LAVO Italian Restaurant

FOOD

LAVO’s Endless Italian Brunch is built as a broad à la carte all-you-can-eat menu rather than a single breakfast-focused list. The range moves from raw seafood and salads through eggs, waffles and pancakes, then into pizza, pasta and Italian-American house specialties. Because the dishes are served at restaurant scale, the most useful way to read the menu is as a sharing menu: a table can move between categories without committing an entire appetite to one plate.

The lightest opening choices come from the raw bar and salads. Oysters are included, with a limit of 24 per order per table, and can be supplemented with caviar for an additional charge. Tuna tartare combines yellowfin tuna, avocado, crispy garlic and black olive dressing, while salmon crudo brings fennel and an orange-chili vinaigrette. Verde salad with cucumber, avocado and Marcona almond, baby beets with goat cheese and Sicilian pistachio vinaigrette, and a classic Caesar provide useful breaks between richer dishes.

Breakfast dishes carry more personality than a standard eggs-and-bacon brunch. Anson Mills polenta blueberry pancakes arrive with Harry’s Berries compote and maple sabayon. Dubai chocolate French toast uses soaked brioche and pistachio cream, while sheep’s-milk ricotta waffles pair chocolate and hazelnut with caramelized banana and acacia honey. Eggs Benedict layers porchetta onto tomato focaccia with cherry-pepper relish and Vermentino hollandaise. Bacon, egg and cheese risotto pulls familiar breakfast flavors into a creamy Italian form, with lobster available as an add-on.

The crossover between brunch and LAVO’s regular Italian identity becomes especially clear with pizza. Breakfast pizza fritti combines bacon-’nduja jam, scrambled eggs, Parmigiano-Reggiano and crispy onions. Black truffle pizza uses wild mushrooms, oregano and black truffle pecorino; Margherita and spicy Calabrese offer more straightforward alternatives. These are substantial orders, so one pizza can quickly become a shared course rather than a side experiment.

Pasta extends the meal firmly into lunch territory. Penne alla vodka combines onions, prosciutto and light cream sauce; pappardelle veal Bolognese brings cream, veal and Parmigiano-Reggiano; reginette chicken Alfredo and spaghetti with tomato and basil round out the included pasta choices. The point is not simply that pasta is available at brunch, but that a table can move from pancakes and Benedicts into a full Italian meal without leaving the endless format.

LAVO’s signature one-pound Meatball is available for a modest supplement, combining Imperial Wagyu, Italian sausage and veal with marinara and whipped ricotta. Steak-and-eggs upgrades range from filet mignon and New York strip to a tableside dry-aged tomahawk. Those additions are optional rather than necessary; the standard $65 menu already carries enough seafood, breakfast dishes, pizza and pasta to make the unlimited premise substantial.

Dessert returns the experience to movement. A rolling dessert cart supplies cakes and pastries, while the newer panettone presentation turns the tall Italian bread into a deconstructed tiramisu with espresso, mascarpone and chocolate. Cannoli service has also circulated through the room, filled as they are handed out. After several full-size savory rounds, these mobile sweets make a fitting finish: the table can stop ordering, but the brunch is still capable of finding its way back to you.