Yup, This Is the Best Vegan Brunch in the Bay Area
My 76-year-old grandmother grew up in Missouri before moving to Virginia, where she’s lived ever since. She doesn’t love sushi (“It’s slimy and uncooked”), and she bakes with a touch more butter and sugar than recipes call for. She is not your average fruit-juice-cleansing, granola-eating, organic-purist San Franciscan. She’s a Coca-Cola purist.
And yet she was totally open to the idea of a vegan brunch.
Not only that, but she totally loved this vegan brunch.
I brought her and my mother to Millennium — one of the top-ranking vegan restaurants in the nation. I’m quite familiar with their dinners, but brunch is a new offering for them, so naturally I was excited to check it out. When the time to order finally came around, it felt like Christmas morning. If there had been wrapping paper on the dishes, I probably would have eaten that too.
Here you’ll find a breakdown of what to order and what not to order on the basis of both grandma and my reactions to the dishes.
Do Order
Orange creamsicle: Just do it. You won’t regret it. It’s creamy and light and full of goodness. It’s not too sugary and contains just the right amount of OJ to boost your energy. This drink is as pleasant as a cool ocean breeze.
Pancakes with berries, granola, whipped cream and mint leaves: As someone who would literally die if I were to eat milk products, finding non-dairy, non-buttered pancakes is a dream. After over-stuffing myself with these hefty pancakes, I was on cloud nine. Delicious, but I recommend sharing the dish with someone.
Bourbon cake with dark chocolate, lavender and vanilla ice cream: I wish I could win a lifetime supply of these. You’ll want at least two orders. For yourself. The cake itself was perfectly baked — not too dry, not too moist. The chocolate and bourbon flavors complement each other wonderfully, and the sweet vanilla ice cream makes the trio complete. Add in the velvety textured, perfectly bitter hints of lavender to make the sweet bits that much sweeter, and — as Emeril Lagasse would say — BAM! This is the best excuse for dessert at breakfast.
While almost everything on the menu at Millennium is perfection, you can order only so many items in one sitting. If you’re on a budget or have anything less than the appetite of a bear going into hibernation (read: these dishes are all filling), skip the following, as they just miss the bar for brunch excellence:
Skip
King trumpet mushrooms: Mushrooms are not breakfast. Nor are they brunch, really. One should eat mushrooms only for dinner. A mushroom omelet, however, is acceptable for breakfast since the mushrooms are at least hiding in breakfast food. When it comes to ordering straight-up mushrooms for breakfast, avoid — it doesn’t play nice with the other brunch flavors at Millennium.
Brown sugar beignets: While tasty, the flavors are very simple — and the presentation is lacking in spirit. After the bourbon cake, nothing compares.
Note that the menu for brunch changes frequently at Millennium, but if you don’t see these items listed, don’t fret. Order boldly, eat slowly, and savor every bite before it’s gone. It might be the last time you see your favorite item on the menu.
