Bear Tracks Inn and Restaurant — Restaurant in Municipality of Northern Bruce Peninsula

The Wyck Recommendation: Bear Tracks Inn and Restaurant Rating: 3.8/5 Blueberry Ballads and Mashed Potato Regret

Intro Scene Six years deep and still ordering pie like it’s a pilgrimage. Every time the cottage calls, Bear Tracks answers—with gravy, battered fish, and a very specific nostalgia that smells like lake air and fried onions… and now, occasional off-key Bon Jovi echoing across the room.

What Was Ordered

Liver and onions: generous portion, tragically overcooked

Mashed potatoes: clumpy, dry, and soul-sucking

Steamed veg + coleslaw: edible, if your bar is low

Fried wings with ranch: solid crunch, surprisingly satisfying

Gravy on the side: rich, salty, gravy goals

Blueberry pie: the North’s dessert royalty

Butter tarts: flakey, gooey, sweet—not legendary, but respectably good

Service Commentary Staff don’t do frills, but they do know you. Orders land fast enough, and karaoke nights bring out a rare sparkle—somewhere between diner waitress and dive bar emcee.

Vibe Check On most days: classic cabin-core. On karaoke nights: rural fever dream meets 90s basement party. Locals, cottagers, and brave mic-grabbers unite. It’s weirdly wholesome.

The Space Itself Red checkered tables, a mixed-bag of chairs, and just enough taxidermy energy to keep you alert. Feels like the kind of place that still sells cigarettes behind the counter—but doesn’t.

About the Neighborhood Deep cottage country. A place where you can hear loons in the morning and Springsteen at midnight. Parking’s easy unless there’s a sled jam outside.

Hits & Misses ✓ Wings hit the spot ✓ Blueberry pie is still the queen ✓ Butter tarts hold their own ✓ Karaoke night: unpredictable magic ✗ Liver and onions: skip ✗ Mashed potatoes: avoid ✗ Veggies: unseasoned purgatory

Final Verdict Bear Tracks isn’t about finesse—it’s about routine, memories, and the pie you crave after a lake swim. The food may wobble, but the experience never does. And now with karaoke and decent butter tarts in the mix? It’s a whole rural vibe.

Rating: 3.8/5

Perfect for

Singing badly with a mouthful of pie

Cottage country comfort with a...

Awful customer service. Not sure if this is the exact location because there is two but from the picture it looks like the one. Five of us walked in and were seated. The woman wanted our food order right off the hop no drink order. My friend asked for the fish and chips was looking at kids menu. When I ordered I asked for the beer batter fish and she said short/rude way “that’s the only fish we have” I said “oh, okay I was just clarifying because when my friend asked she was looking at the kids menu”. Then with the fish meal it said on the menu it has the option to come with a white roll OR a garlic bread stick. I asked for the garlic bread stick she said “No, we don’t have those. We haven’t had those in two years” in a rude way so I told her they should fix that on the menu. Normally I wouldn’t even say that but she was already really hostile. I was worried she was going to leave after taking my friends order without taking drink orders so I tried to ask her for a tea to which she ignored me (which okay she was talking to my friend) but said “NOW I will take drink orders.”. 4 of us ordered and the last girl was still deciding a bit which normally is a good time for a waitress to suggest something but instead she slammed her note pad on our table and said she would be back. In the middle of our orders also called over to another table to ask them if they got their pop yet. Her attitude was so bad that all 5 of us agreed to leave right then and there. Shame. I honestly thought they were closing soon with how angry with us she seemed with us being there but it was like 7:45 pm and they close at 9pm..

Also if it’s only take out/delivery after 8 so you were in a rush, you clarify that at the door. We would have just left if we knew that to save...

We were really hopeful trying this restaurant as our first place in Lion’s head, but should have went anywhere else. We ordered at 6:30pm but didn’t get our food until 7:50pm. As someone who has worked in the restaurant business I understand it can be difficult to juggle the busy dinner rush of take-out orders with the dine-in tables. However, if the food is that late (1.5 hours for 2 fish and chips) and isn’t up the customers expectations (lack of seasoning, chewy fries and overcooked fish) then customers should not be forced to pay for the meals. By forced, I mean that we were told that the best the owner would do was comp one fillet and that we were required to pay $30 for the two meals we didn’t eat that included two pieces of pie (that we no longer wanted given our experience of course). I felt so sorry for the server who was so sweet and upset by how we were being treated by the owners at this establishment. Very upsetting (I left in tears) and this experience definitely put a huge damper on our trip.

EDIT: I was worried posting this that the owner would respond horribly like they have to other 1-star posts, and was unfortunately right. I am appalled by the number of lies in the owner’s response, from the reservation comment, to the food-wait concern being the only problem, but particularly in her accusations towards how I treated the server, which was with complete respect, as I acknowledged over and over that none of this was her fault. The owner refused to talk to us In person and forced their staff to run back and forth from the kitchen to pass their messages along to us. Please, drive right past this place as they treat their staff and their...