FOOD

The brunch is built around deliberate excess, but the spread is more focused than sprawling. Its strongest move is putting premium savory food beside familiar breakfast comfort, then letting the buffet erase the normal boundaries between courses. Snow crab legs can be the first plate or the third. Steak can follow avocado toast. French toast can appear before anything that resembles lunch. That freedom is the point.

Snow crab legs are the clearest statement of intent. They come with drawn butter and remoulade and are offered without a one-pass premium limit. The beef centerpiece is Gaucho Steak: a five-ounce skirt steak dressed with chimichurri, cilantro and onion, with eggs and fried potatoes available alongside it. It gives the buffet a real steak-and-eggs axis without turning brunch into a carving-station exercise.

From there, the food moves into a broad band of savory brunch comfort. Shrimp and grits pair shrimp with white-cheddar grits and green onion. Chicken and waffles brings fried chicken against the waffle’s sweetness, while biscuits and gravy stays firmly traditional. Jerk chicken with yellow rice and peas pulls the selection in a different direction, and mac and cheese provides the kind of rich, familiar pause that makes sense between more assertive plates.

Breakfast tacos are another useful bridge between breakfast and lunch. There is a chorizo-potato version with eggs, queso fresco and salsa verde, plus a mushroom-and-egg version with queso fresco, cilantro, onion and salsa dojo. Around those larger specialties are the components that let a plate become more classically breakfast-minded: scrambled eggs, fried eggs, breakfast potatoes, sausage links, white-cheddar grits and Bodega Bacon, applewood-smoked and glazed with brown sugar.

The lighter side keeps the first trip from having to begin with heavy food. Avocado toast points come with heirloom tomato and micro cilantro. An everything-bagel spread pairs bagel chips with smoked-salmon mousse, cream cheese and green onion. Deviled eggs and a truffle Caesar offer smaller savory starts. They matter because the premium foods can otherwise pull the meal immediately toward maximalism; these are the plates that make pacing possible.

Dessert is where Santiago’s brunch becomes especially hard to treat as an ordinary breakfast. Croissant French toast is paired with apricot-pecan cream cheese and remains one of the brunch’s signature sweet ideas. Toffee cake arrives with caramel sauce, toffee crumbles and vanilla ice cream. Chocolate-salted-caramel-filled mini donuts push the same indulgent direction, while biscuits with wildflower honey, fruit-and-granola parfait and vanilla ice cream offer simpler ways to finish.

The beverage program is woven into the price rather than treated as a separate upgrade. Mimosas and sangria are bottomless during the two-hour brunch, and zero-proof sangria, Julius Meinl coffee and juices are also included. That changes the economics and the rhythm of the meal: $49.95 buys the buffet, the premium anchors and the drinks as one package. For anyone approaching Santiago’s as an unlimited-dining experience, that complete bundle is what makes the brunch feel less like a breakfast buffet and more like a compact weekend occasion.