Queenston Heights Restaurant

Queenston Heights Restaurant keeps a single service on its calendar these days — Sunday brunch, eleven to two — and treats that one window as the whole event rather than a routine stop. The dining room sits above the Niagara River Parkway inside Queenston Heights Park, where the escarpment falls away toward the water and the view earns as much attention as the plate. People come for the morning and stay for the afternoon: a reservation, a drive out along the parkway, brunch by the windows, and a walk through the park on either side of the meal.

The brunch runs as a buffet, and the smart way through it starts classic. Eggs Benedict arrives under hollandaise, French toast comes with assorted fruit, and there are Belgian waffles and individual quiche for the breakfast side of the table. The savoury run goes further than morning food usually does — roasted herb chicken, a seasonal fish, a marinated seafood medley, a chef's pasta, and a Canadian cheese platter. Plates are refreshed through the late morning, so a slow second lap costs nothing but appetite. Mimosas open the meal for the groups treating it as a celebration. Dessert is its own display of pies, brownies, tarts, and bread pudding, and the last pass through it is where the meal is meant to finish.