Safta Denver Breakfast Buffet Review: Is It Worth It?

I've walked past Safta more times than I can count, and it's one of those spots that always has a line or a wait, which usually means something's going right. When I heard they had a breakfast buffet — and not just any buffet, but apparently one of the longest ones in the city — I had to go check it out myself. The fact that the kitchen runs under Chef Alon Shaya, a two-time James Beard Award winner, made it feel worth prioritizing. Israeli and Mediterranean food for brunch isn't exactly the obvious move in Denver, but Safta has built a real reputation here, and I wanted to see if the buffet format held up to that standard.

The Setup

Safta sits in the RiNo area and has become one of those spots that locals actually talk about with some consistency. Not just "oh yeah it's good" consistency — more like "have you been to Safta yet?" every time brunch comes up in conversation. The buffet format is interesting for a restaurant at this level. Usually when a place has serious culinary credentials, they're not putting food in chafing dishes and letting it sit. So I was curious whether Safta managed to make that work or whether the buffet was kind of a compromise on what they normally do well.

What's On the Spread

The buffet leans into the Israeli and Mediterranean angle in a way that actually makes it stand out from the typical Denver brunch situation. You're not just looking at scrambled eggs and bacon here — the spread pulls in the kind of flavors and dishes you'd expect from a kitchen that knows its way around that part of the world. That's what makes it genuinely interesting. There's enough variety that it's easy to go back a couple of times and try different combinations, which is really what you want from a buffet at this price point.

The length of the buffet is real, by the way. It's not just a marketing thing. The selection is substantial enough that it takes a minute to actually walk it before you decide what you want on your plate. For a brunch buffet in Denver, that's not always the case.

What Works and What Doesn't

What works is the food itself. Shaya's background comes through in the flavors, and even in a buffet format, there's a care to what's being served that you don't always get at comparable spots. The Israeli and Mediterranean angle gives the whole thing a cohesion — it doesn't feel like a random collection of brunch items thrown together. Everything connects to a point of view, which is rare.

The potential downside of any buffet, including this one, is the timing. If you hit it early when things are fresh, it's a different experience than rolling in late when the spread has been sitting. That's true of any buffet anywhere, but it's worth keeping in mind here because the food is good enough that it deserves to be caught at its best. I'd also say the atmosphere and reputation of Safta bring a certain expectation walking in, and the buffet format might feel a little more casual than some people expect given how the restaurant is talked about.

The Bottom Line

Safta has earned its spot in the Denver food conversation, and the breakfast buffet is a legitimate reason to go. If you haven't been yet or you've only done dinner, the brunch buffet is a pretty solid way to experience what the kitchen does without committing to a single dish. For a two-time James Beard Award-winning chef's restaurant to run a buffet that actually holds up — that's not nothing. It's become a modern staple of the Denver food scene for real reasons, and the buffet fits into that story more than I expected it to.

If you're in the RiNo area on a weekend morning and you're up for something a little different than your standard Denver brunch, Safta is worth the stop. Don't sleep on walking the whole buffet before you plate anything — the full length of it is part of what makes it worth going.