Trying out The Wild Fig this weekend for brunch.
Now normally when I think of Sunday brunch in 2024 I think of an à la carte menu type meal. I thought the Sunday brunch buffet experience had gone the way of the Dodo bird.
Perhaps it’s just me but from what I’ve seen the buffet style meal is considerably less popular these days than it used to be. Even in Vegas where the buffet was King they are all slowly being turned into food courts.
So when we walked in this morning and realized the only option was a buffet we were a little disappointed. Neither Merilynn nor I eat enough or like buffets enough to get value out of it.
If we weren’t meeting somebody this morning we would probably turn around and walk out. Oh well, our bad for not researching it a bit better.
The restaurant itself is quite nice. Just picture yourself in any upper mid grade hotel restaurant that you’ve ever been in and you’ll get the idea.
As for the food, just picture yourself in any upper mid grade hotel restaurant that you’ve ever been in and you’ll get the idea.
An omelette waffle station, a long line of chafing dishes filled with not quite hot enough food, a salad bar, a bread/bun selection going stale by the minute , a large fruit plate, a juice station, and a disproportionate amount of desserts are all on offer.
Here is my first trip’s bounty.
Let’s go from best to worst here.
The fruit was very good. Fresh and ripe. That’s the best watermelon I’ve had this year.
The roast lamb was quite tasty.
The salmon is well cooked but a bit on the bland side. Pass the salt please.
The bacon was crispy but had maybe been sitting there a tad long as it was starting to dry out.
The pork sausage tasted good but there was zero Maillard reaction on the surface so it was either roasted or boiled. That’s just lazy.
And the Eggs Benny was, well honestly what was I thinking? Bland. Overcooked egg. Absolutely terrible. Come on seriously Greg. As a (self proclaimed) Eggs Bennedict expert I should know better. How could it possibly be good after sitting in there for 30 minutes? Or more?
As bad as it was though it still wasn’t the worst thing on my plate.
That distinction went to the meat lasagna. It was bland. The pasta was horribly overcooked. The sauce tasted more similar to a jar of Ragu than freshly made sauce. Don’t bother with the salt this time. It won’t fix it.
After another trip for fruit and a little bit of dessert I stopped at the omelette bar.Forgot to take a picture but it was the best thing I had this morning. Freshly made with my choice of shrimp, red pepper, scallions and cheese. The chef did a nice job and didn’t overcook it. It was a really good size for a buffet too, not too big.
And for my fourth and final plate a little more fresh fruit and a couple more tiny desserts. All the desserts I had were pretty decent but I’m sure weren’t made on site.
After five or six glasses of fresh fruit juice I might have started getting close to the value of the $40 this brunch cost me. Merilynn didn’t get her money’s worth though that’s for sure.
Would I recommend The Wild Fig brunch buffet?
Depends who you are.
If you can eat a lot of food then 40 bucks might be worth it for you. The trick will be to sit there for a while and pound back as much as you can.
But if you’re someone who wants quality over quantity I’d say skip it. The food just isn’t good enough.
6/10