Auntie Pesto's Cafe

Auntie Pesto’s Café, Salt Spring IslandYesterday, while Trevor was here for a few days, we went to Salt Spring Island. Driving to Chemainus and seeing the scenery was pretty nice and then we continued on to the Ferry at Crofton. On the other side at Vesuvius Bay, we drove a few kilometers to the center of town and wait for the Farmer’s market to open. We walked a bit and then decided to have some lunch. We spotted Auntie Pesto’s Café and were seated outside on the patio over looking all the different boats being moored there.Trevor ordered “The Mateo” – a sandwich made with genoa and calabrese salami, provolone cheese, and sundried tomato tapenade on their in-house ciabatta bread; toasted to perfection and he ate it all up.Don ordered the lox and dill cream cheese platter with pickled shallots, fried capers, shaved pickled zucchini and sliced of toasted in-house made brown bread. Yup, he ate it as well.I ordered the Grilled Chicken Panini with roasted red peppers, and provolone on their in-house made ciabatta bread. Believe me, this bread is absolutely awesome. These sandwiches were so large, I could not eat the whole thing. THEN, they ordered Onion rings. If you are fortunate enough to travel to Salt Spring Island, be sure to go in and eat here. It is clean, the food is great and the staff are so friendly.I would be remiss if I didn’t tell you a tale of woe (for me but funny for everyone else.) Lunch was my treat for these two wonderful men and I always tip 20 per cent. I put in the numbers and handed the machine back and the lady looked at it and asked what she had done so wrong. I had put in 20 cents, not the 20 percent. We rectified it, thanks to Don and Trevor thought this was pretty funny. Me? I was totally embarrassed.

We have enjoyed this restaurant on many occasions and the staff did everything to make certain that our evening was a special one! The spaghetti putanesca was very good and so was the key lime pie!

Booked for 7:30 for 3 people,2 of us were finally served at 8:45pm having reminded the staff that we had been waiting.shortly afterwards the third member of our party was served with raw salmon. A bored yawning waitress eventually produced a second raw piece of salmon which was also sent back. I confronted the MOD who offered an apology but no explanation. The kitchen seemed to be staffed by teenagers who are clearly out of their depth. The MOD confessed that they put the kitchen staff under too much pressure........the lesson here is if you can't cater for your covers - lower your cover count and employ more experienced staff.Persuade your waitresses to look as though they care.We left without paying and I encourage other dissatisfied customers to do the same.

The restaurant has views of the harbour and tends to get busy during the Summer months so a good idea is to make a reservation. My friend stared with a small Caesar salad and he ordered a half litre of Merlot while I settled for a local cider, I was going to order the duck confit but they were to of ravioli so I ordered the rack of lamb, I should have ordered the 1/2 rack because the full rack is huge, my friend ordered the seafood dill pasta, my lamb was locally raised and was delicious and came with various vegetables. We managed to save room for dessert and he ordered creme brûlée while I ordered a fabulous pavlova. The bill was $130.15 not counting tip.

Auntie Pesto's Cafe is a tiny place with big flavor. Yes, you need to be in the mood for pasta, but the offering is varied and the portions controlled. Have no fear, there are plenty of delicious calories.