Drake Hotel Dickens' Brunch

http://dining.thedrakehotel.com/weblet/ ... ehotel.com

Has anyone attended this in the past? We're thinking it might be fun to bring our daughter.

Thanks!

Just wondering, as I can't tell from the link: is this brunch supposed to have something to do with Dickens, as in Charles? Or not, since the website says "Dicken's"? I'm not trying to be cute, just wondering, as my husband and kids are big fans of C. Dickens, and might be interested if they were reading from A Christmas Carol or something, but simply having carolers does not make it particularly Dickensonian.

Whatever it is, get ready to pay. Drake Hotel: Home of the $12 8oz glass of orange juice.

Well we just got back from this and I'd classify it as very nice, though not a great value.

The cold buffet has a great variety of smoked, picked, marinated fish, chicken and duck. The smoked salmon and cold marinated duck breast were the best of these. Lots of fresh fruit, well seasoned salads, etc.

Nicely roasted skin-on boneless chicken breasts that were still very juicy, a variety of fresh steamed vegetables, roasted finerling potatoes.

All in all it was very good. I've had better prime rib, but the horseradish whip cream that accompanied it was nice.

Dessert were good - crisp shortbread, mini trifle parfaits, plum pudding, mini flans, cookies, fruit tarts, chocolate mousse. (and that was only the 1/2 we tried).

As for the Dickensian portiong. Some carolers in full garb arrived, after 2 songs they ducked into the kitchen, they came out and led a parade of waiters carrying a pig's head made of butter (life size), a candy stump (life size of being cut from a 30 year old oak, and a gingerbread yule log. They paraded around the dining room and were followed by a very good and friendly Santa. He cam and sat individually at each table with a child, took as many photos as we liked and gave each child an age appropriate gift, wrapped from his bag. (My daughter got barrettes. A nice touch)

Was it worth $61/pp....well the buffet wasn't monstrous, but with the exception of the prime rib (i didn't try the turkey or ham) the food was all first quality and very fresh. I'd recommend as a fun holiday tradition. The Drake lobby is decked out with a two level train set and a lovelt 2 story tree surrounded by animated characters. It's big enough to look nice in a photo, but not so large you lose the people in it.