I don’t know how we missed the memo, but Khâluna has a brunch, and it may have been around for awhile. Chef Ann Ahmed has been popping off with restaurants, starting with the recently closed Lemon Grass Thai, then Lat14 Asian Eatery in 2018, Khâluna in 2021, and now Gai Noi about a month ago in 2023. From what we can tell, she doesn’t miss.

We always do this, but we made our reservation for 10am (who does that?!) knowing we had a drag performance the night before that went until 2am. I would say that we’ll never do that again… but I know we will. If there’s one thing about us, we will continue to make the same mistakes, such as reserving brunch too early.

A quick note on the drinks: I got the mango lassi and Amy got the lychee lemonade, and I think we made the right choices for ourselves. Usually we can get on the same page because we have very similar tastes, but this time was an exception. I personally don’t like lychee (but I like the sound of it so I continue to order it), and Amy doesn’t like any sort of yogurt drink. Her loss. Although I do think these drinks absolutely slayed, they were pretty spendy for having no alcohol at $11 and $10 a piece. I’m conflicted on if I would order them again because of that, but who am I kidding, of course I would.

Much to our delight, we were started out with a small amuse-bouche. We love whenever restaurants take the extra step or energy to make your experience feel special, and this certainly helps. Transparently, it has been so long since we ate this and I can tell you nothing about what it was, but it was definitely delicious and happily devoured.

Food wasn’t too difficult for us to figure out. To my surprise, I was able to convince Amy to get the French toast. She is normally a sweet breakfast/brunch food hater, but somehow I sold her on it. And boy am I glad I did. I genuinely believe this is the best French toast I’ve ever had. The bread was the perfect texture, the Masala chai butter was absolutely decadent, and the chai condensed milk syrup? Come on. I will be dreaming about that syrup, I wanted to just drink it. I don’t quite know where Amy’s opinion ended up at, being a French toast hater, but she did eat all of her half, so that has to say something. This is a must order recommendation from me if you go for brunch.

We needed something savory to balance out the French toast, so up next we had the duck congee. We have been in our duck era for awhile now; if its on the menu, we’re ordering it. This dish reminded us of the Juk from Young Joni and was quite delicious. The confit duck leg fell apart so easily. This was a dish that would fare well if you had to bring it home as leftovers.

Finally, we needed something light, so we ordered the tropical fruit bowl. Our one regret here was that we didn’t know the French toast already came with all of the tropical fruits, and a good amount of them. So definitely don’t order these two together. Not much to say here, there was a good collection of tropical fruits, all delicious. Although I think I learned that I’m not the biggest fan of dragon fruit.

VIBE CHECK

We personally love the vibes at Khâluna. We’ve come here for birthdays and celebration dinners. Our favorite place to sit is at the half circle booths, these would be so great for gossiping at with your friends, which we do plenty of.

DISH IT OUT

Please reference our rating system, 1 being awful and 5 being fantastic.