Wildflower Café — Restaurant in Port Alberni

The Wildflower. It is a stunning, curated, artist, light filled cafe with a beautiful herb garden outside and a shrub called Butterfly Bush, FULL to the brim of bumble bees. The couple who own it are from Tofino and you just get the sense, that everything Tofino flows with the joy of ocean waters and perfect timing. I had a great coffee education from the lovely barista who is studying to be an environmentalist (from the Tofino Ucluelet area of course).

I had no idea that for instance: the beans in the grinder have to be full before grinding them as the displaced weight causes the grind to be different. Or that the humidity and temperature affect the coffee and the grind needs to be constantly recalibrated as the day goes on. An ideal expresso is sussposed to take between 28 (I forget) and 32 seconds. Any longer and the grind is too fine and less it is too thick.

As my Mother knows, who often says I must have been a Queen in a past life, I LOVE beauty and decadence... no not hedonistic decadence: elegance... that combination of someone who prefers beauty and quality over the ugly feeling that comes from putting money and economics over life.  That is knowing that someone has actually put their divine essence into something, their soul, their spirituality that puts their creative God presence into what they love, and that is the blessing for all of humanity.

I love the 1% of the best of the best of the best. The most intangible and exquisite of items.  This place caters to all of those desires: natural beauty and garden of beautifully designed raised beds to view which is full of fennel, lavender, blooming chives, cabbage, radishes, mint and rosemary. The coffee is also beautiful to look at with the very aromatic Drumroaster coffee in happy, colorful mugs ( which makes everything taste better). When you get thirsty there is delicious clear water that tasted glacially fresh pouring from a natural looking installed water spout, smooth, elegant wood benches and chairs inside and out, with a covered pergola. There is an incredible selection of pastries and food with their own pastry chef! The best part is that it is on a main street with so little traffic that you are not choking on gas fumes. I love how busy and quiet it is here. Everyone is peaceful. It doesn't have the vibe of frantic Vancouverites looking for their latest hit or the anxiety of tourists with their demanding needs that seem to suck the life out of everything they see as they go along in their journey of constant imbuements.

Wildflower cafe is in a decidedly Canadian town to me. Possibly the last one left in BC, or at least the island. Old cars, lots of heritage slightly run down buildings with lots of beautiful old churches. Big, wide roads and lots of forests. God, I hope the developers never find out about this place. They will destroy it in 2.5 seconds flat as they’ve destroyed every last community in BC. This place is perfect, a mix of Indigenous, colonizers, artists, farmers, workers, people flowing in and out as they pass through to get to Tofino and LOTS of surfers moving here to carve out their life as they have been displaced from what should still be there...

So, I am really actually sorry to have to post this, especially since I am a big fan of supporting local.. but this experience was a disappointment on basically every level. The two pre-made sandwiches I bought were at the quality level of things served in my high school cafeteria.. nothing unique.. no real outstanding flavor or presentation..and they came with potato chips a la miss Vicki's style out of a bag..but yet they are charging $12.00?! Sorry.. thats ridiculous.. (these were pre-made that morning, not made to order to justify such a ludicrous cost) I can get a prepackaged lumberjack sandwich from Save On for $6.99 that is huge by comparison..and actually has flavor..or I can go down the hill and get an awesome sandwich or wrap for $12 from Lynn and Lamote ..and THAT includes hand cut fries..and I got a side of polenta fries at that price..and it is actually a decent value. Then we move to the baking..im sorry. IF you're a BAKERY.. and you can't even make a proper chocolate chip cookie, that's a problem! When the Pillsbury stuff from the grocery tastes better, you're doing something wrong! And don't even get me started on the chocolate cherry balls.. which had no flavor of chocolate..and no evidence of cherry flavor in them.. I could see what looked like fig filling..but let's not call them cherry chocolate ANYTHING.. sorry.. too disappointed an experience to ignore.. and I know others have sung praise about the place.. which is why I tried it..but as a chef myself..I cannot consider this a value based...

The food was great, surprisingly so for such a simple meal (fried chicken, coleslaw, cornbread, croquettes). The drinks were pretty good. The only hiccup was when my friend and I noticed the instructions for pouring the beer on the side of the can.

The first beer came out closed, but we didn't realize there were instructions so I just opened it and poured. Once we saw the steps, we delightedly ordered a second of the same beer to compare; did following the rules make for a better experience? Well, the can came out opened. My friend asked if they had followed the directions, but the server didn't even realize they were there. So we asked for an unopened can so we could compare, but apparently that's against the rules. So we asked her to follow the directions for us, but she said because she had already opened the can on our table, she couldn't. It didn't make much sense to us, but we dropped it in favor of preserving a nice night.

Other than that, it was a pleasant experience. The server was mostly nice, but it was clear she didn't appreciate us. There is outdoor seating, so despite being busy, it wasn't loud. It was pricey, but not much more than anywhere else in town. 2 people, 2 beers each, sharing an app and a dinner plate, and a good tip (+20%) came to...