Mission Navy Yard Brunch
by Dannah Strauss
The Navy Yard used to be a place seldom frequented for food and drink. While Nats park remains the beacon for activities, D.C.’s favorite fast-casual establishments and local businesses are changing the aesthetic. The locally loved Mission restaurant in DuPont has opened a second, multi-story location right across from the ballpark.
The massive space is surrounded by retractable windows and floral Mexican inspired wall art. Though clearly an operation in size, service, and overall atmosphere, Mission doesn’t feel overly sports bar-centric. On a given Saturday, Mission is packed with energy and even more packed with crowds of people, let alone on a game day.
The menu features some Mexican food, some bar food, and some brunch standards. The bottomless deal is one of the best we’ve seen in a while at $35.00 and includes bottomless margaritas, and free-flowing chips and guacamole– you know, the stuff we willingly pay extra for.
To start off the bottomless experience, we tasted some of the classic margaritas. These drinks were salt-rimmed, refreshing, and had a well-balanced lime, to sugar, to alcohol ratio. The other versions were intriguing us as well, so we ordered one with Mezcal, one with pineapple, and one with blood orange. The one with Blood orange was by far the most delicious. The drink was sweet and refreshing, but with a natural lip puckering tartness rather than a refined sugar type of artificialness.
For food, we ordered Eggs Benedict, a burrito bowl, cauliflower, and all four of the Mission tacos. The Eggs Benedict was our most surprisingly delicious encounter during this meal. Served with a spicy hollandaise, caramelized bacon, and on top of a crunchy corn cake, this Eggs Benedict had just enough newness and familiarity to make it exceptional. We’ll be adding Mission’s Eggs Benedict to our list of best unique Benedicts renditions.
The brunch bowl was easy to eat and permitted you to craft your “perfect bite,” a phenomenon risky while consuming the average burrito. The bowl felt slightly more nourishing than some of the other brunch dishes but still tasted indulgent. The components in this dish worked well together, but the rice, egg, beans, and cheese begged for a form of acidity and freshness.
The crispy cauliflower was a value-add component to the table. A dish commonly overwhelmed by oil and salt, cauliflower florets should be well seasoned and cooked to be supple. Therese ones absolutely were. This item is great to share amongst classic Mexican-style appetizers and main dishes.
All the tacos were acceptable. There’s nothing outlandishly incorrect about these tacos, however, we’d probably only order the chicken and the portabello mushroom one again. The mushroom taco was meaty in its own vegetarian kind of way and was well seasoned and extremely juicy–my signature steak eater agreed. The chipotle chicken taco had all the necessary toppings and was good compared to other chicken taco experiences.
The Bitches say: 4 champagne flutes
Though a little rowdy, brunch food is solid and margaritas are great. We’d definitely recommend rolling through with a reservation to ensure a comfortable seat and better service.