Tree House Cafe - Salt Spring Island

In the middle of Ganges on Salt Spring Island there is this unique restaurant that makes you feel like you're eating in a tree house. It's appropriately called the Tree House Cafe. This place is more or less an outdoor restaurant (only open in summer), with wooden tables, wooden floors, and roof built around this big, tall, beautiful tree. The tree itself stands right smack in the middle of the restaurant.

The food itself is full of local goods, with an emphasis on vegetarian. Of course we didn't order anything vegetarian!

We arrived and sat at a table. Of course the service was slow, because the restaurant was full, but it was relaxing sitting there. We observed some sparrows going after some crumbs on the floor. They were pretty loud and cute. Unfortunately one of them left me a souvenir on my bag.

No fries here. Their burgers come with a choice of salad. I ordered the lamb burger with mango chutney and goat cheese with a Caesar salad. I was a bit apprehensive ordering lamb because of the lamb cheek experience at the Faux Bourgeois, but we were in Salt Spring, and the lamb was local, so I had to order this. It turned out to be oh-so-delicious. The burger was thick, juicy and extremely flavourful - I could taste that it had just come off the grill. The mango chutney was a good accompaniment, but the best part was the goat cheese. It goes so well with the lamb and mango, and it was gooey and rich, and brought the burger to the heights of heaven. One of the best burgers I've had. The salad was not that great though, wilted and overdressed.

Shane got the local beef burger with cheddar and bacon, with spinach salad. The salad was nothing to write home about (but at least the bland dressing was on the side). The burger was again tremendous. Thick, juicy, well seasoned, and the bacon was perfectly cooked. It was delicious. I thought it was one of the best burgers (again!), but surprisingly Shane said he preferred the one at Jimmy's. I don't get that.

Overall the restaurant exceeded my expectations. I was kind of sick of burgers and sandwiches before this place, but Tree House has definitely renewed my faith.

Salt Spring Inn

While we were on Salt Spring Island, we dined at a couple of restuarants. We visited Salt Spring Inn in the early afternoon, just after our ferry arrived to the island. I'd wanted to go there because their breakfast/brunch menu looked great, but unfortunately we were a few minutes late for brunch, so we had to settle for lunch items.

We sat on the nice shady patio in front of the restaurant. It was really pleasant.

Shane ordered the Pender Island Porter, which is not available in stores. It's a tremendously dark beer (the server even warned us about it, saying not many people like this), but it was up Shane's alley. It was dark, rich, complex, but not too bitter. I even liked the first sip of this.

I didn't feel like anything heavy (kind of unsual), so I ordered the pear, candied pecan, cranberry and Salt Spring goat cheese salad. This was delicious. The pear was crisp and sweet, and went really well with the delicious and creamy local cheese. Normally I don't like sweet stuff on my salad, but even the pecans and cranberries went well with the lemon dressing. The dressing was fresh and lemony, without a hint of sweetness. It was great.

Shane ordered the Inn's version of the clubhouse, with chicken, bacon, tomato, and lettuce. I'm particular about clubhouses, and this didn't make it. Eventhough it's a lot of bread, I like the triple stacker, and classic turkey. Shane thought this was merely ok--there wasn't a lot of chicken, and it just tasted average. The fries were also just okay. They stuck together, and weren't that crispy--some fries were even soggy.

We had a bit of an adjustment at this restaurant. It's definitely island service here, on island time. It took them about 10 minutes to bring us water and the menus, and everything was super slow. But I hear this is typical of the restaurants here.