Our first clue to avoid this place, which is inside Inverary Resorts, should have been that it looks like it's straight out of 1957. Some of the food also tastes like it's been sitting around since 1957.
The lobster dinner was on special for $20, which makes it overpriced by about $30. Clearly caught sometime last year, it bordered on slightly rotten and had a somewhat dead flavor. We also made the mistake of ordering the wild mushroom risotto, which was wildly overcooked. The beet salad appetizer was OK but was drizzled with some kind of sugary glop that passed for dressing. The dinner rolls were sugary, cheap, institutional, old-fashioned sludge, the kind that thankfully went out of style long ago, and haven't appeared in most places since the 70s or the 80s.
I should add that the wait staff was very nice. It's not their fault. But the nicest service in the world can't improve the food. We rate based on food. We're at the restaurant to eat.
Also, we ate breakfast here because we're staying at the hotel and had a voucher for breakfast. The breakfast buffet was tolerable, with decent scrambled eggs, though some things were stale. I'll be generous and assume that's because we showed up past 9:30. Also, they served a decent brand of green tea, not Lipton, so that counts for something. And again, the staff was very nice and sweet, plus at breakfast, we could see the view, which was impressive. But that's not enough to raise it above one star overall. We're not at the restaurant for the view. We can get that on the Cabot Trail. There are people on another website who have given this place decent reviews, but I suspect their taste buds are decrepit and failing (there is a lot of elderly clientele here) and they are basing their ratings on service and the view. Also, some may assume because they're paying a lot, that the food must be good, even though they can't taste it. Human psychology! This breakfast not worth $14 which was the wildly exorbitant rate that another group was paying per person
Just pass this place and go to the convenience store and get some chips. Or plan ahead, and before you ever get near Cape Breton Island, stock up on provisions. Be warned, if approaching from Routes 104 and 105 from the west, no supermarkets are visible from the highway beyond roughly Antigonish or so. Maybe there's one in Port Hawkesbury or so? Good luck. read more
