Best of Vancouver Island: Sooke Harbour House

Sooke Harbour House (Gold) offers tours of its wine cellar before the dinner hour. And chef Edward Tuson, ais one judge, “cooks as if channelling from another plane.” Polished service complements creative and thoughtful meals.

Sobo (Silver) features Southwestern flavours and West Coast ingredients corralled by chef Lisa Ahier. Try the smoky and wintry seafood chowder. Ahier’s husband Artie works the front of the house with “smooth expertise and superb wine knowledge.”

The Pointe at the Wickaninnish Inn (Bronze) is an elevated room supplied with elevated cuisine. “The cooking is accomplished,” says a judge, “from crisp sweetbreads with a foie gras torchon to simple steamed crabs.”

The Wesley Street (Honourable Mention) is comfortable but confident: “Refreshingly free of that West Coast anonymity where everyone seems to have the same menu.”

At out-of-the-way gem Markus’ Wharfside (Honourable Mention) “the cooking is consistent, restrained, cleverly blending Mediterranean flavours with local touches, Mexican caliente, and German comfort foods. The foragers drop by with trumpet mushrooms, the crab is off the dock, and much is gleaned from Markus and his wife Tatum’s garden on the grounds.”

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