Hash House A Go Go

One of my best friends celebrated her birthday a couple weeks ago with a Saturday brunch at the newly opened Hash House A Go Go in the Gold Coast. This restaurant has been around for about a decade in San Diego and has expanded only to Las Vegas and Chicago. Its forte is "twisted farm food," except nowhere in the restaurant or on the menu is it explained exactly which farms this food comes from. In a city teeming with farm to table restaurants detailing exactly where each component to a dish is sourced, it's hard to believe the people who run this restaurant are anything but poseurs. But, I digress. I arrived at this place before anyone else did, so I did what any normal person would do, settled in at the bar and asked for this:

A meal in itself, this is the BLT Bloody Mary (that set me back 13 bucks), and comes with a slice of bacon, tomato, lettuce, and a piece of bread. But, as amazing as this looks, I've had better Bloody Marys (hello, Joe's Stone Crab). The bacon was obviously made ahead of time, the bread also toasted ahead of time, and the Mary itself? Bland, watered down, one dimensional flavor. Looks can be deceiving.

They are famous for their sage fried chicken so I knew I had to get that. I ended up ordering the fried chicken with maple reduction, 2 eggs, bacon mashed potatoes, and biscuit.

And this is what arrived. Glutton! Party of one! An explosion of food on a plate - portions that could easily feed a family of four. I will admit the flavor of maple syrup over chicken is kind of awesome but I couldn't taste any sage in the chicken itself and the "bacon" mashed potatoes were merely mashed potatoes with two strips of bacon laid on top. The biscuit was overworked and too floury and I'm still not quite sure what the watery tomatoes (in peak tomato season no less) were supposed to add. The flavors of the dish just weren't quite there - no zing.

The birthday girl, Becky, ordered the S'more Mocha, which came with grilled marshmallows and a shot of espresso. She loved it.

Nina ordered the smoked salmon hash, which literally came in one of those Lodge cast iron skillets - yes this is for one person!

This place is also known for their fried chicken and waffles, which comes with frizzled leeks and is piled as high as it can be without tipping over. Every dish is impaled with a tall stalk of rosemary. Yes, this place is twisted.