Sunflower Cafe – Is It Worth the Hype?

Mr. and I first heard of the Sunflower Cafe in Maple Ridge through our friend N, who saw someone post a raving review in a Facebook group about their experience. We were intrigued, obviously. It’s far from the hustle and bustle of Vancouver yet it’s giving a refined dining vibe in an outdoor space. The price tag also suggests so, since their dishes are priced between $13 and $49, or a five-course tasting menu for $85. So for the actual day of our 10th anniversary, Mr. and I decided to make a reservation at Sunflower Cafe to celebrate the milestone.

Sunflower Cafe is part of a working farm, with 2.5 acres of farmland producing more than 200 varieties of ingredients that are used in the restaurant’s menu. The dining space is all outdoors, with a few stand-alone gazebos that seat two to six people each, and a big canopy that seats approximately another 20 people. Most diners would have a view of the farm, seeing some of the ingredients that have made their way to our plates.

Now, writing this post gives me mixed feelings because it’s not going to be a raving post like the original Facebook post we saw, nor is it close to what some of my foodie friends felt after they went for a tasting. I have shared the same feedback directly with the restaurant prior to publishing this, hoping they would find it beneficial.

Food

The server was able to tell us what dishes were on the tasting menu and because they weren’t the ones we had wanted to try, we ordered the following a la carte instead: Lions Mane Tart, Crispy Lamb Belly, Parisienne Gnocchi, and Roast Fraser Valley Duck.

But first, complimentary house made dinner rolls. One point for the restaurant because pretty much no one gives out free bread at the start of a meal anymore. And these were good dinner rolls. Soft, pillowy texture, and the buttery smell was heavenly. The house made cultured butter was in perfect spreadable texture and went really well with the rolls. Mr. had to stop himself from finishing the bread — a sign that we were off to a good start.

In comes the Lions Mane Tart and the Crispy Lamb Belly. We’ve never had lion’s mane mushroom on its own before (only when it’s already turned into some gummies or chocolate or other edible forms to help with memory or focus), so I was quite excited about the Lions Mane Tart. It was roasted, sitting on a house-made puff pastry with garnishes. The puff pastry was flaky, but the texture of the mushroom was like nothing else — it’s meaty yet spongy, and the meat is shreddy, too. To me, the mushroom pieces didn’t have a lot of flavour to them so they required the rest of the dish to give it the oomph. The whole dish was lightly seasoned overall, which I assume was the intention so you could taste the mushroom, but it’s rather one-noted to me. For the Crispy Lamb Belly, the meat was shredded then crisped up, then put on top of a piece of house-made english muffin. That english muffin was really good (I always find english muffin kind of meh), crispy on the edges as well. I found some of the lamb belly meat to be over-fried and were a bit dry. Because these two dishes arrived at the same time, I noticed that they had very similar garnish on top (and was confirmed by our server as she described the dishes to us).

The next two dishes were also a bit of a hit and miss for us. The Roast Fraser Valley Duck was two halves of a duck breast served with Saskatoon and haskap berry jus. The skin was rendered well (better than some Vancouver restaurants), but there was a stringy gristle/silver skin throughout one of the halves. Perhaps it’s not butchered properly? We couldn’t slice into that piece cleanly into bite sizes. Otherwise, the duck breast itself was not bad. The maitake mushroom was bland, however. For the Parisienne Gnocchi, they were airy and fluffy, and the cream sauce was rich while the slow-cooked egg brought extra creaminess and richness. I appreciate the addition of pizza crumb for texture but overall the dish was not seasoned evenly. Some bites were quite salty, some bites were fine.

By this point, we have discovered that they do their pastries very well, so we shared the Seasonal Tart for dessert. It was alpine strawberries with pickled native gooseberries. The tart shell was thin and buttery, and the alpine strawberries were flavourful. I have never heard of native gooseberries before (I only know the yellow/orange caper gooseberries), so getting to try it in the tart was a nice surprise. The dessert was the highlight of our meal so I was glad it ended on a high note.

For drinks, Mr. chose the cocktail Red Velvet & Caffeine. The flavour was quite balanced, the foam had a nice mouthfeel to it. I ordered an easy drinking glass of Clos du Soleil 2023 Rose.

Service

In my opinion, there is definitely some room for improvement in terms of service. While we were waiting for our order to arrive, I saw that our neighbours received their dishes one at a time, so it caught me by surprise that the first two dishes arrived at the same time. But that’s OK because it’s not unusual that two appetizers arrive together. However, five minutes later, the other two dishes also came and now we had all four dishes at our table! If the dishes were to arrive whenever they’re ready, I feel that there’s a need for the server to give customers a heads up. If they meant to serve them by courses, then it showed a lack of coordination in timing the cooking. If it’s the former, that kind of pacing does not suit the vibe and concept. The gazebos weren’t all full at the time, and we were one of the three tables under the big canopy, so I didn’t see the need to rush the service. On top of that, it was a cool evening (roughly 16 degrees at that point), so the food could get cold quickly and it really wouldn’t do the food justice. The lamb belly got a bit greasy and the gnocchi started to become rather heavy because we were trying to juggle four plates at a time.

Similar to our experience at Soil, when we made our reservation, there was a question asking if we were celebrating a special occasion, and we responded that we were there for an anniversary. In this case, it’s our actual anniversary date. They could easily say something like, “hey, I see that you’re here to celebrate an anniversary, congratulations!” and I would be a happy girl. Unfortunately, there was no acknowledgement whatsoever, which dampened the celebratory mood a bit. And it’s OK if it’s not something they do — just don’t ask the question. But realistically, how difficult is it to check the answer when the guests arrive and verbally acknowledge it as you lead them to the table.

That being said, our server was lovely and nice. We asked her to help us take pictures and she even offered to take more for us after the dinner, which I thought was a nice touch.

Final Thoughts

This is their fifth season running the restaurant. Perhaps we ordered the wrong dishes; perhaps the kitchen had a bad day. At the end of the day, considering the price point of the menu (our final bill was close to $220), we had certain expectations and our experience didn’t quite meet them. A friend of ours went two weeks prior and she also didn’t love it.

I do love the farm-to-table concept, though, and it’s amazing to get a glimpse of the variety of ingredients they grow across the 2.5 acres of land. The gazebos were beautiful (I was so jealous of everyone in it since we were seated under the big canopy) and the farmland backdrop was well thought out. It’s probably really good on most days but it has the potential to be even better. I wish them nothing but the best.

Sunflower Cafe
10225 272nd Street, Maple Ridge
sunflowercafe.ca