The Porch /// Winter Park, FL

This week's brunch post will be my very first negative, very unhappy camper post. It makes me so sad, but they can’t all be good right? This should not deter you from your regular Sunday brunching because there are some amazing places around town, but The Porch is not one of them. 

I always try to admit when I am wrong, and in this case, I was apart of the asshole table that shows up late to a reservation. I called and apologized and we changed our time from 11:15 to 12. They said no big deal. 

So, I come running in at 11:45 out of breath because I parked in the wrong spot and could not find the front door and continuously apologized for our late arrival. 

There were 3 hostesses at the stand and all of which said it was no big deal. Then one of them said “You know you only have an hour right?” Of course, they probably had another reservation coming in, nope. You only reserve your table for 2 hours apparently. 

I have never been to a place like this before and I won’t ever go again, however, when someone calls to change their reservation it would be nice to know this is only a 2 hour ordeal. Instead of explaining their policy to me, they listed all the other places in Orlando that do the same thing. I honestly don’t care what other places do this, I would have canceled my reservation or tried a lot harder to be there at our original time. 

Now, I don’t know about you guys but when I brunch, I brunch for hours, if its bottomless mimosas, I Uber and set up camp, don’t worry we tip very well and taste everything on the menu. 

So by the time they were done explaining their 2-hour policy our one hour turned to 45 minutes. Much to my dismay, I was led to a table where no one came to talk to us. Finally, a girl wearing a Porch t-shirt came and stood in front of me for a good 30 seconds before I said “Is everything OK?” She said yes so I just ordered one mimosa. It was very uncomfortable. 

I asked her for a brunch menu and she pointed me to the buffet. Now, I can tear up a buffet, all you can eat should have been my middle name, but when I come to brunch we try to focus on the ala carte menus to showcase the restaurants plates. So when I asked about the menu online she said that was only on Saturdays. WHAT?! I love Saturday brunch, don’t get me wrong but Sunday brunch is what its about! 

They had a nice looking spread of food, so I piled my plate high with everything on the buffet. I will say their mac n’ cheese balls were delicious, and almost everything else was pretty decent but it was cold. 

You could make your own shrimp and grits, they had a dessert table next to the restrooms and they had a carving station. 

The bread pudding was incredible, a nice chocolatey, banana flavor and melts in your mouth, and the biscuits and gravy were different but very good. 

Bottomless mimosas is $15.95 and they bring you a bucket of ice with a bottle of champagne and you can go make your own mimosas at their juice station, which is on the complete opposite side of the restaurant. The buffet is $19.95 and all together they give you a deal for $30. 

Like clockwork, they kicked us out of our table at 1:15.

The Saturday brunch menu looked amazing, but I doubt I will ever try it. There are so many other amazing places to put at the top of your brunch list but this is not one of them. 

If you read my posts to see where to go this week go any where else, like The Attic Door in Winter Garden, Marlow’s Tavern, SoCo in Thornton Park, White Wolf, Maxine’s on Shine, or Artisans Table. 

The back of their t-shirts at Porch say: Eat, Drink, Stay a while, I think they should change “stay a while” to “stay 2 hours and get the hell out”.