South Florida is experiencing an interesting culinary shift. An influx of New Yorkers and Californians has spurred new restaurant concepts in Miami, Fort Lauderdale, and West Palm Beach, giving South Floridians a break from the usual. Well, a new eatery in Pembroke Pines is right in the mix making some delicious noise with their daily brunch and dinner menus!
Brandon’s Eatery is a fresh new space embracing a scratch kitchen philosophy supported by soulful flavors and consistent recipes. The menu is a no-frills experience with anchoring entrees like some of the best shrimp and grits in all of Broward County. This dynamic plate includes grits cooked to a creamy, fluffy, and flavorful bowl, and then introduced to sauteed Florida shrimp with a white wine infused cream sauce woven within fresh vegetables. The use of wine adds complexity and a nice detour from South Florida’s traditional soulful shrimp and grits. I give this dish a 5 out of 5!
I ended up eating their other seafood entree, their blackened catfish served on top a medley of veggies and crawfish with a cream based sauce. Make sure you lather your filet with that sauce and just a quick squeeze of chard lemon juice, because it dramatically enhances the flavor while taking you on a filed trips of tastes! Smokiness, citrusy, and tomato acidity is the highlight of this well thought out dish, definitely a 5 out of 5!
Next up was my second favorite entrée, the braised oxtail served atop a Japanese sweet potato mash garnished with buttered green peas. The amazingly tender, well-seasoned and meaty oxtails were purposely paired with an unfamiliar friend, making for one heavenly combination. The naturally fragrant Japanese sweet potato was baked and mashed to a buttery sweetened perfection and smothered with a silky and savory gravy created by oxtails that had been braised for hours. The pairing is super unique and a dish your palate will never forget. Any oxtails lover would devour this. This dish also gets a 5 out of 5. If the sweet potatoes are a little too exotic, you can have their same braised oxtail in a sandwich form, with the oxtail cheesesteak! This sandwich has the same star power of eating the oxtail entree, just without the frills. I say go fro them both to see which one you like best, as me personally, I enjoyed the umami in the sweet potatoes option.
My favorite thing on the menu is probably the most basic. The rotisserie half chicken is well-seasoned, tender, juicy and with its outstanding flavor further enhanced by a natural sweet glaze derived from sauteed tri colored bell peppers. Served with a hefty portion of red beans and rice, you must be hungry to eat this one.
The amazingness doesn’t stop at the dinner menu. Brunch is banging, too! For starters they have scratch made, soft, buttery, melt in your mouth delicious biscuits. The blackened salmon and eggs were delicious and the fried catfish and creamy, fluffy and buttery grits had me thinking I was in North Carolina at one of my favorite brunch spots. Pembroke Pines desperately needed a restaurant of this pedigree and they hit the ground running with the city’s best southern brunch by far!
Brandon’s Bistro has seriously delicious food and even wine based cocktails to wash it all down. Its soulful sophistication tastes like a Parisian café met a southern Black grandma preparing Sunday dinner.
The restaurant’s opening has been met with great fanfare as its owner is a former NBA star right from Broward County, Mr. Brandon Knight. Diners flock to Brandon’s on weekends, so it’s a great idea to make reservations by calling (954) 955-7927 or catch them on a weekdays, Tuesday through Friday where the wait times are a lot smoother.
