Bizou Brasserie at Le Méridien Hotel – Tampa, FL

This past Sunday, we enjoyed brunch at Bizou Brasserie, a ritzy hotel restaurant at the Le Méridien downtown.  It opened about a year ago at the site of an old courthouse.  The design merges the original historic architectural features with mid-century modern furnishings.   It’s like someone filled The Oxford Exchange with West Elm’s current catalog.

We had a CL Deal so we got $30 for only $15, which was the perfect amount for our brunch check (it’s still posted on the Creative Loafing website, so if you want one, you can purchase one here while they last…)

They have a pretty concise menu, but everything on it sounded fantastic.  I ordered the crab cake benedict (buttermilk biscuit topped with lump crab cakes, sweet chili jam, poached eggs, and spicy hollandaise sauce).  Lance ordered their Bizou burger – it was a too early in the morning for burgers in my opinion, but he was excited about the caramelized onions at goat cheese atop the chuck and short rib half pound burger. 

I was thrilled with my benedict and the breakfast potatoes it was served with were wonderful.  Lance’s burger came with some of the best fries I’ve had in a long time.  The burger itself was a bit too messy for such a classy restaurant – the cheese and onions oozed everywhere.  The waitress did warn us that the burger came with a lot of cheese, but even Lance thought it was a bit much. 

They do also have a case full of exciting pastries that you can order right there at the counter – we saw a banana bread pudding that I may need to try next time.  Overall a great breakfast – especially for only $15!

Bizou Brasserie is located at 601 N Florida Ave, Tampa, FL 33602 and is open 6am – 10pm Sunday – Thursday and 6am – 11pm Friday – Saturday.