GANANOQUE, Ontario — Take the Thousand Islands Bridge at Alexandria Bay into Canada, pick up the Thousand Islands Parkway west toward Gananaque a few miles and you'll see the Glen House Resort sign on the St. Lawrence River side of the road.
A short drive down the secluded driveway and you're facing the main complex, which houses 80 rooms, heated indoor and outdoor pools, whirlpool, sauna, fitness room, shuffleboard, tennis courts and the reason for our visit, the restaurant.
Parking is a bit of a problem, so just pick a spot on the lawn on the side of the driveway on the way in.
A quick walk through the check-in area and you're in the expansive dining room, with a spectacular view of the river. It's open year-round, and the big fireplace conjures up warm thoughts of a cross-country après-ski afternoon, or coming indoors from an afternoon of ice skating on their secluded cove on the river.
But it's summertime, the freighters are going by, we're dining on the enclosed porch, and life is good. And the view is good.
A wine list and menu were already at each place setting. We considered a bottle of wine, but I was surprised at the relatively ho-hum selection — Yellowtail and Woodbrige-type stuff, and some Canadian offerings — so we passed in favor of an Alexander Keith draft and a Grey Goose and orange. Make that a Smirnoff and orange. They "just ran out" of the Goose.
Considering the size of the complex and the dining room, the menu was actually quite compact, with three or four appetizers, a couple of soups, three pasta dishes, three seafood and four meat entrées. Plus there's a list with a half-dozen "creations of the week."
OK, let's get started with appetizers and a soup or two: shrimp cocktail ($10), garlic bread ($7), escargot ($9), French onion soup ($8) and a cup of the soup du jour ($2).
Six shrimp were a little undersized but nicely displayed, hanging from a martini glass filled with a basic cocktail sauce. Unfortunately they were limp and watery and pretty tasteless.
Garlic bread was simple and straightforward: Italian bread sliced in half, brushed with garlic butter, sprinkled with Parmesan cheese and uniformly toasted. There was lots of it, served with an interesting white sauce that had an indefinable flavor.
Escargot in mushroom caps was a winner, even though it didn't appear to be at first. It arrived in the standard escargot bowl, but the mushroom caps were upside down covering the small snails, looking sadly dried out. Some melted orange-colored cheese (the menu said mozzarella, which is always white) didn't help the presentation.
However, a mouthful of snail, mushroom, mystery cheese and concealed garlic butter was a taste sensation that we couldn't get enough of.
The French onion soup broth was dark and well developed with a hint of tarragon. However, the crouton supporting the melted mozzarella (this was white) was a heel of bread, and cutting it was nearly impossible. We even put it on a bread plate and attacked it with a knife and fork. No go. Must have been a heel from the week before.
I tried the soup of the day, eloquently described by our young server as simply "spinach." Well, it wasn't green, and it didn't taste like spinach. It was white and starchy, not creamy, probably one of those powered cream soup bases available to restaurants, with little quarter-inch green squares of something floating around in it that I have to assume was spinach.
Dinners include a trip to the salad bar. It contained an iceberg lettuce salad and a spinach salad. Three unlabeled dressings that appeared to be Italian, Thousand Island and ranch were available.
There were some out-of-the-ordinary things, too, like cucumbers in a sweet white sauce (evaporated milk, sugar and vinegar, we found out), sliced mushrooms in French dressing, and broccoli mixed with what we think was ranch dressing.
And maybe it was left over from a banquet the night before, but there was a small platter of sweet and sour chicken on the salad bar. And imitation bacon bits and croutons from a box.
A backup waitress delivered our entrées. We weren't entirely sure they were ours, because when she set them down on the waitress stand behind us, she said out loud to herself, "I hope this is the right table."
Then she stood in front of the table with one meal in her hand and said, "Who had the chicken?" We like to get quiet when wait people don't know where things are supposed to go. She looked back at her tray questioningly and said, "I think this is yours ..."
Did I mention that there was a great view of the river?
Fettuccini Alfredo with chicken ($20) included fresh seasonal vegetables with a crunch in a not-too-rich Alfredo sauce, along with strips of tender chicken. The fettuccini was overly limp — cooked too long for my liking.
An interesting offering was the stuffed rainbow trout ($21). It's a whole trout from head to tail and everything in between. The menu said it was stuffed with shrimp and crab and mushrooms, but you couldn't identify any of that stuff. It must have been mushed up in the breading.
We don't believe it was cooked to order. It had that "I was stuffed and cooked earlier today and just warmed up when your order came in" look to it. The fish was quite delicate, and thankfully not overpowered by the stuffing. It couldn't have been too bad, because pretty soon there were just a tail and a head on the plate looking up at us.
Not the tail. Just the head.
The Glen House offers two classic chicken preparations: chicken cordon blue (stuffed with ham and cheese) and chicken Kiev (stuffed with garlic butter). We got the Kiev ($20), and it was quite enjoyable — a large breast encrusted with coarse panko bread crumbs and lightly fried. The fun part is cutting in to it and having the warm garlic butter rush out.
From the "weekly creations" list we tried roasted pork loin ($23). Two moist pieces of boneless pork were seasoned with salt and pepper, pan-seared and served with salt potatoes and an unappealing piece of fennel that had been sitting in a steam table too long.
The co-op waitress team is a neat thing when both waitresses know what the other is doing. In this case, neither waitress knew what she was doing herself, let alone what the other was doing. They had no idea who got what appetizer or entrée. They didn't have a clue about food preparation. They managed to clear the table of dirty dishes after each course, but that was about it.
A rolling dessert cart caught our eye on the way in, and now it was rolling up to our table, loaded with three tiers of good-looking confections. Only one was made in-house, but they were all good, priced at $5.25 each.
We got three desserts: chocolate mousse layer cake, a fudgelike chocolate cake with pieces of cheesecake inside, and a creamy cheesecake made in-house and topped with gobs of whipped cream that was our favorite of the three. Perhaps being served at room temperature allowed for more flavor and creaminess.
Dinner for four came to $175 before tip, but did include almost $22 in Canadian taxes. We expect to get approximately that amount in credit on our credit card statement when the Canadian funds are converted.
It's interesting to note that all menu prices posted on the Web site were rounded up to the next higher dollar on our guest check.
It appears the Glen House is more interested in filling rooms with conventioneers than filling bellies with good food, which is exactly what was going on the night we were there. The food wasn't bad; it just wasn't great. The service wasn't bad; it just wasn't great. More like you'd expect at a Tim Horton's doughnut shop.
But did I mention, there's a great view of the river?
You can contact Walter E. Siebel via e-mail: wsiebel@wdt.net.
Glen House Resort
409 Thousand Islands Parkway
Gananoque, Ontario
1 (800) 268-GLEN (4536)
Not-great food served in an expansive dining room with a spectacular view of the St. Lawrence River.
Serving dinner 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. seven day a week
THINGS TO TRY: French onion soup, escargot, stuffed rainbow trout, chicken Kiev
THINGS NOT TO TRY: shrimp cocktail, spinach soup, chicken on the salad bar
Be sure to remember what you ordered, because the waitresses won't.
RATING: 2 and a half forks
