Buddy V’s Ristorante

FOOD

Buddy V’s Sunday brunch is an Italian-American buffet first and a breakfast buffet second. The food program keeps the restaurant’s red-sauce personality intact, then folds eggs, bacon, pancakes and other morning staples around it. A plate can move from shrimp cocktail to orecchiette to chicken parm without the brunch dissolving into a standard hotel spread.

The cold side is the cleanest place to begin. Caesar and Toscano salads sit with shrimp cocktail, smoked salmon, artichoke salad, pasta salad, deviled eggs, potato salad and tomato soup. Salumi and cheese, marinated olives, pickled vegetables and fruit make it possible to build a restrained antipasto plate before the heavier food arrives. It is a useful opening because most of what follows is richer, warmer and more firmly rooted in Italian-American comfort food.

The chef’s table mixes breakfast with dishes that could just as easily appear at lunch. Scrambled eggs, roasted potato hash, applewood bacon and Italian sausage cover the expected side of brunch, while a Sunday frittata, sausage-and-broccolini orecchiette, porchetta sliders and roasted mushroom-and-truffle pizza pull the meal toward Buddy V’s regular identity. A spicy fig-and-capicola panini adds another small, savory stop before the carving station.

At the carving station, Dijon-glazed ham shares the board with chili-garlic marinated New York steak, chicken Gouda sausage and cherry-smoked stacked beef. Chimichurri, horseradish crema, honey Dijon and bacon jam give those meats several ways onto the plate. This is where the buffet can turn from brunch into a full Sunday dinner, particularly once the beef and ham are paired with potatoes or one of the pasta dishes.

The most recognizable Buddy V’s foods come next: chicken parm, meatballs, mac n’ cheese carbonara and Hoboken wings. These are not side attractions to the breakfast menu; they are the clearest reminder that the buffet belongs to an Italian-American restaurant. The chicken parm brings breaded chicken, tomato and cheese, while the meatballs and carbonara-style macaroni push the plate toward the heavy, comforting food that makes small portions useful if more stations are still ahead.

A separate made-to-order choice adds a fresh course to the buffet. Each guest may select one item per person from four omelettes or two griddle options. The Jersey Boy combines ham, sausage, peperonata, cheddar and mozzarella; Fredo’s Kiss goes richer with ham, mozzarella, parmesan and truffle Alfredo. On the sweet side, ciabatta French toast comes with toasted almonds and mascarpone cream, while lemon-blueberry pancakes arrive with whipped butter and maple syrup. Because these are prepared for the table, they work naturally as their own course rather than another item to stack onto an already crowded plate.

Dessert is where the restaurant’s Cake Boss lineage becomes impossible to miss. The sweet table includes berry cheesecake, cannoli, tiramisu, mini apple pie, pecan tart, Italian doughnuts, confetti Bundt cake, chocolate-covered strawberries, croissants and pastries. Cannoli and tiramisu keep the ending connected to the restaurant’s Italian-American theme; the cheesecake, cake and chocolate-covered fruit widen the field into a bakery-style finish. After several buffet trips and a made-to-order plate, the dessert table still gives the meal a distinct final destination rather than simply another row of sweets.