Sooke Harbour House

Sooke Harbour House is a restaurant on Vancouver Island I'd heard great things about. A Toronto food critic, interviewed on CBC-AM, when asked what would she like for her last meal, said a meal at SHH. The restaurant is famous for its edible flowers. I figured they must taste really good if they're famous for them. So Fumiyo and I went there during a trip to Victoria last week. Sooke itself was surprisingly hard to find but we got there just in time for our reservation. They gave me a great table overlooking the harbour, "the captain's table" said the server. As Vancouver Island has some great cidres, I requested one, then discovered they were $30 a bottle so I went with a cidre from the Okanagan for $7.00.
  The first course was Sooke Harbour House Farm Organic Salad: Wild and cultivated lettuces with herbs and flowers from our gardens with yoghurt, basil, mint and nasturtium dressing. Here it is.

Notice the cidre is garnished with a sprig of pineapple mint. Refreshing and tasty. The salad, not so much. The flowers were tasteless and there's only so much lettuce I can eat. Good dressing but I had come for flavorful flowers.
Next up, Lobster Mushroom Lazagna: With matsutaki soubise, nasturtium salad and grand fir oil. At least I did get a bit of flavour with the nasturtiums, and once again a pretty plate, but more filling than delicious.

My server insisted 2 courses wouldn't be enough, so I ordered the Cauliflower, Potato and Gruyere Tartlet: With vegetable ratatouille, local seasonal vegetables, nasturtium leaf puree. We had to take it to go as we were in a hurry to catch our ferry. No pix as we consumed it the following day back in Vancouver. Fumiyo enjoyed it and I found the ratatouille to be exceptional but I found the tartlet more filling than tasty and the roasted vegies not really something I'd go to a restaurant for. Considering I didn't order any protein, it was a cheap meal but the ferry from Vancouver to Victoria has become so expensive I never expect to take it, at least in a car, again.