I had supper here last night with some family visiting from the US and the meal was delicious. The Parlour Inn is an imposing building on the corners of Wellington and St. Patrick Streets in downtown Stratford, Ontario. As there were no performances (Stratford Shakespeare Festival) on Monday night, Stratford was a bit quieter than it usually is in tourist season; however there were still a number of tables full at the restaurant in The Parlour Inn. We had a reservation so had no difficulty with a table. There is a patio outside. Inside, the lobby, bar and restaurant are all dark wood and stained glass – a traditional bar and dining room.
Our servers were all very friendly and efficient and responded well to all our requests, from an ice bucket for our white wine to additional bottles of water to add to the ice. Three of us shared a charcuterie platter for a starter (select cured meats, local cheeses, pickled vegetables, chutney and grilled flatbread $18). For our mains, two of us had the seafood linguini (shrimp, mussels, octopus, bacon, tomatoes and scallions finished with a saffron tomato broth $24). The broth was very tasty. One had the chicken Alfredo (marinated chicken thighs, chives and smoked parmesan cheese with a roasted garlic white wine cream sauce $19) and another the chicken Supreme (black bean and corn salsa, zucchini, mini carrots, pan greens and porcini broth$26) . One had the Health Wise Salad (spinach, kale, avocado, radish, mandarins and strawberries with lemon thyme vinaigrette $15) with some candied walnuts added from another salad.
My sister had heard that the Pavlova dessert (served with lemon Crème Anglais and raspberry coulis, whipped cream and toasted almonds $12) was definitely something we should try so four of us decided to share two of them. It’s a good thing we were sharing because they are huge! The Pavlova is a tall rectangle of meringue covered with mounds of whipped cream and toasted almonds with the cream and coulis on either side of the plate. We could have easily shared one between us but the five of us managed to eat most of the two we were served.
The only limitation in the menu is that there are no main dishes for vegetarians, however there are choices in the starters. Most of the wines are from the Niagara region though there are some exceptions.
I parked in a lot on Erie Street, a couple of blocks away. However there is parking on the street that is closer.
“The Parlour Inn”:http://www.theparlour.ca
