Rim Rock Cafe, Whistler, Canada

Mr Oil and Mr Vinegar enjoyed the New Year festivities en famille at the Rim Rock Café, widely regarded as the best restaurant in the foodie ski resort of Whistler, western Canada. The restaurant did not disappoint – though the same cannot be said of the local cab firm, Whistler Taxis.

MrO: I told you that was a jolly good place. The food was superb and the drink was a revelation. Every time I go to British Columbia I am more impressed by the progress they are making with their wines.
MrV: You pay for it, though, compared to other New World wines.
MrO: Anyone putting that much care into their wine-making is entitled to a return on it. In any case, in the liquor stores and lower-grade restaurants you can buy the blended stuff pretty cheaply.
MrV: Well, I’m not disagreeing with you about the restaurant or the wine list. It was indeed as good as you promised. But it was a great shame the evening started so badly. I do wish that the resort – which is after all dominated by some very powerful corporate interests – would do something to sort out the taxi situation.
MrO: The taxis were a disgrace, I acknowledge. To give no idea of when the taxi would arrive, to keep us waiting an hour, and then charge C$75 for a three-mile journey is just plain theft, particularly as we paid only C$12 fifteen minutes later. You should have stood up to him.
MrV: All very well for you to say but Whistler is your bailiwick, not mine, and I had all those impatient teenagers in the car with me. I was keen to move on.
MrO: Anyway, I think the restaurant owner behaved superbly when he heard what had happened, refunding C$60 out of his own pocket to mollify you. I always say that dealing with a problem well does more for a restaurant’s good reputation than having no problems at all.
MrV: I wonder if he’ll follow up on his promise to hunt down the errant cabbie and hound him out of a job. I hope so.
MrO: A lovely thought to start the New Year. But getting back to the food, I thought it was outstanding. The Kumomoto oysters were extremely tasty. Canadian love tiny little concentrated oysters. Maybe it’s because the big ones are so plentiful out there. You can get six shucked fresh giant oysters in a tub in the local supermarket for C$6.99.
MrV: The creamy seafood chowder was also delicious – an excellent first course. What was your second course?
MrO: The beef carpaccio with wild onion tart was very fine – although my son claimed that the carpaccio was a little bland. I disagree.
MrV: My steamed mussels were plump and juicy and the mariniere was perfect.
MrO: I had particularly been looking forward to the main course, though, and was very pleased with it. Apart from the Japanese restaurants, there doesn’t seem to be anywhere other than the Rim Rock to get great seafood dishes in Whistler. My trio of lobster, scallops and prawns with parmesan risotto was wonderful.
MrV: And I have to confess the filet mignon was very well-sourced and cooked to perfection. I wasn’t so keen on the pudding. Can’t abide any sort of cheesecake, let alone mocha cheesecake.
MrO: No, but it was in fact a trio of puddings and you managed the chocolate mousse and raspberry yoghurt freeze without any noticeable difficulty. What about the wines?
MrV: I was a bit worried when I first saw the list. The mark-up on French wines is rather horrifying in Canada. Perhaps because the state controls the sale of alcohol they turn the screws on imports. But you’d think that with so many Canadians being loyal to France they’d have found a way around the import duties, if that’s what’s causing the problems. I saw a £160 bottle of 1995 Cos D’Estournel marked up to C$750, which is pretty close to £500. I noticed that Guy Hands was at the table next to us but couldn’t see if he was drinking the expensive stuff. Perhaps not, as the other man at the table looked a bit of a cheapskate.
MrO: I was very pleased that we felt compelled to order the BC wines instead and I was thrilled with both the Haywire pinot gris at C$48 and the Hillside Estate merlot cabernet franc at $52. I looked up the red afterwards and the rim Rock was charging little more than double the retail cost of it, which I think is very generous compared to British restaurants. It is a great shame it is impossible to get British Columbian wines in the UK.

Mr Oil and Mr Vinegar, with two other adults and five teenagers, had nine set-price menus at C$99 each, accompanied by unremembered quantities of wine and soft drinks, at a total cost of C$1,450, or approximately £900, including state taxes and a generous tip.

Rim Rock Café
2117 Whistler Rd
Whistler
British Columbia
Canada

+1 (604) 932-5565
inquiries@rimrockwhistler.com
www.rimrockwhistler.com