Carmel Restaurant and Lounge

http://www.carmelrestaurantlounge.com/

215 S DENTON TAP RD
SUITE #100 

Coppell, TX

Carmel is one of the newer restaurants in Coppell.  It opened to big hype, and great reviews.  For a while, it was hard to get a table, no matter when you wanted to visit.

Recently, however, I've noticed it not being as busy as when it first opened.  I thought, well I'll give it a shot with their Brunch menu.

I've eaten at this location before when it was another restaurant, and I was anxious to see what Carmel had done with the place.

Walking in, it looked very much like the same decoration - maybe changing a few things on the wall, but not much else looked like it changed.

The brunch menu looked GREAT.  Lots of choices, from both traditional brunch items to some Mediterranean fair.

Now I have a couple of hard rules that really take into account how much I like a place.  One of those is my drink (or anyone at the table for that matter) should be correct, and I should never have to have an empty glass, or have to ask for a refill.  In this particular visit, the Iced Tea was ordered with no lemon, and it came with a lemon.  It was also empty twice before someone coming to offer more.  In both cases - instead of either brining a new tea, or just a carafe to refill it, the empty glass was taken away, and brought back refilled.   This easily fixed detail would have really gone a long way for an enjoyable brunch.

Now the food - I ordered the "Surf & Turf" Benedict (which came with breakfast potatoes), while my wife had the Quiche Lorraine (minus the avocado / tomato, but adding the breakfast potatoes) that came with a cup of fruit.

The food came, and the Surf & Turf Benedict was very good.  I would probably skip the Surf next time, as its flavor just didn't mix well with the egg.  The Turf one, however was VERY good.   The egg itself was cooked just how I like it.  I'd say also to ask to keep the asparagus off the top - no flavor in the very small slivers, thus added nothing to the meal.   The breakfast potatoes were quite good too.  One small thing, I did have a piece of egg shell in on of my eggs.  Never something anyone wants to come across.

My wife liked her Quiche Lorraine - though she said the crust didn't taste like it was fresh made.  It looked good to me.  The fruit was a nice mixture of strawberries, blueberries, pineapple, and melon.  A very nice add to this dish.

I would say the food over all was good, and the service was just OK.  If you've not tried this place, check it out for yourself.  I'll want to return sometime on a Friday night myself, to see if they have an A team of servers, that maybe on a quiet Sunday we didn't get.  There are also several things on the dinner menu that look quite good.

If you've eaten here yourself - what do you recommend?