Brunch at Mario's via Abruzzi

What a treat Dave and I had today. We've been sticking pretty close to our diets (well, we are calling it a lifestyle change because this new way of eating is not something we expect to abandon once we reach our goal weights) but we agreed right from the beginning that once in a while we were going to relax the rules and have a "food fling".

Today was a "food fling" day. Sometime during the week we started talking about going out for brunch. I think we were talking about what we could do for mom's birthday since it's so close to Thanksgiving this year and the thought of another big family dinner when there's still plenty of turkey day leftovers in the fridge just isn't very appealing. We had gone to Mario's for Dave's birthday and it was so wonderful we had agreed we should try their Sunday brunch someday.

We thought about taking mom out for brunch on her birthday but quickly dropped the idea since a brunch buffet just isn't someplace you take someone that can barely finish anything ordered (this isn't a criticism -- it's just the way it is with older people. They don't have huge appetites!) However, the seed had been planted and we started thinking about a trip to Mario's.

We have looked forward to this all week and just were hoping we wouldn't be disappointed. It's not cheap -- $21.95 per person -- but as we quickly found out, going to brunch at Mario's is worth every penny.

First, let's consider the beautiful surroundings. Mario's is elegant with its low-lighting ambiance, fresh flowers, and linens. This is not like going to the casino for their buffet!

Next -- who can not be thrilled to have mimosas (included in the price) with their brunch? What a treat. We both chose pineapple mimosas (we could have had any number of fruit juices) and they were delicious! We quickly decided that we'd be serving mimosas with Christmas brunch this year :)


And now let's talk about the food. Holy moly, what a spread. Chefs at the ready to make you a personalized omelette, belgium waffles, egg benedicto, carving stations which your choice of roast beef, lamb, or salmon. There were breakfasty things like bacon and sausage and lunchy things like chicken. I couldn't even begin to list the different salads and other delights to choose from.

And dessert. Since both Dave and I had already made 2 trips in to the buffet and filled our plates with everything that even remotely interested us, about the last thing we needed was dessert. But we sucked it up and headed back in. Wow -- a whole wall of different kinds of cheesecake, cookies, cannolis, and mini tiramisus. There were brownies and cream puffs and just about anything else that would satisfy a sweet tooth. Everything we tried was nothing short of wonderful.

I didn't mention the chocolate fountain! What fun to have all sorts of fresh cut fruit to dip under the flowing stream of chocolate. Delish!!

All in all it was simply a magical experience. We couldn't have hoped for anything more and we most certainly will go again. Dave is hoping for next weekend but I think it would lose it's thrill to return so soon. I think we'll wait for that birthday coupon that our server had us sign up for to visit again. Of course, I'm still stuffed (3 hours later) so I might feel differently come next Sunday!