La Hacienda at Mission Resort + Club

FOOD

La Hacienda gives breakfast proper attention, then broadens the meal for Sunday Champagne Brunch. The full breakfast buffet is available on select days, with hot morning foods and a cooking station. Sunday adds seafood, rotating carved meats, fish and poultry, and a larger dessert selection. Selections vary, including the Sunday dishes described here.

Made-to-order omelets, pancakes and Belgian waffles anchor the full breakfast. La Hacienda’s pancakes are homemade, and the cooking station puts those sweet choices alongside eggs prepared to order. Sunday keeps all three station specialties when the entrées arrive. The omelet devotee hasn’t been forgotten in the excitement over roast beef. Quite right, too.

Among the hot foods, applewood-smoked bacon and special-recipe link sausage are the breakfast meats to notice. Corned beef hash, biscuits and gravy and Southern-style grits give the full buffet a hearty Southern streak, with breakfast potatoes also included. Biscuits and gravy appear at Sunday brunch, too.

Seasonal fruit, breakfast breads, pastries and cereals complete the morning spread. Those foods are also the basis of the smaller express continental buffet, a separate option that leaves out the full hot line and cooking station. Fruit juices and a choice of coffee, tea or milk accompany breakfast. It’s worth knowing which buffet you’re choosing when your plans involve bacon and biscuits.

Sunday’s smoked salmon gets a presentation with a little personality: slices arranged across a carved wooden fish platter, surrounded by greens, with bowls of capers and finely chopped red onion alongside. It’s one of brunch’s defining seafood choices, and the display gives it attention of its own. A fish-shaped platter for the fish itself. A little flourish, and quite at home at a resort brunch.

Peel-and-eat shrimp extends the Sunday seafood selection, while deviled eggs and assorted cheeses have been known additions to the spread’s cold savory dishes. A salad bar adds another substantial part of brunch, with yogurt and fruit continuing the morning offerings. The cold foods hold their own alongside the hot entrées.

At the carving station, two selections rotate through Sunday brunch. Roast beef with horseradish cream and ham with mustard sauce are examples, giving the meats their own accompaniments. With the ham, mustard sauce supplies a little kick. The beef-and-horseradish pairing is a particularly appealing reason to pay attention to the carving station. Fish and poultry of the week extend the entrée selection, with pasta and vegetables alongside. Sunday reaches comfortably into a full midday meal.

Cakes, custards, pastries and pies carry brunch into dessert, a more substantial sweet finish than breakfast’s bakery selection. A waffle at the beginning and pie at the end is quite a persuasive argument for brunch.

Included bottomless Champagne and mimosas finish the Sunday picture. Orange and cranberry versions of the mimosa have accompanied the meal, adding a choice to the celebratory glass. Coffee and iced tea are included, too.