Brunching in Houston, TX and the surrounding areas:
Brunching, is one of my all time favorite things to do, all times of the year. It brings me joy and makes me happy. Brunch is great for families, friends, celebrations, or just because your a foodie. Who doesn't love a good brunch? I plan on updating this page as I try different places to brunch in Houston and it's surrounding areas. I will tell you what I love or don't love about it. I can not wait to take you on this journey with me but first have you ever had your own brunch at home? I hosted my first at home brunch for a Friendsgiving it was so much fun, read below
1. Union Kitchen in Kingwood, TX
So the hubs and I headed out for brunch with the baby and we decided to keep it easy and stay in Kingwood. There is no other place in Kingwood that I would rather brunch. The atmosphere is classy, which makes me want to actually get dressed and be cute. The essence of the place is great for a morning date, or with another family as a great gathering place, with just you and your girlfriends, or even a brunch with your parents. The options are endless. When you arrive, they place these adorable little muffins on a plate for your table to share. A good little starter while you look over the menu. The menu is not huge but its enough and its good. It is also priced right for the atmosphere $$. Also, yes they have chicken and waffles~ Holla!!! My personal favorite is the fact that they have unlimited mimosas. That's right UNLIMITED,... I actually got a grapefruit mimosa this time but if you are not a huge mimosa person, they also have a killer bloody mary bar.... I give it a 9 out of 10 just because I would love to see a little more on their menu and it would be great to have some clean eating and grain free options.
2. The Toasted Yolk in New Caney, TX
My girlfriend and I decided to grab brunch Sunday morning before our photo shoot. It was a packed house and this isn't the place to brunch if you are in a hurry. However, I will say that the customer service is excellent. While we waited we were dying for a mimosa however they can't serve them before 10 am. We were counting down the minutes until 10:00 but on the strike of 10:00 the bartender came to where we were waiting to see if we wanted to order our drinks. Of course we did... and we were so thankful to have the immediate service instead of having to go wait by the bar. This place is more of a casual dining after church kinda brunch. I brought my 2 year old daughter and it wasn't a problem. This is a great place for a family brunch. It probably wouldn't be my first choice if I was kid free but with children but for what it is, it's priced right $. The food kind of reminded me of the food you would find at an IHOP. Nothing fancy but the normal breakfast menu that you could expect at an IHOP I would think is the best way to describe it. I give this place a 7 out of 10 stars.
3. Emmaline Houston- @dineemmaline
When it's your girls birthday, what better way to celebrate than having a birthday brunch? When I found out this brunch was being held at Emmaline in Houston, I was so excited. I had already heard so many great things and couldn't wait to try it out. When we first arrived we ordered coffee they offered many different versions from cappuccino, lattes to coffee. I ordered regular coffee but their coffee is french pressed coffee, giving you the robust flavor of the grounds that filtered coffee doesn't give, it's delightful. Once everyone had gathered around the table we started with a few plates of pastry's for all of us to share and try before ordering our main course. Oh my goodness y'all, their scones had a side of butter with lemon curd. This was by far the best scone I have ever had, all of the pastry's we tried were great but this was my favorite for sure. Next, we all ordered a round of mimosas. What I loved about there mimosas is that they were fresh squeezed. I ordered the grapefruit mimosa just because I figured it had the least amount of sugar but they also had, orange, pineapple and probably more that I just can't remember. For my main course I had their frittata which usually comes with goat cheese. I am not a fan of goat cheese so I asked them to replace it with mozzarella and they were completely fine with doing so. While we were there they had an extra room being used for a shower which I thought was a beautiful setup, and I would highly recommend if you are planning an event to call and check it out. The scenery here is nothing less than classy and beautiful. When I first walked it in reminded me of a New Orleans/ Paris vibe. I will for sure be back. I give them 10 out of 10 stars.
4. Sweet Paris Creperie
As a blogger you have to plan days just for planning or you can get completely overwhelmed. My best influencer buddy @ www.instagram.com/stephanie_007 and I decided we needed a content planning day and we wanted to meet for a simple yet elegant brunch. We had the pleasure of brunching at Sweet Paris Creperie on Market Street in The Woodlands, TX. This place was perfect and exactly what we were looking for but more. We couldn't help but think. " Oh my goodness, what a perfect place to host a small gathering such as a birthday brunch, etc... " The scenery is beautiful and it makes for the perfect, brunch and shopping day with all of the surrounding shops so close by. I tell you this place is close to perfect. The only thing that makes it less than perfect is all of the calories you will indulge while you are there. Literally everything I put in my mouth just melted with yumminess. What was super cool, was seeing how the crepes' were actually made. They will make them right in front of you and you can't help but watch. This was a great time and experience. I was so happy to meet the partner of The Woodlands location as well, Mike Kelton he was a pleasure. He made sure our experience was nothing but excellent. Also, did I tell you how gorgeous the restaurant was? Their location is absolutely stunning, from the chairs to the chandeliers, to the mirrors. You will not be disappointed, guaranteed.
5. The Present Co.
The Present Company blew me away with all of their funky touches of Glam! This is a great place for brunch, yet its not so much for the romantic scene it has more of the casual vibe for you and your partner or friends. I really love all of the randomness this place offers. They have seating indoors &/or outdoors. Their food varies from breakfast to lunch with different choices for all. If you are into photography or just some super cool backgrounds for pictures you will love this spot. Not to mention they have so many refreshing "Insta Worthy" drinks to choose from as well. I really don't think you will leave here disappointed. This place is super cool and tasty not to mention it turns into a different vibe at night.
Friendsgiving Brunch 2018:
~Brunching @ Home~
As you may have read above, I love everything about a good brunch. It starts with the company, then the mimosas and onto the food. As I was thinking about brunching around Houston and how I would love to share with everyone my thoughts and experiences. I realized I have never hosted my own brunch. What a great idea, fall was right around the corner and this would be the perfect time to plan a Friendsgiving Brunch and I had plenty of time to let everyone know. So that is just what I did, and I was so happy to hear everyone else was excited about this too. The only thing I wish I would have done different was a more formal invite, because how fun is it to get happy mail. That's okay I have the best friends and they are fine with a good ol' text but if you decide to try this you may get a little more fancy than I did.
Steps to planning your bruch:
1. The guest list- Deciding how many people you are wanting to attend can be hard but it's the first step. For instance, do you want it to be couples or an all girl event? Do you want it to be a sit down brunch with a nice table setting or a grab your plate and eat wherever kind of brunch? For our Friendsgiving, I decided it was just for the girls ( lets face it our guys aren't into it as much as we are) and that is okay. So from there, I needed to still know am I going to do a sit down brunch or just mingle and eat wherever? This would determine how many girls I could invite. If it wasn't a place setting kind of thing, than that meant I could invite as many of my girls as I wanted and I didn't need a strong rsvp. Which was my first initial thought, that I could invite everyone and whoever showed up did and whoever couldn't make it than that would be fine too. The more I thought about it though I had really never hosted a sit down table setting party before. Hmmm, why not give it a whirl. So to do this, you need to know how many seats you would have available. My regular table only sits 8, thanks to my party planning guru friend she suggested I put two fold up tables together, throw table cloths on top and that would give us enough room for 10. I was like, well I only have seats for 8 and she said, "no worries just use 2 of my dining room chairs". Instead to make it look like it was insync we decide to use 4 of hers and get rid of my extra 2 for matchy matchy purposes. You know it has to look pretty and all. So there it was, I now had a number of how many I could invite, 10. Honestly, that makes it hard because I have more than 10 girlfriends that I would want to invite but to sum it up and make it easiest on everyone, I only invited my local friends. My life-long bestie for instance, I wanted to invite her but she lives several hours away so I didn't even bother with the invite because sometimes it easier on the other party too if they don't feel obligated to have to come. As hard as it is for me, I have finally understood that it's okay to only invite certain people to certain things.
Steps to planning your bruch:
1. The guest list- Deciding how many people you are wanting to attend can be hard but it's the first step. For instance, do you want it to be couples or an all girl event? Do you want it to be a sit down brunch with a nice table setting or a grab your plate and eat wherever kind of brunch? For our Friendsgiving, I decided it was just for the girls ( lets face it our guys aren't into it as much as we are) and that is okay. So from there, I needed to still know am I going to do a sit down brunch or just mingle and eat wherever? This would determine how many girls I could invite. If it wasn't a place setting kind of thing, than that meant I could invite as many of my girls as I wanted and I didn't need a strong rsvp. Which was my first initial thought, that I could invite everyone and whoever showed up did and whoever couldn't make it than that would be fine too. The more I thought about it though I had really never hosted a sit down table setting party before. Hmmm, why not give it a whirl. So to do this, you need to know how many seats you would have available. My regular table only sits 8, thanks to my party planning guru friend she suggested I put two fold up tables together, throw table cloths on top and that would give us enough room for 10. I was like, well I only have seats for 8 and she said, "no worries just use 2 of my dining room chairs". Instead to make it look like it was insync we decide to use 4 of hers and get rid of my extra 2 for matchy matchy purposes. You know it has to look pretty and all. So there it was, I now had a number of how many I could invite, 10. Honestly, that makes it hard because I have more than 10 girlfriends that I would want to invite but to sum it up and make it easiest on everyone, I only invited my local friends. My life-long bestie for instance, I wanted to invite her but she lives several hours away so I didn't even bother with the invite because sometimes it easier on the other party too if they don't feel obligated to have to come. As hard as it is for me, I have finally understood that it's okay to only invite certain people to certain things.
At the end of the day our Friendsgiving was a huge success. It was surrounded by food, friendships and love. We started the Brunch at noon and we were having so much fun it didn't actually end until 5pm. One of our friends had the perfect idea and we played a game of celebrity charades that really got the party rollin'. Literally, after all that food. I am so thankful for this day and all who contributed. Oh and don't forget that we all need a PPG on our side. (Party Plannin' Guru Friend)
Alos all photos were captured by: Ramiro Carrizales with Just Real Captures
Alos all photos were captured by: Ramiro Carrizales with Just Real Captures