The Rooftop at the Broadview Hotel sits on top of the restored 1891 Broadview building at 106 Broadview Avenue, on the east-side corner of Queen and Broadview in Riverside. The Rooftop Guide ranks it among the city's best for views, and the draw is the wall of glass that frames the downtown skyline to the west and the Don River valley to the east.
Who would love it: couples and out-of-town visitors who want a designed room with a real view rather than a generic hotel bar. Who would hate it: anyone chasing a cheap pint, because this is an upper-range cocktail room and the patio fills on warm evenings.
The space splits between an enclosed lounge under a vaulted glass roof and an open terrace that wraps the building. The interiors carry the Gladstone-era restoration that put the Broadview back on the map in 2017, with brass, dark wood, and tall arched windows. The terrace is walk-in only, so the indoor lounge is the seat to book.
What to order: a seasonal cocktail from the rotating list, a glass from the short wine selection, or a local Ontario draft. The kitchen runs a snack menu built for the bar rather than a full dinner. Happy hour runs Monday to Friday from 3:30 to 5:30, the value window before the after-work crowd arrives.
Best time to go is the hour before sunset on a weekday, when the light drops across the valley and the room is calm. Weekend afternoons bring a louder terrace crowd; after 9:30pm the floor turns walk-in only and the pace picks up.
It is the anchor of any east-end rooftop plan near Queen East. See how it stacks up in our guide to the best rooftop bars in Toronto, and browse more Toronto rooftop bars.
The Broadview itself is the back story. The 1891 Romanesque building spent years as a rough single-room hotel before a 2017 restoration turned it into a boutique property, and the rooftop became the room people climbed up to see. The Rooftop Guide credits the glass enclosure for making it a year-round seat rather than a summer-only patio.
Regulars and review sites flag the same trade-off. The views and the design land, but tables turn over fast on weekend nights and the terrace runs walk-in only, so a Friday at 8pm can mean a wait at the host stand. Reviewers on OpenTable point to weeknights and the late-afternoon happy hour as the calmer windows.
Getting there is simple. The 504 and 505 streetcars stop at Queen and Broadview right below, and Broadview station on Line 2 is a short ride north. That puts the rooftop within reach of a Riverside or Leslieville dinner before the climb up for a nightcap.
Reservations are worth making for the indoor lounge, especially in winter when the glass room is the whole point. The patio stays first come, first served, which rewards an early arrival on a clear evening.
The kitchen keeps the food deliberately light so the room stays a drinking space first. Expect shareable bites and a short list of plates rather than a full dinner service, which suits the way most people use the rooftop, for a drink and a view before or after eating somewhere else in Riverside. The neighbourhood below has become one of the east end's strongest restaurant strips, so the rooftop slots neatly into a longer evening on the Queen East side of the Don.
Who it's for
- A date that needs a view without a downtown markup
- An out-of-town visitor seeing the skyline for the first time
- Skip it if you want a quiet cheap pint
Sources: The Rooftop Guide; The Broadview Hotel official site (2026); OpenTable reviews; Destination Toronto
