Buckley's Tavern (Brunch)

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Buckley’s Tavern, a bar and restaurant located in a historic former house on Kennett Pike in Centreville, Delaware, offers nice atmosphere for a variety of purposes. The dark, cozy bar is a great place to get some drinks, the downstairs dining room (with fireplace) offers a charming ambiance for lunch or dinner, and the rooftop deck is great when the weather gets nice. Buckley’s also has an interesting brunch policy—dine in your pajamas, and you get ½ off the bill. Enticing, but neither of us did it.

Jeff’s Take:
I started off with a bowl of mushroom soup—a generous portion of mushrooms with leeks and tomatoes in broth. I’m a big mushroom fan, but I found this soup to be pretty boring. The broth was salty and unimpressive, and after I finished scooping out the mushrooms it wasn’t worth bothering with.

The Steak & Egg Grinder (right) was also a disappointing experience. “Tenderloin with sautéed onions, garlic & scrambled eggs topped with provolone on a crusty roll” sounded pretty good to me, but the plated product seemed like a fraud. To start off with, the steak tasted like it had been stewed. Tenderloin is a leaner cut of steak—it’s where filet mignon comes from. To stew it is just plain wasteful, since it’s tender (hence the name) on its own. In addition, the sandwich was inexplicably greasy. If the steak really was tenderloin, then it shouldn’t have produced much grease during cooking. The eggs and cheese were also unlikely sources of grease. But there it was, dripping onto my hands and plate.

The better way to go is one of the eggs benedict dishes—Buckley’s offers a few variations on the old standard. The Eastern Shore is a nice spin—lump crab meat and old bay seasoning in lieu of the traditional Canadian bacon gives the dish a lighter, less salty flavor, and the accompanying hollandaise sauce was subtler than most, which was a welcome change.


Mike's Take:
Buckley's is a one of my frequent brunch stops in Delaware. Typically, there is a buffet of mini muffins, croissants, fruit, danishes, and scones that you can immediately enjoy after you are seated. For Easter, they had a more limited selection placed at your table. This was a slight disappointment since the mini-muffins are a favorite and we only had a few to choose from.

For Brunch, I ordered the Creme Brulee French Toast. It was topped with some tender apples and some spectacular golden raisins. Despite the name, it was not too sweet. In fact, my one complaint would be why call it Creme Brulee French Toast at all? A more suitable name would highlight the best part of the dish more - the golden raisins and apple topping. I am pretty picky about my french toast and found this item to be quite good and the perfect portion size. I must add that Buckley's omelet and egg dishes are excellent and very consistent. Bruch usually features some great seasonal omelet choices. Their sausage links are also very good, though nothing really special. Buckley's weakness is that their homefries are utterly average and lean more towards the tatertot variety.

As long as you are in the main dining area or roof deck (as opposed to the seating around the bar), Buckley's atmosphere is charming for brunch. There are always a few patrons enjoying their meal in their pajamas, but that's what makes it a very good choice for your family brunch even though their slaughter is nothing to write home about.


5812 Kennett Pike (Rt. 52)
Centreville, DE 19807
(302) 656-9776
http://www.buckleystavern.org/

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