Dining Out
with
Spindrift
Dining Room
Recently,
driving south (about one hour) with friends along the Bonavista Bay coastline
on the highway known as "the loop", we arrived at Musgrave Harbour,
eager to satisfy our hunger at Spindrift-by-the-Sea, 87 Main Street. This
twelve room oceanside hotel features a popular dining room serving plenty of
home style items like turkey soup, fish cakes, halibut steaks, and
Newfoundland's ubiquitous hot turkey and hot roast beef sandwiches. The
mouth-watering aroma of a pot of simmering homemade turkey soup permeated the
air. I yielded to temptation. Even on a warm day it was just what I needed to
kick-start my palette, thick and flavorful with lots of turkey. I splurged and
ordered a bottle of rough cabernet for our table of four.
We
sat near a window with a fabulous view that looked across the calm gray waters
of the harbour. For me, a seafood platter at $16.95 seemed an appropriate
entree choice. In jig time our food arrived. My friend Cyril, who has consumed
many a hot roast beef sandwich in his seventy-six years, pronounced the thick,
gravy-laden creation on his plate, "perfect".
Meanwhile,
my plate was brimming over with pan-fried halibut, wild salmon, battered
shrimp, battered scallops, fries, and peas and carrots. Once I got beyond the
disappointment of soggy peas and carrots, the rest of the meal was quite tasty.
I especially enjoyed the wild salmon with its naturally robust flavor. Isn't it
a pity that wild salmon is not more readily available? Farmed is good, but wild
is better.
A
word about French fries...Spindrift's chef, a stout, gregarious chap named Max
Goodyear (who always wears the short peaked paper cap of a short order cook)
has mastered the art of making really fine fries. They were cut long at about
3/8 of an inch thick and 3/8 of an inch wide and fried in fresh vegetable oil.
Goodyear's fries were light and crispy. I ate every one and still wanted more.
The
desserts at Spindrift, as my eleven-year-old nephew would say, were
"cool". Again, many were home style, but in the case of one,
absolutely revivalist. It was Spindrift's version of the old English pudding
called "spotted dick". No doubt, early settlers to the Bonavista Bay
area enjoyed the classic version (apparently invented in the early nineteenth
century) containing suet and bits of dried fruit (currants, etc.). Spindrift's
was a steamed creation bursting with partridgeberries (a.k.a. red berries or
lingonberries), served with a syrupy rum sauce. It was marvelous.
Equally
wonderful were two other desserts. My friend Jocelyn enjoyed her
strawberry-rhubarb tart so much I actually had to risk a limb to steal a bite
from her. She was right to hog it. It was very zesty, full of fruit, and not
too sweet (a bonus for people who don't like really sweet desserts).
Chocolate
cake can be awful if not made from scratch. Spindrift's scratch cake was
beautiful. It was moist, rich with chocolate flavor, delicate, and
melt-in-your-mouth good. It wasn't my birthday, but that cake made me think it
was.
A
meal for two at Spindrift-by-the-Sea, including tip and a $25 bottle of La Cour
Pavillon cabernet sauvignon will set you back about $89. (It’s much cheaper
without the wine!)
Best Points:
Great
desserts, fast service, and cheerful, tastefully decorated surroundings.
Areas for
Improvement:
With
the exception of their superior French fries, their vegetables need help.
They're overcooked and boring. The battered scallops were a tad overdone as
well.
Rating
Category:
Spindrift-by-the-Sea
easily rates 7.5 points out of 10. Based on my recent visit, if you happen to
be in the area, I recommend you give it a try.