Best Sunday Brunch
Canyon Café
Loews Ventana Canyon Resort
7000 N. Resort Drive
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.
READERS' POLL RUNNER-UP: El Conquistador Resort, 10000
N. Resort Drive, and Doubletree Hotel, 445 S. Alvernon
Way.
