When my wife and I arrived, despite being quite busy, the restaurant had our table ready for us (an unfortunately increasingly uncommon occurrence). I was very pleased to be sitting about ten feet from the stage with an unobstructed view. Unfortunately, some friends of ours had made a last minute reservation and ended up in the back corner of the restaurant and barely able to see any of the stage. Thankfully the staff was good enough to move them to our table without any fuss.Upon sitting at our table I was immediately struck by the great decor at the Minstrel. The walls were richly coloured and accented with very tasteful art and stone feature areas. The vaulted ceiling made the restaurant feel more spacious and was nicely highlighted with flowing fabric draped from it.Unfortunately the servers had a littlle miscommunication about which one of them would be covering our table, so it took a little bit longer than it should have to get our drink orders in. The Minstrel’s wine list is good with a decent amount of choice, but it’s definitely not outstanding. I opted for a glass of Castilla del Almansa Tempranillo, which on its own was a little soft for me, but when paired with my meal really came to life. I was hoping the earlier staff miscommunication would be an aberration and not a sign of things to come. When my friend’s martini came without the chocolate shavings on top it wasn’t the end of the world, but it was another step in the wrong direction.

Almost immediately after placing our orders our server returned to our table to double check what we had asked for. It is certainly much better for a server to double check what was ordered rather than try and guess and end up putting the wrong order in, but its still not an ideal occurrence.

The bread service was definitely above average. Many restaurants just do the minimum and give you a basket of bread and some cold butter. I was happy to see that the Minstrel cared enough to provide a couple of different flavoured butters to go with their fresh bread. This isn’t something that will make or break a meal, but paying attention to these small details is what separates great restaurants from those that are merely good.

I ordered Rigatoni Arrabiata with Chorizo, Chipotle, and White Cheddar. When it arrived, it was immediately obvious that not much thought had gone into the presentation of the dish. It had clearly just been put in a bowl, rather than carefully plated. I will, however, say that it was delicious! The sausage itself was a little bland, but there was a generous helping of it (I hate when restaurants skimp on meat) and it did taste fantastic in the arrabiata sauce. The smokiness of the chipotle and the sharpness of the cheddar counterbalanced each other perfectly and were great compliments to the flavour of this dish. Simply put, it was excellent!

My wife (bless her for never having a big enough appetite to finish her meal) ordered Roasted Chicken Stuffed with Prosciutto and Provolone, which I thankfully got to try. The chicken breast was cooked bone-in to perfection. Not only was the flavour great, but the tenderness and texture were outstanding. It was served with some herbed roasted potatoes (which were very good) and caramelized onions. The onions had obviously been sweetened, which is not necessary in my opinion as onions contain enough sugar naturally to caramelize beautifully on their own. Adding a sweetening agent made these onions far too sweet to properly compliment the rest of this dish.

As great as the food was, the ambience was even better. I’m not a music critic, so I won’t go into much detail on the performance, but I will say that I thought it was great. Our performer, Yoko (a vocalist from Nelson), was the perfect accompaniment to our meal. My only complaint would be that the venue did get too warm for comfort as the night went by.

For dessert I really wanted another glass of wine to go along with a nice cheese plate, but unfortunately the Minstrel doesn’t have a cheese plate on their menu. It is a shame for such a sophisticated restaurant not to have a cheese plate of some sort. Instead I opted for their White Chocolate Berry Mousse. At first blush I thought that it was too rich for me. It turns out that I was dead wrong, as each subsequent bite was more delicious than the last. My only request would be to add more berries.

All in all, it was a great night, with delicious food and fantastic entertainment. The service could definitely have been better, but I would still recommend the Minstrel Cafe quite highly.

Ambience: 4.5 / 5 (It would have got a 5 if it hadn’t been so hot)
Taste: 4.5 / 5
Service: 2.5 / 5
Value:3.5 / 5
Overall: 4 / 5