Sooke Harbour House
1528 Whiffen Spit Road
Sooke, British Columbia, Canada
250-642-3421
This review is long overdue and because of that I’m afraid my memory won’t hold up to the complexity of the dishes we had while at Sooke. I’m not saying we didn’t have fabulous and memorable meals by any means though. The meal was shortly before the birth of the FoodPorn reviews though so we didn’t take notes. We stayed for two nights in August and had dinner in the restaurant both nights.
First of all, the property is stunning. Most of the area surrounding the Inn is garden and you can walk around the paths and preview what will be on the menu that evening. In addition to all the fresh herbs, vegetables and fruits, the proprietors of the establishment and their connections will go diving and fishing in the harbor and bring in that day’s seafood entrees and appetizers.
We sampled the menu as much as our stomachs would allow. I am a tomato-aholic and since we were there in the summer, I had to order the tomato salad. It was simple, just a little olive oil and balsamic, but there was a thinly sliced item in the middle of the plate that I thought was cucumber…what a shock that was, but I wasn’t entirely off base…it was geoduck, a clam creature. It wasn’t my favorite flavor, it had that wharf-like taste, but it added to the experience! They’d just brought it in that morning after diving so what the heck?! We had been debating over whether we should get the tomatoes on the first night or wait until the second; luckily we got them the first night because they were no longer on the menu the next day! There wasn’t a single duplication of any dish!
Every dish was described on the menu with about 15 different ingredients. Hopefully I’ll be able to track down the menu that we brought home and fill in some blanks.
The first night we started with oysters, 3 varieties. One of which was a HUGE variety that was really too much oyster for one bite! But all of them were full of slimy goodness.
Our main dish was a Sablefish. I’d never had Sablefish before that night but it really is one of my favorites now. It’s buttery (also referred to as Butter Fish for good reason) and it was cooked perfectly.
The sommelier and co-owner of the establishment, Sinclair Philip, gave us a sample of what apparently began as a Balsamic starter, Venturi Shultz No. 3. For a B.C. wine, it was quite tasty! It was somewhat like a port but unlike anything I’ve ever had before or since: dried fruit flavors, caramel.
We ended the evening with an assortment of sorbets that we enjoyed by the fire in a nice plush couch.
This isn’t a cheap place to stay or eat but I highly recommend experiencing Sooke at least once. If you stay in the B&B you get a brown-bag lunch for your afternoon hike (or whatever you choose to do) and I guarantee that it will be the best sack lunch you ever have in your life! Breakfast is brought to your room with homemade granola, jams, honeys and teas. Fresh flowers are put in the room every day and the soaps and lotions are all natural and smell fantastic. It’s a great place to stay and the more you’re there, the more good food you’ll get to eat! If you can’t afford to stay in the inn for more than one night, there are plenty of B&Bs within walking distance that are much less expensive so you’ll have more money left over to eat!