Wayside Inn - Gastropub Food

Lately, I like simple food much more than complicated fancy food. When I read Agnes' post about Wayside Inn, I knew I had to go try it out. I was looking forward to trying out the Seafood Platter, but my friend that I went with doesn't like most types of seafood besides fish. So instead we ordered a few items from the menu.

We decided on three entrees and one mains to share, with some sides of salad and chips. For the entrees, we ordered the Smoked salmon with blinis, Yellowfin tuna with apples and verjuice and the Octopus with chorizo, olive oil and Pedro Ximenez. The two fish dishes were nice but not as good as I expected. The smoked salmon was good but wasn't as exciting as I had expected. The octopus with chorizo was really to my liking though. I love octopus and since I see it so rarely on menus, I always order it whenever it's available. It paired nicely with the chorizo and was given a nice flavour with the Pedro Ximinez.

For the mains, I couldn't go past the Suckling Pig. The pig was so delicious, with soft meat and crispy crackling. I'd definitely recommend ordering it.

For dessert, we were both really full so just had a Canele each. It was a lemon canele, which I've never tried before. I'm not a big fan of lemon desserts but this one blew me away. The canele was excellent and the hint of lemon really worked.

The food here was very good but I didn't feel very comfortable in the restaurant. The staff were friendly but it was the layout and lighting of the restaurant that I disliked. The layout of the tables are quite weird so that that they feel rather isolated and the room didn't feel comfortable. The lighting is also super dark, which I really hate in any restaurant.

I do like the food here and would go back for more, but the room was very uncomfortable for me at night time so I'd probably go for lunch. Price wise, the food is sitting at the higher end of pub food and would sit in the "gastropub" category and be around the $50 upwards mark for a whole meal. There are a number of choices in this price range and I think Wayside Inn is one of the better ones worth trying out.

Overall Rating: 13/20, .

Scores: 1-9: Unacceptable, don't bother. 10-11: Just OK,some shortcomings. 12: Fair. 13: Getting there. 14: Recommended. 15: Good. 16: Really good. 17: Truly excellent. 18: An outstanding experience. 19-20:Approaching perfection, Victoria's best.