Mahle House Restaurant — Restaurant in Area A (Cassidy/Cedar)

Enjoy a vastly superior dining experience at the beautiful Mahle House in Cedar, just south of Nanaimo. I took my son here to celebrate his 22nd birthday. He has had chef training, so I was confident that this restaurant would satisfy his insatiable apatite for fine cuisine. He started with a traditional martini and savored their perfect mix until after our appetizers were long done. Our appetizers, Romain Salad with yellow beets and blue cheese, and Beef Carpaccio were both exquisite. For our entrees, we had Steak Frites and Duck Two Ways, again both excellent dishes. The pan seared duck and angus flatiron steak were incredibly tender and cooked to perfection. My son enjoyed a glass of excellent Merlot with his duck. To finish that lovely meal he had their Cranberry Sorbet and I had the Creme Brulee Napoleon Style with coffee. The sorbet was wonderfully fresh and tart, the coffee delicious and the Creme Brulee Napoleon Style was an exquisite study in flavors and textures. This amazing Brulee at the Mahle House just pushed it's way to the top of my favorite desserts, replacing Charlotte's Cup from the equally superb Mon Village restaurant in Hudson, Quebec. The level of service in this excellent restaurant is well above average. Some might say it's a little pricey, however I feel that you get what you pay for, and Mahle House is a very good deal, considering their stellar service and exquisite cuisine.

Update: We finally tried the “Adventurous Wednesday” multi-course menu. The entire experience was a thoroughly awesome culinary delight that gives each person in your party, up to four people, an opportunity to try out many new, random dishes. The chefs must spend a significant amount of time brainstorming and coordinating the incredibly creative Wednesday evening menus every week. For a person with a artisan mindset, that must be both challenging and gratifying. As always, the service at The Mahle House is top shelf. Since we arrived early, we took a little time to look at and photograph the wonderful architecture of this beautifully restored house, which in and of itself, is quite spectacular. I would love to bring in my studio lighting and gear and a couple of models for an impromptu photo shoot. Heck, shooting some food images against this eclectic background would be...

Quality here has declined within the last year; we started going in 2013. The breads and folded butter have disappeared on Adventurous Wednesdays, and the wine flight is now reduced by 25% (this used to be a great way to explore local wines, and I have found more than a few favourites this way over the years). The new waitstaff were scattered and fumbled the dish descriptions on numerous occasions, and the experience was less classy overall than it used to be (reaching right across us to give new cutlery rather than a "pardon my reach," or spilling water due to pouring too enthusiastically. For the prices (which have gone up as the offerings went down), the value of the experience has been watered down from the rich experience that it once was. I have high hopes that it will regain the delicacy and poise of prior years. Aside from the less experienced service experience and reduced offerings for the bill price, food tasted delicious as always, and the flavour profiles were well paired in each dish. Textures and plating still extremely impressive. My compliments always to the kitchen; what talent!

Edit to downgrade the rating after a disappointing owner response this evening; offering a 5-star service and seeing issues being brought up should warrant concern, not condescension. We have spent at least $140 before tip on every visit here for 8 years, and this was the response...? Too bad, they honestly used to be my go-to, much classier and a better value before the bougie tourist wave from the mainland. Was expecting a very different response than public shaming for bringing up valid concerns during a bad time, and bad timing does not make poor service or less portion for the dollar any less valid. It is not the pandemic's fault that it cost $25 dollars more than it used to with no bread, water all over the table, and 25% less drinks in the wine flight Kindly stop faulting your patrons for pointing these out when the higher ground would be to resolve the concerns without blaming everyone and everything else but the...

We had a splendid time at Mahle.

Porcupine prawns: fresh and chewey prawns coated with crusty phyllo pastry served with wasabi mayo. The savory mayo cleansed the greasiness of the dish.

Mushroom Ricotta Cannelloni: The mushroom filling is so flavourful and rich. The fried portabello is juicy on the inside and not to mention the small tomatoes on the side. They are tremendously fresh and sweet.

House smoked duck breast: Unlike other restaurants, the medium duck breast are seasoned lightly so the unami flavour of the meat can stand out from the dish. The onion puree is so sweet and appealing.

Creme brulee napolean:

Crusty napolean phyllo layered with light vanilla bean custard and caramel sauce. Not too sweet but refreshing. You can hear the crackling sound of the napolean phyllo as you try to cut the creme brulee into smaller pieces.

The price of the main dish might look abit scary but the freshness and quality of the ingredients justify alot. The plating and combination of the side dishes is really thoughtful and balanced. We had fries and porcupine prawns before our main but the food was not greasy or heavy at all. The portion of the mains are pretty generous as well.

The only bad thing is the tables are kind of tightly spaced.

We will definitely come back and try...