The Omni Hotel downtown is offering a Jazz Brunch at its Grand Café on Sundays 10 AM – 3 pm.
They say you eat with your eyes as much as with your mouth, and that is part of the allure of buffets, and this bountiful Omni brunch spread certainly accomplished that.
For starters, there is large platter of assorted cheeses. A Greek yogurt parfait topped with fruit and granola was one of my favorites. The yogurt was so creamy, I was sure it had added cream, but the server assured me it didn’t.
Time to move on to fruit and vegetable salads.
Now come hot chafing dishes of your traditional breakfast items: bacon, sausages, scrambled eggs with roast potatoes, and egg white frittata, and French toast. You could also ask the chef to make you a fresh custom omelette.
The star of the buffet is a platter of chilled seafood that included peeled shrimp, fresh oysters, crab legs, and lox, all set up in a show stopping – or rather line stopping presentation.
And if that much seafood wasn’t enough, there was also another platter of grilled seafood that also included crawfish with corn and potatoes. Had I eaten crawfish before, I wondered. Hmm, couldn’t recall, so if I had, it must have been quite a while ago.
Now, it was time to move on to more substantial entrees. There was southern fried chicken with biscuits and gravy. There was also salmon, and another station with sliced prime rib and roast vegetables.
For the finishing touch, to fill up any nooks and crannies still remaining in your appetite, there were trays of an extensive assortment of desserts, and to wash it all down were drinks, including a mimosa flight of orange, pineapple, or cranberry. And of course, there was coffee and tea brought to you by attentive servers.
When we visited, Los Angeles was under a record heat spell that weekend, and the brunch had been temporarily moved from its usual Grand Station restaurant to its sister restaurant Noe, also at the Omni.
On a cooler day I would have definitely used the venue to put in a few more steps towards my daily quota walking around the Plaza, and also work off some of the calories that were probably outside the daily quota. I would have definitely ventured down a level below to the beautiful outdoor stage venue with its fountain backdrop that is home to Grand Performances, the free outdoor summer concert series. It never fails to bring back fond memories of some of the spectacular past performances there.
Or, I could have made a fuller day out of it by continuing on to the adjacent Museum of Contemporary Art, the Central Library, or The Broad or Walt Disney Concert Hall, all within walking distance.
But on this hottest day of the season in the city, it was just nice to be able to get out and spend a few hours just staying inside keeping cool, not doing anything more strenuous than sipping on the mimosa, looking out onto the outdoor patio and its sculptures beyond.
For more information on the hotels, its restaurants and offerings, please visit https://www.omnihotels.com/hotels/los-angeles-california-plaza/dining
