100 mile eating

Benmiller Inn, Goderich Ontario

By Sam ⋅ January 15, 2008 ⋅  Email This Post ⋅  Print This Post ⋅ Post a comment

Reflections on lunch at the Benmiller Inn

I know, corny title but I couldn’t resist – given the picture.

Sometimes I think lunch is a better way to judge a restaurant than dinner is.  Usually the chef isn’t cooking lunch so you experience an assistant’s interpretation of a chef’s concept. And in Canada it’s more likely that I can afford lunch at a nice restaurant than it is that I can afford dinner!

Today a friend and I had lunch at the Benmiller Inn near Goderich in Huron County.  The setting is beautiful any time of the year.  The millpond, the sluice, the mill race, all lined with trees.  The conversion is wearing well too.  It’s still fascinating to see how original gears, wheels, spindles and columns have been incorporated into the décor.

The atmosphere is peaceful and calm, a good choice for a quiet lunch.  Possible quieter than the management would like but it is a Tuesday in early January, not prime time by any measurement.

I had a couple of quibbles and I’ll get them out of the way first.  We arrived at noon and managed to go into the Inn, hang up our coats, go into the dining room, walk through it to the back room, pick a table, move to another table, and talk for a few minutes without seeing anyone who worked there.  In fact we only saw one other person and he looked as bemused as us. 

We were sitting in a lovely alcove off the main dining room, looking out onto the millrace.  When someone finally did come into the dining room she didn’t turn and check the alcove so my companion had to go and say hello and tell her we were there.  Having said that, she was terrific and did apologize for not having noticed us.

I had time to notice that the water in the vases on the tables hadn’t been changed for quite a while.  The arrangements were mums and pine and they last forever.  The downside of arrangements that last forever is that the water level drops and the water gets scummy.  It’s a very picky little thing but to me it says that someone is not paying enough attention to details.

The tables are beautiful, white linen, heavy cutlery, and sparkling glassware.  I think it was the contrast that made me notice the tired vases.

Final quibble and then on to the more positive stuff.  The bread was bland.  It was also dry as if it had been baked yesterday or the day before, cut this morning and left sitting out.  I suppose bland bread is ok for sandwiches, the filling would certainly shine, but on it’s own it’s a waste of calories.  My thought here would be – better to have super fresh bread and use anything that’s been sliced for more than 2 hours for croutons or even a nice bread pudding. 

Lunch was good.  Not spectacular, but good.  My friend had the sandwich of the day, smoked turkey and cheddar cheese, with a salad.  The salad greens were crisp, the vinaigrette was delicious.

I had fish and chips.  Specifically a piece of cod in a beer batter served with real French fries.  It was excellent.  The fries were fabulous.  The fish was good although the batter could have had a tiny bit more flavour. But it was crunchy and crunchy counts for fish and chips.  We shared half a carafe of the house Merlot with lunch. 

We had our coffee in the lounge next to the bar.  When we mentioned that we’d like to do this someone went and turned on the gas fire for us, which was a thoughtful touch.

The bill was about $65.00, which seemed high to me, given what we had.  Lunch – the time – was lovely but that was due as much to the company and the setting than to the food.

In fairness the chef (whose name I didn’t write down and have now forgotten – my apologies for that) has only been there for two months and deserves some time to settle in.