Field Trip to Mayne Island

“FieldTrips” is either a day trip or a few days where I visit food areas of interest which may include farm visits, producers, wineries, restaurants and/or other places that people can visit. This is about offering Vancouver Foodster readers a chance to get out of town and take a “Field Trip” for the day or a few days to explore, learn, taste and experience.

Field Trip to Mayne Island

One of the Gulf Islands that had been on my bucket list for years was Mayne and I decided it was time for a visit. Lawrence and our friend Sheryl joined us for this day trip. If you can’t get an advance car reservation for the ferry, then you do what we did. You park your car in Tsawwassen at the ferry terminal and you walk on the ferry to Mayne Island (60 minutes). Something to know is that there is a bus operated by the Mayne Island community that is timed with the ferries (operates by donations) or if you miss the bus or decide that walking is your thing, you can walk pretty much anywhere, it will just take you awhile.

Our first stop on our day trip was to Das Nest Restaurant for lunch. This new restaurant had opened in early July, I made an advance reservation, to make sure we would have a table when we got there. It was a lovely restaurant with both seating outside on the patio as well as inside. I had the Spelt and Red spring Wheat Sourdough Bread, basil and sunflower seed spread which was very good; I also had the tasty Roasted Corn Soup, pickled golden dagger chilies; and for my main the unique and tasty Red Fife Wheat Berry Risotto, salt spring island goat cheese, golden beets, toasted hazelnuts, and frisée. They are also open for dinner but they do close a couple of days during the week, it is wise to check their website first before making a plan to visit.

After lunch we headed over to Shavasana Art Gallery and Café which was located across the street for an Iced Coffee. This was a funky cafe filled with art created by the owner, you will find coffees and baked goods here too.

Then it was a short walk to Go Tomato where we rented E-Bikes for a fun exploring trip around the rest of the island.

We visited Mayne Island Brewing which is the only brewery on the island (established in 2016) here we had a great chat with the owners and had a taste of their Pilsner. I discovered some great beer as well I now know which Vancouver restaurants have their beer on tap.

After stopping at a few other spots on the island including Bennet Bay Bistro for some Iced Tea we then headed back to return the e-bikes and then made our way back to the ferry terminal to return to Tsawwassen to then head home.

As this is a small island there are only a few eateries to explore and they are scattered all over the island.

By: Richard Wolak

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