Black Goose Inn — Restaurant in Parksville

Since we moved to Nanaimo, people have been recommending that we head to the Black Goose in Parksville. It's always spoken very highly of, and we just haven't had a chance to get out there until this chilly Saturday in January, while the in-laws visit.

I'm glad we did.

A traditional British pub, with classic decor, a roaring fireplace, and accompanying drafts, the chairs are high backed, the tables large, and the decks of playing cards well used.

If you're lucky enough to walk in and get settled a table, you have to head to the snug yourself to place your order, and then they bring it out to you.

They have a great drink selection, and a diverse menu of classic pub fare.

We started with Scotch eggs, served in the traditional style (read: cold) and while I'm glad I can say I've had them, they weren't great enough to order again.

Mains wise, though. Hoooo-eee.

Generally, if I see a lamb burger on the menu at a place, I'll order it, and here was no exception. This was, hands down, the best lamb burger I've had on the island. Decently sized and thoroughly moist and flavorful on a nice soft bun, it blew me away. The house chips are big and crunchy on the outside, while still fluffy on the inside.

My partner got an order of the cod and chips, and they were also some of the best we've had since we moved here. The fish is perfectly cooked and the batter was just the right thickness to be crispy without being doughy and soggy.

The in laws both opted for pies - a chicken and veg pie for Mom, and a small steak and mushroom pie for dad. The full sized pie is substantial in size and would almost certainly make a decent meal for two people with normal appetites. By his account, the steak and mushroom pie was nice and rich. The chicken and veg pie had great big chunks of chicken in it and was nice and creamy, but perhaps a bit too heavy on the sage. I'd still order it again.

We capped off the meal with a piece of the Guiness chocolate pie (the only thing I remembered to take a photo of), and I would happily fight my way through a gymnasium filled with rabid badgers to eat another piece of it. Dense and rich chocolaty filling with a stout bite to it, on a graham cracker crust and vanilla ice cream on the side, it was absolutely terrific. The only criticism of it I can offer is that the vanilla ice cream tasted a bit generic.

Overall, it's a great experience and the food is terrific, and we plan to come back and spend a nice lazy afternoon before dinner by the fire playing cards and just relaxing.

The reputation the black goose has is well deserved.

Lunch for 4 with appetizers, some hot chocolates, a soda (free refills) and an irn-bru came to $imnotsure, because someone else grabbed the bill, but it was almost certainly worth...

We'd visited once in the summer and based on that experience (good food), we invited several visiting family members to eat there during the holidays. Well, we started out by stumbling around in the many many side roads in the area trying to FIND the place as the signage was less than clear (the last sign was turned facing away from our side of the road, so that we passed right by it and only saw it coming back!) We reserved a table in advance, and it ended up being in the main dining room - which, it turns out, is FREEZING in the winter (and I do NOT get cold, so I felt really bad for the three other members of the family who do frequently feel the cold who if I was feeling it, were clearly that much worse off)! I understand that it's an old building with a very high ceiling, but they didn't even have the fireplace lit! And while they did light it when we complained, it wouldn't of course make much of a difference in the time we were there. In addition, we all ordered a starter but they made all the food at once - so that when we had a table full of starters the waitress came out and asked if we "wanted the food now or just take it back and keep it warm" - well, NEITHER really! But since the table was full we said to take it back. When we were ready for it, everything was a little overdone. One of us ordered chicken strips which is listed on the menu as coming with a green salad - she was served chicken strips with a couple pieces of sliced carrot.... all in all a huge disappointment, and not worth the drive up-island...

Not my first visit but definitely the last time I’ll try this establishment.

There were four of us, one of whom is a vegan, moi. They advertise several vegan items like Fisch (their spelling) and chips, on their web menu and vegan chicken strips both of which are fried with everything else, therefore they cannot be vegan.

I settled for vegan chickpea curry over rice. It was boring, unimaginative, flavourless and was absent any curry taste. I asked for a substitute side dish of vegan mushy peas instead of a side salad and they charged me $1 extra for it. It’s the same price or less as a side salad that was offered. It was also tasteless. This was a huge miss, took forever to get because the rice wasn’t ready and was decidedly NOT WORTH THE WAIT.

My wife had steak and mushroom pie with a two HUGE chunks of fat in it, which she removed. It was a small portion and she didn’t like it. The dogs are getting most of the edible parts of it.

The other two dishes were prawns and chips and shepherds pie, also very small portions.

There’s an old restaurant joke that says the food was bad but at least the portions are small.

Insulting at the end, and not disclosed to us, there’s a 2% charge for using a credit card! Maybe it’s in the small print somewhere but none of us are lawyers so we missed it.

The view is great, the service was good (thanks Hana) it’s a nice old building...