Making Pennies.: Brunch at 8407 kb

8407 Kitchen Bar (reviewing their brunch only)
Wayne & Ramsey Ave, Silver Spring
6.5/10 on my bangin' scale

I've invited guests to brunch at 8407 Kitchen Bar three separate times. "Fancy" brunch food that's not fancily expensive; a trendy, hipsterish atmosphere including bright windows/a brick interior; and a location steps from the metro are all great assets for meeting up with friends for brunch.

Brunch at 8407 starts off with mini muffins (one per person). Mini muffins always make me happy because they remind me of my days in elementary school when I'd make tiny confections in my Easy Bake Oven. The deviled eggs appetizer--featuring 3 to 4 deviled egg halves garnished with bacon and chives--is pretty good, and is sometimes accompanied with a side of beets.

Solid entree choices are the steak and eggs, the crab benedict, and the brioche french toast. The steak & eggs ($14 served with roasted potatoes), comes with a fairly large steak that will satisfy the "go big or don't brunch" customer (#YOLO). The portions on the benedicts--crab benedict ($15 served with roasted potatoes) included-- are much smaller, so plan to get an appetizer if you come hungry. The brioche french toast ($11 served with berries) is topped with a pouf of sugary whipped butter that tastes surprisingly like a cinnabon.

Brioche French toast.

Unfortunately, each time I've gone to 8407, the kitchen has also had difficulty serving some food that lives up to the standards that 8407 is clearly capable of. For example, one of my three pancakes ($12 served with fresh berries) was charred to the point of being inedible. Given, I was full after my first two pancakes, but I was still disappointed that I couldn't overeat like I'd been expecting. Sometimes, eggs were served cold (eg. $13 eggs benedict served with roasted potatoes).

A perfect example of 8407's inconsistency was in the grilled salmon with asparagus and poached eggs ($15). The dish was beautifully plated (see below), and featured a simple, yet nomz mix of flavors including a slightly spicy tomato sauce along with the egg yolk and well-seasoned salmon. Unfortunately, the egg yolk in the poached egg was refrigerator cold, and the dish came without any type of bread to sop up the yolk/tomato. Yo, if you're not going to have bread, please list that this dish is the diet option. I go to brunch for CARBS. When I asked for some toast, it was evident that 8407 didn't have bread in the kitchen. Finally, about 15 minutes later, I got a warmed slice of brioche.