Birthday dinner at The Pointe Restaurant at The Wickaninnish Inn is one of those meals you remember for a long time.

Birthdays gifts and husbands become harder after 25 years. The last few years I’ve been able to impress with free or nearly free events that made the perfect birthday gift.  This year I struggled.  We’d been working a lot and needed a complete retreat from work, noise, people; city life.  Tofino offers all that and is our favourite place. To my joy I found a room at the Wickaninnish Inn available. It was like a miracle that felt perfect as soon as it was booked.  It's hard to talk about the Wick without talking about wood.  It's everywhere and it's beautiful.  There's a resident woodcarver with a shack down the beach.  You feel part of the forest here.  Birthday morning dawns a perfect Sunday in Tofino and father and daughter are off to kayak to Meares Island, hike the old growth while I spent the morning at the spa.  Every visit there starts with a foot soak in giant copper tubs outside listening to the surf just through the trees.   The Pointe Restaurant at Wickaninnish is a place for special occasions.  It has the most beautiful setting that further blurs the line between the ocean, forest and inn.  Guests have first dibs on the primo seats.  Guests like us. So our evening is spent on the edge of the ocean with the best sunset view in the world.  Champagne primed the pallet for the amuse bouche of curried yellow lentils and raita, both perfect to prime us and ease us into the wine list and menu.

The kitchen was happy to answer our many questions and this menu deserved the questions, it was very interesting.  Potato encrusted oysters were on the menu and so was Fairview Cellars Sauvignon Blanc.  Now I happen to know that Bill Eggert made that wine for oysters so some decisions were almost made for me and I was happy with the results.

For a main course the combination of sockeye salmon with glazed eggplant and oysters and compressed apple pear was something neither David nor I could resist and it didn’t disappoint.

Rachel had the halibut with a raita and potato gnocchi and gave it a big thumbs up.  Pronounced the best halibut tasted this year.

The cheese selection, much like the wine has been given a lot of thought and really is impressive.   We had the most beautifully presented cheese plate I’ve ever seen.   Chef Nicholas Nutting has the knowledge and creativity to make the most of the bounty available to him.   The Wickaninnish and The Pointe aren’t for the faint of wallet but it is magnificent.    If you want to get away from hectic and need  a chance to focus on life Tofino is a great place to go and The Wickaninnish Inn is near perfection.

A special thank you to Angel in the spa and Jason who helped make our dinner evening so much fun.  I can't wait to go  back.