Victoria Inn, Victoria PEI

Victoria Inn Dinner, Victoria PEI
(I have to write about something funny that just happened even though it’s not the right day—Asha needed her blanket from a fold up bed and she asked Rakesh several times to help but he was ignoring her so Asha said, “I need a big strong man to help me with this!” and Rakesh said, “Wow, that sounds like me in my glory days”. It was so funny.)
Okay, so back to Victoria Inn dinner.
When I made our reservations they suggested making a reservation in advance for one of two seatings: 6pm or 8pm. I selected 8pm because one never knows what troubles one might run into. But, we arrived in town by 6pm, after a manic trip to Charlottetown to see Harry Potter. Harry Potter was okay but not at all like the book (I did ilke it better than part 5 though).
We got the kids subway in Charlottetown (Victoria has three restaurants and a fries cart), settled them in the three room suite and we headed to the bar on the waterfront for a beer. This place had a hand lettered sign saying, “We regret that we cannot take credit cards due to circumstances beyond our control”. So we knew we had to pay for the beer with cash. The view was great but we sat inside because of the chilly wind. Ruthie’s is on the one dock in town and extends about a football field into the water. After our beers, we are running a bit late so we rush back to change and get ready for dinner.
The dining room is a small back room of the bed and breakfast with maybe 8 white tableclothed tables in a light green room with some very attractive paintings on the wall and wildflowers on the tables. It’s very peaceful and attractive and we are the only ones eating the entire night. This is becoming almost
We get on a first name basis with our waiter, Josh, and we talk about wine (he doesn’t know much about them), Salmon (he doesn’t eat it) and other topics upon which he doesn’t know much. But he does share with us that he is from the north part of the island which is all of 1.5 hours away and a whole nother world (as he says, just like northern and southern California, yeah, maybe). He’s a friendly guy who also happens to act as a puppet in the neighborhood theater which he encourages us to attend tomorrow. He does know where the food is from, however. Almost everything on the menu is from PEI or, at best, Nova Scotia or New Brunswick (except the wines which tend to be from Chile).
We order a smoked salmon appetizer on sweet potato cake with asian greens. It is excellent. I’m not a big Atlantic Salmon fan, but this stuff is wonderfully rich in flavor and it almost melts in your mouth. The asian greens are fantastic too. I could have eaten a meal of them. They were tossed in some kind of light vinaigrette dressing and quickly stir fried. We also ordered the greens salad with candied pecans and goat cheese. As usual, there was too much dressing on it but the greens were very fresh and the salad was great. Josh also brought some homemade bread to the table. I asked if they made it there and he said no, “The local potter makes it and he’s a better baker than a potter”. I asked him if he sold it at a local bakery and he said no but then went to the back and brought out a loaf and said he’d sell it to us for $5. We said, what the heck, we were bike riding the next day and wanted bread for sandwiches so we said, okay and did he have any jam? He had some homemade currant jelly which ended up being great. He also told us the butter is from local cows.
After all this chat, it was time for dinner. We ordered the last halibut and roasted chicken (which I almost never order, but it was local—I kept expecting to look out the window and see its brother or sister running around). The halibut was served with roasted potatoes and greens. The topping on the halibut was yummy but the halibut was a bit overcooked. The chicken was very good, tasty and flavorful with some black pepper and polenta (which wasn’t cooked very well but was okay) and the asian greens which were just as yummy. Dessert wasn’t very good which goes toward further proof for me that restaurants almost never make good desserts.
After making sure we wouldn’t keep Josh and Steven up if we hung out to finish our wine, we sat in the restaurant for a long time drinking our wine (which was a petite syrah from Australia).

(another example of Rakesh’s humor: he just said to Asha, “I love you like chicken on a bread stick”)