Best Sunday Brunch
Canyon Café
READERS' PICK: Just about anything could be served near the waterfall and scarp-face of the granite mountain walls and that view alone might be enough to make this the site of the best Sunday brunch spot around. But what is served at Loews Ventana Canyon Resort's Canyon Café brunch each Sunday may well be the reason brunch buffets were invented in the first place. The food here is of an abundant variety, extraordinary taste and wonderful quality. You could start with bread and cheese, and finish here as well with fresh pineapple, grapes, kiwi, all perfect and abundantly colorful. And the cheeses are of equal variety and might include warmed, almond-topped brie, a sharper ripe camembert, creamy Cheshire, or an aromatic Morbier. An array of fresh seafoods is found in a salad, dressed with light vinaigrette with fresh clams, green-lipped mussels and shrimp. Be tempted with a variety of patés including foie gras, vegetable terrine, or a rich, coarse-textured country paté. For color on your plate, add some red or American black sturgeon caviar. Be sure not to miss the carvings of prime rib, or the entrée specials that might include blackened catfish filets, squab breast with wild mushrooms, roast tenderloin of pork with an adobo sauce and vegetables like asparagus tips with pearl onions, baby squash with a confetti green, yellow and red peppers. Then go for the desserts, like plum tart, chocolate velvet cake, custardy flan and a wide assortment of petit fours, chocolate-covered strawberries, a chocolate cup holding velvety chocolate mousse or a miniature box made of chocolate holding raspberries and blackberries and a single mandarin orange slice. Sit between bites and enjoy the mountain before you.
Loews Ventana Canyon Resort
7000 N. Resort DriveREADERS' POLL RUNNER-UP: El Conquistador Resort, 10000 N. Resort Drive, and Doubletree Hotel, 445 S. Alvernon Way.
