one kind of left us underwhelmed. The french toast was done nicely, but there was not nearly enough of the condensed milk glaze or bacon that the menu promised. Without these, this was just a photo op showcasing the Fruity Pebbles on french toast. Disappointing, and again, nothing like the other pictures you see on their Yelp page. 

I cringed a bit when Angel ordered this Crawfish Queso and Eggs ($15) as his brunch entree. I thought there was no way that this could deliver a great crawfish experience, but I was wrong. This skillet was packed with delicious crawfish, plenty of crunchy Fritos, a lick your plate clean Hatch chili sauce, and sunny side up eggs to tie everything together. It would be hard for me not to get this on my next trip to Bosscat. I loved the different textural components of this, and the flavors were amazing. Great choice Angel.

This is another one straight from the fairgrounds, the Sticky Bun Breakfast Burger ($16). I really had no intention of getting this until I was looking at their Instagram feed before leaving the house, and the burger looked so good. Yes, that is burger patty topped with Canadian bacon, Gruyere cheese, and a duck fat fried egg, sandwiched between a sliced in half sticky bun. Just for good measure, I also added the optional scoop of vanilla ice cream to finish this off. There was a lot going on here. After taking these pictures I moved the ice cream off to the side to eat for later. The sticky bun was very good, reminded me of the ones I get from the fair, and did a better job than I imagined it would of keeping everything together on this burger. The fried egg was a little overcooked and did not feature very much of the runny yolk that I would have liked on this. The burger portion of this was pretty solid, so I'd probably just opt for their Bosscat burger the next time I'm here.

Rebekah went with a more traditional breakfast option at Bosscat, this Chorizo and Potato Benedict ($13). This skillet started with a milk biscuit as its foundation and then built upwards with a slow cooked egg, potatoes, chorizo, and a topping of fried chicken hollandaise sauce. I liked the contrast between the crispy potatoes, the airy biscuits, and the bringing it all together of the hollandaise sauce. The chorizo was kind of secondary here, but this was still a winning dish.

I really enjoyed the couple of bites that Katie allowed me to have of her breakfast entree, the Short Rib Chilaquiles ($15). This skillet was brimming with deliciousness. Plenty of tender shredded short rib, tortilla chips, a duck fat fried egg, avocado, cheese, and sour cream were melded together with a very delicious red sauce, which Katie felt was very spicy, and I found it to be just right. She's got a pretty low tolerance for spice. A nap-inducing meal that left us both very satisfied, and was one of the better chilaquiles we have had in some time.  

Okay, there were some misses on this visit to Bosscat, but I still really enjoyed our time here. The sweet items were the ones that we had the most problems with, but the savory stuff more than made up for the lackluster french toast and pancakes. I'd have a hard time picking between the crawfish dish and the chilaquiles on my next visit here, but I do have my eye on the chicken fried steak and the loco moco as well. Angel was a little put off by the crowd here, but I liked the young, exuberant customers on this particular early afternoon. Everyone seemed to be having a great time and making the most of their Sunday-Funday. As was the case when we ate here for dinner three years ago, the service on this visit was fantastic. Our server Danielle could not have been better, and she even offered to move us to another spot if we were not done with our meal before our hour and a half time limit. Very nice people here, and we will make this one of our frequent brunch spots. 

Out of five rockets, (in honor of the new Bosscat Kitchen in the city of Houston, which has one official nickname, Space City, and of course you have to explore space in a rocket), five being best to zero being worst, Bosscat Kitchen and Libations gets 3 rockets.

For more information about Bosscat Kitchen, head to their website here: https://www.bosscatkitchen.com/