Brunch Bites: New Dim Sum and Seafood Brunch Buffet

In this week's batch of brunch bites, Koi and Fat Rice offer new dim sum menus and Devon Seafood Grill rolls out a new brunch buffet.

(Waffles in action at Devon Seafood Grill)

Long gone are the days when dim sum was confined to Chinatown. Nowadays, new dim sum entrants provide ample opportunities for dumpling-bingeing all over Chicagoland, with the latest dim sum options being Koi and Fat Rice. Offered Saturdays and Sundays from 10:30 a.m. until 3:00 p.m., Koi's dim sum program features roughly 60 different menu options that pay heed to Cantonese cuisine. All your favorite doughy delights are on board, from stuffed savory buns to dumplings, noodles, red bean sesame balls, rice rolls, tofu custard, and more. Most dishes range between $3.50 and $5, making it easy to eat your way through Canton via Evanston. At Fat Rice, Macanese dim sum is the focal point, in line with the restaurant's cultishly pored-over Macanese dinner dishes. What really sets this weekend dim sum spot apart from the pack is its adherence to the Macau region, which beget the rest of the restaurant concept and catapulted it onto a national culinary stage. While dim sum is traditionally Cantonese, Fat Rice incorporates some Macanese items into the mix. There's congee with Manila clams and bacon, stew-like lacassa, pork chop sandwiches on Portuguese rolls, and egg tarts. Get eating.

Everyone loves a good brunch buffet. More so than any other meal period, brunch is most befitting a buffet format, especially considering many patrons are too groggy and potentially hungover to deal with menus and would rather just plunge face-first into a spread of food. Devon Seafood Grill is the latest spot to roll out a brunch buffet, available on Sundays starting April 6. All the comforting essentials are on hand, including scrambled eggs, biscuits & gravy, sausage, housemade granola, pastries, waffles made-to-order, and an omelette station. Things get burly at the Premier Station, where guests can partake in prime rib, Alaskan king crab legs, Thai chicken wings, lobster mac & cheese, and seasonal vegetables. Of course, you'd be remiss to skip the chilled seafood display, rife with smoked trout, peppered mackerel, smoked salmon, maki, oysters, and shrimp ceviche, among others. The dessert table contains the likes of panna cotta, cookies, cinnamon zepoli, Grand Marnier white chocolate mousse, and mini carrot cake, the perfect way to punctuate a brunch buffet.

- Matt Kirouac