The Old Prune

I had been to this restaurant once before, many moons ago, and swore never to go back...

This past season, my friends literaly dragged me to return for a dinner this past season and I was once again really left thinking to myself - 'what am I doing here?'...

This place is not for me. The chairs are as hard as ever I've sat upon, and the noise level in the back room was attrocious. If you have to yell across the table to the person in front of you in a restaurant, you know there is a real design problem... The back room was constructed in a way that looks cheaply done, with no finesse.

The cuisine was alright, although, not as refined as my favourite in town, Rundles. The service is the same, alight, but, one waiter actually had bad body odour, which really put me off whenever he came near our table.

Washrooms are in the basement (i.e., dungeon) and if you're tall like me, be totally prepared to duck your head for however long it takes to do #1, at least with #2 you get some cold comfort...

Another spot in town that is best avoided.

One of the great things about going to Stratford is the number of outstanding restaurants. They have become a feature of the city, rivaling the Festival itself. This is an extraordinary thing in comparative terms: in the first decades of the Festival, Stratford was a gastronomic wasteland and many other comparable towns with leading cultural institutions (e.g., Stratford-upon-Avon in England) have only poor or worse restaurants.
In a competitive field, the Old Prune stands out. I go to Stratford on average three times a Festival season. I never go without having dinner at the Old Prune, which is always a superb experience. If the Old Prune were in Toronto (where I live), I would be a very enthusiastic regular customer.
The chef's cooking is consistently refined and innovative, without being fussy. He relies on natural ingredients with great success and avoids unhealthy components like butter and cream sauces, without ever sacrificing flavour. And you never feel as if you have eaten the same meal twice.
The wine list, which is reasonably large, is extremely well chosen and reasonably priced. In addition, the sommelier offers excellent advice.
The service is professional and friendly.
Eleanor Kane and Marion Isherwood have created a great restaurant in Stratford. No one should miss it.

For many years, my mother and I have regularly driven an hour each way to come to this restaurant. My mother lived in Switzerland for twenty-five years, has been to many of the best restaurants in France, and this is one of her favourite restaurants in Ontario. The cuisine is outstanding. It is very original, and makes extensive use of excellent local products. But the service is the best I have ever experienced. While most of the servers are young local people, they are extremely well trained and closely supervised by the two owners, Marion and Eleanor, and by Peter, the Maitre d'Hotel. They and their staff are constantly attentive, and there is no end to the special, personal services they have provided, such as providing a special chair for my mother to make her more comfortable, telling us where to buy their excellent wines, and even obtaining for us a bottle of very special cognac that we could not find on our own. Peter is not only the best Maitre d'Hotel I have ever encountered, he also has an outstanding knowledge of wine. He is constantly adding excellent new discoveries to the wine list, and he knows exactly how each wine should be handled to serve it at its very best. Long ago we stopped going to any other restaurant in Stratford, and we go to the Old Prune ten to fifteen times during its six-month season. We also go there very often during the winter for dinners of the Diners' Club at the Stratford Chef's School, where Peter, Marion and Elinor help with the training of the students.

Both my wife and I are well travelled having visited many top class restaurants around the world. We are both health conscious and are not big eaters. The food was well prepared and tasty, however the portions of each dish were unbelievably small for the high price charged. The celery salad was non existent on the duck dish. To add substance to the meal we both ordered a side salad, this too was very small. The cannelloni was the smallest desert we have ever encountered. We left this restaurant disappointed and hungry. Not a good feeling on your 27th anniversary.

Unfortunately, this restaurant provides poor value for the dollar. While the dishes are certainly tasty and well prepared, the portions are miniscule. It was "style" rather than substance: food presented very decoratively but on mammoth plates. The trout portion was about the size of a playing card, if that, and other than a little sauce, there was nothing else to accompany the fish. At $17.95, I would expect a small salad or some vegetables alongside. The other dishes were similarly sparse and overpriced.
The restaurant is situated in the rooms of an attractively and fashionably decorated old house. The ambience is certainly attractive and there are windows which look out onto a beautiful garden. The service was more than satisfactory; however, if you are coming to be satisfied with a meal, forget it!

We put ourselves in Chef Bryan Steele's hands, and he produced a varied and interesting set of dishes for each of us, playing off the flavours from dish to dish. The use of high quality local foods, many of them from well respected organic producers, indicates the care with which he approaches his menus. We chose the Burgundy in the hope that it would play well with the unknown dishes, and it came through. Excellent on it's own merits, it was a reasonable fit with most of the offerings. The service was not quite as good as the food, not poor, just a bit uneven as some of the servers are in training and a little anxious. The timing was handled well and the staff was attentive. A visit from the Chef to present the entrees was a thoughtful and appreciated touch. The restaurant is tasteful and well kept, and a table with a view of the garden is the best choice. On the whole it's one of the best restaurants in this region.

To explain my ratings which may seem lower than the review would suggest, I feel that the inflated tens which are tossed about here indicate a lack of perspective. I've only ever been to one North American restaurant that rated a ten from me (Daniel, in N.Y.) and there are few on my list of "nines". Take this eight as high praise for the Old Prune.