Three More "Restaurant" Reviews

One is a bar, one is the rec centre and one is the Legion — but they all count as "Places to Eat in Inuvik," according to the Inuvik Tourism Centre. And two of them are surprisingly good.

The first time I went to the Twisted Ladle, aka the concession stand at the Midnight Sun Rec Centre, there were no tables. They had been taken out for the TRC event and hadn't been replaced yet. But I found one around the corner, in a hallway, and pulled up a chair to eat my chicken quesadilla. It was fantastic! So ... atmosphere 0, food 10!

A few days later, I accidentally went back to the Twisted Ladle with my new friend Mary. We were already at the rec centre, having just painted some walls for the upcoming Great Northern Arts Festival. (More on that in a future blog.) I was on my way home, but Mary asked if I'd go to brunch with her and, since we were already at the rec centre, it made sense to eat there. We both had Greek omelettes with home fries. Again, the food was amazingly good. This time, too, there were tables — those long, wooden ones they have at summer camp. So ... atmosphere 2, food 10! (Expensive, though ... $15 for the omelette, ditto for the quesadilla.)

Also in the atmosphere 2, food 10 category is Café 220, better known as lunch at the Legion. It looks like ... well ... a Legion. But again, excellent food. I only had corn chowder because the lunch that day was a full-on roast chicken dinner, and I didn't want to eat that much at that moment. (It looked, and smelled, really good,
though.) At $5, I'd say that soup is probably the best deal in town. Cheap and filling and yummy! I will go back and have the chicken another day when I'm hungrier.

The Mackenzie Hotel has two eating places — Tonimoe's Restaurant and Shivers Lounge. I have yet to go to Tominoe's but I've been to Shivers three times now. The first time, I just went for a glass of wine ... now I know what Pine Sol tastes like ...

The second time, I tried a different wine (thumbs-up) and had dinner with another new friend, Marie-Claude. Fries were good but the chicken burger was bland, bland, bland. Third time, I went with three other new friends (I've made more friends in Inuvik in three weeks than I have in Ottawa in 10 months!) — Samantha, the local newspaper editor/reporter; Sheena, the yoga teacher/greenhouse manager; and Amy, a speech therapist at the hospital/yoga classmate. A different wine again (thumbs-up again) and pretty good chicken wings. So overall, atmosphere 8, food 5 at Shivers.

There are still six dining establishments on my list — and four of them scare me. But what I've learned in Inuvik is that you can't judge a diner by its décor ...