Ancient Cedars Cafe - Tobermory

We went to this restaurant based on other TripAdvisor reviews. My husband was eager to try the sweet potato burrito, and my boys wanted to go because it was beside a mini putt. We went twice, mostly because it seemed to be the only non-pub-type restaurant in the area. The first time, my husband had the burrito, which was dry and not very flavorful. I had the chicken korma, which was good but undersalted, and served with really undercooked (actually crunchy) rice, which was inedible. They nicely took 50% off my food order, and in general showed good customer service. The kids had a hamburger (excellent) and macaroni and cheese with Caesar salad (good). The next time I ordered the Korean short ribs and noodles. The ribs were excessively fatty, and the noodles slimy and overcooked, not a very good meal overall. My husband ordered vegetable korma, which he liked well enough but found it underseasoned as well (the rice was cooked this time). The boys both ordered macaroni and cheese, but neither of them liked it much this time, and they were out of Caesar salad and neither of the boys liked the texture of the garden salad (the lettuce was hard to chew, even for me).Overall, it's a nice change from deep fried pub food, but not as great as we hoped. The hamburger was the best thing we tried, and was definitely popular as we saw from the orders going to the other tables.

We came here mostly because their patio was dog-friendly. My husband had the grilled cheese and tomato soup, both of which he quite liked. I ordered a salad and Mac & cheese. The salad was good. Unfortunately, the Mac & cheese was bland. However, despite that and the cost of our meal (tourist prices), our overall experience was good (mostly due to our friendly waitress).

The Ancient Cedars Café was the perfect choice for our first dinner in the area. We checked into the Lion’s Head Beach Motel and then continued into Tobermory to buy our boat tickets to Flowerpot Island for the next day. Thus, the restaurant was on our way back to Lion’s Head and we didn’t have to fuss with parking.Everything sounded great on the diverse menu; just the kind of veggie-dominant selection that I prefer as a veggie-loving omnivore. I ordered a mushroom and pasta dish that wasn’t exactly what I thought it would be: it claimed to have a mushroom “ragù,” but what I got was simply mushrooms tossed with olive oil, spices and the pasta. It was delicious and fresh-tasting, but I expected something a bit saucier. It was also supposed to be served with bread and I had to chase my server down at the end of my meal to get the unwarmed bread. Nevertheless, my friend also really enjoyed her meal and we both agreed that this restaurant would be worth a repeat visit.

We ate here twice and our vegan family member got some take-out from here in addition to our meals in. Nice location and fresh and flavourful food. My husband is still thinking about the sweet potato burritos.

Atmosphere was nice and staff were friendly. There was a variety of foods from different styles and the tasted great.