Caffé Carciofo a small Cobble Hill Italian restaurant with good dinners and a pleasant, uppified ambience. In warm weather, al fresco dining is available on the sidewalk, if you don't mind sitting on either busy Court Street or near the Dumpster on the cross street. I'd rather eat in, near the windows, enjoying the tile-floor and tin-ceiling ambience.

The eggs Benedict is $6.50 separately; as a $12.50 brunch special, it comes with coffee, juice, a champagne cocktail, and a bowl of seasonal fruit. The mimosa did not use fresh juice but had an (un)healthy dose of tasty champagne. The fruit bowl was okay - melons and strawberries in summer; I am not a melon fan. Chantilly cream would've been nice.

Served with an orange-slice twist, eggs Benedict was pretty to look at. The hollandaise had no lemon tang, the eggs were a little overdone, the ham was sandwich ham, and the English muffin was undertoasted. The home fries were bland, with a little green pepper and onion and no spice. Yet this was still a tasty, three-star dish: The hollandaise was hot and buttery, and the eggs were still hot and gooey within. The grilled ham, folded in layers, had several surfaces of meaty flavor. And who cares about the English muffins or potatoes, anyway? As a whole composition, this was good eggs Benedict. I am tired of runny eggs and microscopic pieces of ham. For an additional side dish I asked for bacon, and was served a medium-size plate piled high with meaty, crispy pig flesh, making up for all the cold, greasy, niggardly side-meat dishes I'd suffered in past reviews.

My friend had amaretto French toast, which had sounded intriguing. But to me it had more of an aroma than taste of the liqueur, and to her it was too sweet. We both agreed that it wasn't eggy enough. We would both be back for eggs Benedict, which we saw was also popular at neighboring tables, except among women, who tended to be getting eggs Florentine instead. Service was very good, with a waiter who handled well some confused ordering, and the busing staff served and cleared quickly without being intrusive.

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Handicapped accessibility: .