Cliffbreakers Riverside Resort & Restaurant

I have fond memories of the Sunday brunch and when my family decidied to take my mother and myself there for Mothers Day. Wow I couldnt wait...yet unfortunatley,  I was extremely disappointed.  We were seated at 10..thank goodness for reservations.  The place was very cold. The drinks took a little long to get, but we started for the food about 10:15...low and behold...it was already cold.  Not only did we have to pay $25.99 for each person, but champaign was not even included.  Not impressed....Could have cooked an entire meal for my family for $25.00 and been happy even doing the dishes!

I always wanted to use the word idiosyncratic in a sentence. This describes this hotel. I've been putting off this review for this reason. Rockford, IL can be sheer hell in the summer for heat and humidity. It was nice and icy in the rooms and hotel itself, and you're glad it is. Somehow it misses in the elevator. If anyone ever got stuck in it they'd walk out naked, it's that hot. You take the small elevator DOWN to the rooms. And it's something right out of the Shining. Long, spooky, and you never see anyone. Only the desk clerk is available to let you into a room where the key cards haven't worked since 2011. We got there about 8 on a Sunday night and no food was being served anywhere on site. But the lovely desk clerk saved us and set us up with ordering a pizza from Pinos. Great intro to Rockford. One of the draws is the view of Rock River, but you can't see it from your room, because of all the brush blocking it. You can see it from the restaurant. The whole place is very dark wood which adds to the mysterious atmosphere. It's a resort and a restaurant, the problem is the food crosses over from the banquet area to the restaurant in the quality of the meat and other things. Plan on getting a lot of unplanned exercise, there's a lot of running around here. They offer a free breakfast buffet. Once they rushed the bacon, and it was way undercooked. I like that they have available juices on tap. The food is ok, but it may be a better experience for Sunday brunch. The room itself is very cool, and fun to hang around. There were no seats and I joined man finishing up. If you want an ice breaker, tell a stranger about Yelp and that you are a Yelper. I'm not crazy about the bath products in the room so either bring your own or stop at the health food store up the road for some quality stuff. In spite of all this, I'd stay here again. As I was having breakfast, and actually enjoying the surroundings, I was thinking about the show Bar Rescue, and it just needs a good intervention. It's about halfway to Chicago, and we were here on church business. I can't help but compare our trips here and Fargo a month earlier. Fargo seems to have something to prove to the twin cities, and does it very well. Rockford has nothing to prove to Chicago or its surrounding burbs, kudos for that.

It's not often that I'm up in time for brunch on a Sunday, but for special occasions I can be willing to make the necessary sleep sacrifices.

Now, this past Sunday I found myself attending one of these very heartfelt special occasions in the pretty far out city-state of Rockford, Il. The time was 11:30am, the heat index was 103,  and I was ready to get my grub on via Cliffbreakers Sunday champagne brunch buffet while wearing the absolute tightest skirt I own and holding tiny fragments of hope that it would have enough elasticity to stay breathable yet still keep me sucked in like a pump, snappy sausage.

Ahhh, Sunday.

With multiple balconies overlooking the cutest 'squirrel hotel', a small sandy beach and the ever-green Rock River, I'd reckon there's no place I'd rather spend my Sunday afternoon than at Cliffbreakers with a mighty fine gathering of both friends and family and a butt-load of champagne.

As far as buffets go, I've never been a big fan with the exception of Vegas buffets, which everyone knows are the bomb diggity. BUT, I was quite pleased with my festive feasting options at Cliffbreakers Sunday brunch buffet. It wasn't a terribly huge selection, certainly not comparable to Las Vegas, but everything I had was notably exceptional. Now, take into account that I don't eat meat so I can't really comment on the 'yay or nay' end of that, but the light and fluffly build-your-own omelettes (mine with garlic, mushroom and black olive) were so good I was tempted to go back for a second along with the truly outstanding bread pudding, and eggplant rolls that were something I was going to skip over until I'd heard the rest of the group raving (and for good reason) about. I'm pretty sure I had two full plates of those buttery, spiced green beans. For my latter plates I got a little creative and mixed their French toast with some of the toppings from their ice cream sundae bar and added both chocolate syrup and caramel fudge with coconut flakes. Viola! A masterpiece... that I'm going to take full credit for. Again, I wouldn't call it Vegas, but my belly certainly felt like a winner.

I wouldn't be surprised if I found myself awake before noon on another Sunday for a second showing at Cliffbreaker's champagne brunch. Viva Rock-Vegas!