Restaurant Review: Trail's End Cafe

As I mentioned in my review of Castlegar's The Element, that city isn't the local mecca for fine dining. But, it does have way more going for it than Trail, I have to say. Trail, which is closer to me than Castlegar by about 20 minutes, has the very famous Colander (which I vented about here), a pub that sells average food, and maybe one other place that I've heard good things about but haven't gotten around to trying yet. But there is one very good restaurant that is always full and serves really great food, and it's called the Trail's End Cafe (no web site, unfortunately). I've eaten there twice and haven't been disappointed either time.

My most recent trip was for lunch with a couple of girlfriends. We got there after the lunch rush so the dining room, located on the main floor of an old house in downtown Trail, was quiet.

The lunch menu consists of sandwiches, salads, and some gourmet pizzas. On my first visit, a few months ago, I had the BBQ chicken & mango wrap, and it was excellent. This time, I opted for my all-time favourite, the turkey club on ciabatta bread, and I had it with a side Caesar. It was excellent. The sandwich was $10.50.

My two friends each had the turkey, brie, and cranberry sandwich; one had a side Sonoma salad (greens, sun-dried tomatoes, blue cheese) and the other had the soup of the day, which was cream of garden vegetable (Trail's End also always has on offer a Hungarian mushroom soup that is rich and creamy and has lots of nice paprika in it; I had this with my wrap on my first visit and it was great). This sandwich also has strawberries in it and it's served on multi-grain bread. My friends were very happy with their choices. I think their sandwiches were $9.50.

I wanted dessert, and I can honestly say to you that Trail's End has the best dessert selection around: Grand Marnier Creme Brulee, Peanut Butter & Chocolate Pie, cheesecake, a decadent chocolate cake with a Tiramisu topping, and some others are among the choices. I opted for the Peanut Butter & Chocolate Pie. It came nicely plated and was really wonderful, but for $6.50, I thought it was a little pricey.

Trail's End also does dinner, and they have a good-looking dinner menu. I would definitely recommend this eatery over the Colander any day of the week, but you'll have to shell out quite a bit more money, though. Ah, well; I think it's worth it.

Thumbs up!