The award list at Canal View reads like someone accidentally merged four different restaurants into one. Best Pancakes, Best Burger, Best Chicken Wings, Best Salad, Best Sandwiches, Best Lunch Spot, Best Breakfast, Best All-Around Restaurant — Gold in nearly every category, year after year. For a family restaurant on West Union Street in Newark, that is a remarkable sweep. But spend a morning or an afternoon here and you start to understand: this is a kitchen that refuses to phone anything in.

The burgers are now exclusively Certified Angus Beef — Canal View made the switch and promotes it proudly. The pancakes are the fluffy, golden, plate-spanning kind that justify a 7:00 AM alarm on vacation. The chicken wings have earned Gold two years running, which is unusual territory for a family restaurant. The breakfast menu runs from 7 AM daily (open until 8 PM Sunday through Thursday, 9 PM Friday and Saturday), and the kitchen handles the full range from morning eggs to evening dinners without the quality drop-off you might expect from a place trying to do everything.

Canal View is not a destination restaurant — Newark is not on most wine trail itineraries — and that is precisely what makes it special. This is where the locals eat, the place where the high school soccer team goes after games and where families celebrate birthdays without reservations. The prices are reasonable, the portions are generous, online ordering is available, and the operation runs with the kind of unpretentious consistency that earns a restaurant its neighborhood's trust. If you are driving through Wayne County, this is your stop.