Last night we had a second chance to have dinner at the Sooke Harbour House in Sooke BC, after our reservation spaceout last week. The above photo is the view from our dinner table (!!!) looking across the Strait of Juan de Fuca over at the tip of the Olympic Peninsula. (Our table came with binoculars…nice touch!)
This is the dining room looking back from the window view:
We ordered the four course tasting menu with wine pairings, and ordered two different things from each section, so we got to try quite a few dishes. The presentation of each dish was beautiful, and the light from the window on my left made for some pretty nice photos.
First courses
Black Pearl Oysters (on the half shell with begonia, radish, and verjus):
Morel Mushroom and Kombu Broth (morels, heirloom cherry tomatoes, radish and english peas):
Second courses
Steamed Smoked Sablefish (green beans, potato, candied hazelnut, pickled beets and beet gel, potato & sorrel vinaigrette) — this may have been my favorite dish:
Duck Leg & Smoked Breast (plums, walnuts, watercress, wild rice & popcorn, honey mustard and fig leaf ice cream):
Main courses
Seared Sockeye Salmon (beans, summer squash, tomato, Vernena roseti, lomon thyme soubise, basil emulsion, pursalane):
Grilled Lamb Sirloin (farro and blue cheese, kale, pink turnip, beets, hay oil, savory lamb jus and peas):
We opted for a local cheese plate as one of our desserts…
…and a chocolate something or other for our second dessert (that's an Earl Gray truffle there in the middle). The great light was starting to decline for these last couple images:
The bonus dessert (this was a cakey bit with a custard-like thing on top, with maybe bergamot, then some chocolate):
I didn't get a copy of the dessert menu so I'm less clear on what all these were (some of the servers that were not our main server didn't explain things too well). The desserts were good, but I'm not a huge dessert fan, so I thought the cheese plate was the best. Also, it was paired with a local dessert wine from Venturi Schulze vineyards, called Brandenburg No. 3 that was delicious. (I think all of the wine pairings were from the Okanagan area/local.)
The meal was good and the view was lovely. We're glad we got to do this!
We have friends and family that have sailboats. It is true! They are a lot like air streaming and just as much fun to personalize. We love the “camping” on the water. Pros and cons to both. You are living our dream. I love that you got a trawler. They are so quaint!
I know we’re going to enjoy it! The trawler really seemed to fit…we’ve both sailed a lot, and our little Hobie is great for a fun (albeit extremely WET) sail when we want that kind of action. In the PNW the trawler seems just about perfect for multi-day (and multi-month!) cruising.