Novo Restaurant: Brunch

feed. me.

Find me sitting outside, under a yellow umbrella with a mimosa in my hand as we exchange stories about how crazy last night was. Yes loves, it’s time for brunch, the best way to decompress and recap on the weekend’s shenanigans. We were recently invited to go to downtown SLO to taste the new Novo Creekside Brunch menu. The $39 package comes with a three-course meal as well as bottomless mimosas and coffee. Refill? Yes, please!

The full menu is HERE. But, you can choose between 5 different appetizers to start with. Each are all slightly smaller than a traditional appetizer and are sized for one person. Since we were sharing everything we chose two different options, spring rolls and calamari.

The calamari was familiar to me, it’s one of the things I order from the Novo happy hour menu on the regular. Light crispy, salty, deliciousness in my mouth. The dish is fresh squid, cleaned in-house, tossed lightly in flour and served with their house-made tartar and sweet chili sauces.

The spring roll appetizer came with two fresh spring rolls made with rice noodles, fresh veggies, cilantro and roasted peanuts served with a ginger soy and and chili sauce. Loved both sauces and the peanuts were roasty toasty.

For your main entree, you have 12 standard options and 2 premium options. The premium choices cost an additional $5. We polled our Instagram friends to help choose one of the dishes and they selected Huevos Rancheros for us, while we chose the Waygu Tartine.

The Waygu Tartine (premium selection) was great! We loved that it had a lot of great flavors and textures. It’s an open-faced sandwich but not overbearingly heavy. Since this is a new menu we expected some hiccups, unfortunately, this dish came out slightly over-cooked. Lucky for us, all of the flavors and components were still on point. The dish was layers of deliciously seasoned waygu beef, with a layer of crispy onions, melted cheese, a light spread of horseradish, topped with arugula on a slice of fresh bread.

Our friends on Instagram voted overwhelmingly for us to order and try the Huevos Rancheros. Unfortunately (I love you, Novo) this is not the same Huevos Rancheros that we’ve all come to love. The dish came as a large bowl of tomato based sauce/salsa with two eggs, avocado, and side serving of chips. So when I dug my spoon into the bowl I was left confused searching for tortilla. I am a chilaquiles and huevos rancheros fiend so I really can’t recommend this dish to anyone who is looking to have their tortilla smothered brunch dreams come true. It’s not a bad dish, it’s just not what I was expecting.

Dessert was fun, you only have three choices here so it’s a little bit easier to make up your mind. We ended up getting the Torte and the Sundae. I was surprised because the sundae was much better than I expected, I mean, it’s just a sundae right? The chocolate chip moca ice cream came from McConnells and was generously topped with a thick layer of fudgy chocolate with hazelnuts. The torte was decadent and I loved the fresh sweet berries that helped cut the heaviness. It was a perfect end to the meal.

Overall it was a wonderful brunch, good food, good company, calming views. Our waitor was Dom and he was awesome and attentive. Would definitely come back with my girlfriends. They love brunch and with unlimited mimosas for 2 hours and a 3 course meal it makes for a fun afternoon with friends.

Thank you to Novo Restaurant & Lounge for having us!
Make sure you all check out their menu for brunch if you’re in downtown SLO 🖤