While New Westminster has some great restaurants, it does not have a lot of great patios.
It’s date night and it’s summer. That means some patio time.
El Santo has a patio but it’s right on Columbia.
Same with Piva.
On the other end of Columbia you’ll find Bruncheria, but their patio is still just a few steps from the street.
The Terminal has a patio on Columbia as well. Right next to a busy truck route.
The Grey Fox’s patio is actually good. But you’re looking into private backyards of the townhouse complex surrounding the building.
You’ll find a few patios sprinkled around uptown too.
But one thing all these patios share is the view. Or rather the lack of one. And unless you like looking at, listening to, and breathing in the exhaust fumes of all those cars going by while you’re eating you don’t have very many options.
The new Tiki Bar, where the Paddlewheeler used to be, does have something of a view, but I don’t particularly like the place. Nothing in that particular location has ever been great, though I know some of you will say the Paddlewheeler was good (I disagree) but the one time we visited the Tiki Bar the drinks were unbalanced and the place had a cheap, kitschy feel about it.
The other option, and the only option with a nice view in New Westminster is the Boathouse.
In our experience The Boathouse hasn’t been perfect either. But I will say of late it’s been better.
I’m starting with the Lobster Bisque. I’m hoping it will be good here. Since the Keg took it off the menu I have not had the opportunity to have my favorite soup much.
So I was extremely happy to discover it’s actually a very good lobster bisque. Rich lobster flavor with a smooth creamy base that had a bit of a kick. The only way I think you could improve this is to put some chunks of lobster in. I may be visiting more often this summer just for a bowl of soup.
Sticking with the seafood theme, we decided we’re going to try the seafood platter, for two.
Shrimp, lobster, mussels, oysters, crab and tuna poke.
So let’s just call it a platter as they had to put it on a metal stand to elevate it rather than the traditional two-tier serving tray. But whatever, it was pretty good, other than the oysters, which neither of us loved.
The poke has nice flavour. The lobster was perfectly cooked. The mussels were to die for. The prawns were subtly sweet and tender. And the pièce de résistance, the crab truly was the star of the show. And to my delight the biggest portion.
At $65 it’s not cheap, and I could quite easily polish that off myself. But with the soup it worked out pretty well for the two of us.
Now the next question was, could I resist dessert? And I will tell you I put up a pretty good fight. But then somebody walked by with a creme brulee and my willpower crumbled like a stage made from toothpicks at a Lizzo concert.
Not the best creme brulee I’ve ever had. The sugar was well burnt, and while the custard underneath tasted right, it was just a little bit too firm. Not quite panna cotta firm but pretty close. It made me think there might have been gelatin in that and there certainly shouldn’t be. That’s exactly why I don’t care for panna cotta. I didn’t hate it though.
Merilynn had a cocktail, a summary version of a Moscow Mule.
So other than the slight miss on the creme brulee, this was a really lovely evening. It was a great patio and the food was very good.
We will definitely be back this summer to spend some more time enjoying the view.
If I missed a good patio in New Westminster please let me know and I’ll go check it out.
9/10