Brunch at the Siena Restaurant, The Meritage Resort, Napa, Ca.

My mother is a huge lover of brunch. Every time she visits, The Brit finds somewhere spectacular for us to enjoy. On this occasion, we went to Siena, the restaurant inside of the Meritage Resort.

The Brit picked the Meritage as they have an omelette station and that is one of my mother’s requirements for a satisfying brunch. It is also close to wineries for tastings afterwards. Do you see how that works? Not only was our brunch filled with bottomless mimosas, but we obviously needed a wine tasting afterwards.

The Meritage Resort is exactly what you would expect. A huge plush hotel complex with all of the amenities you’d expect. The wood and stone floors and cream and yellow colored walls give you the impression of opulence.

The restaurant is lovely except for one thing: The artwork. I know that sounds like a weird comment, but it is a very odd thing indeed.  All of the artwork in the restaurant is of horse racing. The horses are all being injured as they compete by falling, or tripping or missing jumps in the artwork. It’s absolutely horrifying. I honestly can’t believe that no one has complained. It really upset my mother. I mean really, who can relax and eat with that nightmare all around you. Yuck.

Thankfully, it was a beautiful day and they have an outside patio. It is a lovely serene space with a working fountain. There are umbrellas for shade if you don’t like the sun.

Our waiter was absolutely delightful. Talk about right on it! He even noticed my mother thought her coffee was too strong so brought her coffee with pots of water so she could dilute it.  He was my hero!

I have to say that I was extremely impressed with the food. Everything from the buffet was fresh and perfect. I don’t think I tasted anything I felt to be subpar. My only comment is that I felt that they didn’t quite attend the platters enough so they looked a bit empty and sloppy at times. I guess that happens at most buffets.

What is interesting is not only do they have the traditional buffet, but you also order an entree off the menu. Its a little over the top, but isn’t that what brunch is all about? (Make sure you wear your fat pants when you visit.) We each ordered a different entree so we could mix and match along with the buffet. There was a crazy amount of food on our table.

For our starters we all helped ourselves from the buffet to fruit, bagels and cream cheese, smoked salmon, cheeses and meats. It was a wonderful spread. I always want to try everything but my eyes are way bigger than my tummy (Even with my fat pants on.)

The Brit as always ordered French Toast and this meal was no different. My mother too always predictable ordered a made to order omelette as her main course. Our friend who was dining with us ordered eggs benedict, and I ordered the cinnamon roll pancakes.

When the main courses arrived I think we were all a bit overwhelmed. It all looked and smelled great.  Our hero waiter brought everything out perfectly together, all hot and fresh.

The Brit took the first bite. I can always tell when he’s happy with the dish as his facial expressions give him away. He never says much, he just gets a happy grin as he eats. I love to see that grin.  This time the grin was there in its full glory. I took a bite and it was indeed very good. The lightly battered and spiced bread had just about everything right. There were big notes of vanilla in each bite. There was both a berry coulis served with it along with pure maple syrup and extra butter. We tried it every single way and it was all great. I liked that they had a firm cook on the french toast so that it was still moist but not soggy.

My mother’s omelette too was great. Beautifully cooked, and fresh flavors. You can’t ask for more than that.

The eggs benedict were wonderful. The holandaise was the perfect amount of lemon, the eggs were cooked to perfection. Served with this plate were smashed roasted potatoes with a wonderful salt bite. The entire thing was delicious.

The final item was the cinnamon roll pancakes. I have to admit a guilty secret here. I had only ever seen these babies on Pintrest before ordering them that day. I had long dreamed of making them for breakfast, but The Brit doesn’t enjoy pancakes. He’d always rather have french toast.  This was my chance to wrap my lips around these discs of dreams. Let me just tell you now, they did not disappoint. I’ll start with the pancake flavor.

Without all of the fancy added, these were a perfectly cooked, buttermilk pancake with lots of fluff and flavor. They were exactly how they should be. Then you add the cinnamon sauce and the cream cheese glaze and well, lets just say that I had to restrain myself from a very loud shout of joy. (Think when Harry met Sally.) These were some of the best pancakes I have eaten (Its a toss up with 1313 Main’s version). Crazy good! I may need to sneak back there for breakfast by myself so I can order them again. You won’t tell on me will you?

As we had not committed enough gluttony at this point, then came dessert. Oh yes, we had to go there. This is one of my mother’s favorite parts of brunch. Bite sized desserts she can try and not feel too guilty about eating. She gets plates of the stuff and brings them for everyone to share. Who am I to say no? I try to be a dutiful daughter.

The desserts were good, but there wasn’t a single bite that I thought WOW, I need more of that. Maybe it was because I was about to bust the chair I was sitting in. I was really afraid they would have to roll me back to the car.

I managed to hike back to our car after all of that food feeling completely overstuffed. I couldn’t even manage a wafer thin mint. Honestly I wanted to go home and sleep it off but I am a real trooper and continued on wine tasting.

We had a wonderful meal and I thought for $38.00 per person it was a pretty good deal. Our only disappointment really was that the bottomless mimosas were an extra charge and not included in the price of brunch. Still, I would happily do it again.