The Willows Inn: The Other Meals

We ate a total of five meals at the Willows Inn. I'll review The Big Dinner in the next post. But the others are worthy of mention as well, because except for one cafe there is nowhere else to eat on the island, and a $20 roundtrip ferry fare (for car and two people) if you choose to leave.

Dinner #1: We arrived on a Tuesday night, which was the chef's night off, so they served an abbreviated menu: pizzas, salads, spot prawns (a local, seasonal shellfish, much sweeter and more delicate than standard shrimp) and a steak. We had an artichoke, asparagus and prosciutto pizza; a small Greek salad; and the steak, with a side of prawns. None of the cooking was adventurous, but all the ingredients were top-notch. The only false note (aside from charging separately for bread and butter, a supremely irritating nickel-and-dime practice that seems to be catching on) was the alcohol service: the drinks on offer at the bar were margaritas, and a California red and Italian white by the glass. Margaritas don't go with this food, and a restaurant of this caliber ought to be serving local wines (they did fish one out of the cellar when we asked).

Breakfast #1: Kale-and-spinach quiche, honey-molasses-flaxseed muffins, and artisanal bacon. Excellent all around.

Lunch: They were out of the chicken breast sandwich, so we had very good but ultimately boring hamburgers.

Breakfast #2: Stewed kale, spinach and tomato on a corn cake; scrambled farm eggs (very, very deeply colored); fruit salad; a homemade palmier cookie, and more of that excellent bacon. Could have done without the fruit salad, since it consisted mainly of non-local citrus, but otherwise this was again a terrific breakfast.

So, don't worry, you'll be well fed there.

On to the main event ...