If it鈥檚 fine dining you request, it鈥檚 a Ucluelet restaurant TripAdvisor suggests.
TripAdvisor recently unveiled its Best of the Best Awards for 2022 and Pluvio Restaurant and Rooms tops the list of Best Fine Dining Restaurants in Canada.
Warren Barr and Lily Verney-Downey opened the intimate 24-seat culinary experience in 2019 and have been delighted to see their creation quickly become a TripAdvisor darling with a 5-star rating based on 553 reviews. The restaurant has also as long as its reservation list, with the recent fine dining award joining an already crowded trophy cabinet that includes a spot on Air Canada鈥檚 enRoute magazine鈥檚 list of Canada鈥檚 Top 10 Best New Restaurants, www.canadas100best.com Best New Destination Restaurant list, and a fourth place spot on TripAdvisor鈥檚 Best Date Night Restaurant in the World.
鈥淏etween Canada鈥檚 100 best and TripAdvisor, we feel like we鈥檝e had a really spectacular year and we鈥檙e just really grateful for all the awesome guests we have that come through and are so supportive of us, whether they鈥檙e visiting from afar or from the community that joins us so often,鈥� Barr told the Westerly News. 鈥淚t鈥檚 very rewarding. We get a lot of cards, letters and even presents from guests after they鈥檝e left just thanking us for a wonderful evening. It鈥檚 pretty amazing to be able to impact people that much through a restaurant. It鈥檚 awesome.鈥�
Verney-Downey said they had not heard about the Best Fine Dining award from TripAdvisor before her phone started buzzing with messages from excited patrons and supporters congratulating them.
鈥淭hat really comes from our team making that connection with the guests. It makes it all worth it to have that relationship with the guests and have that personal connection and for our team to have that personal connection with people and to make that level of impact that people are choosing to go online and write reviews,鈥� she said. 鈥淲e don鈥檛 solicit reviews. We don鈥檛 do any rewards for reviews, so this really does come from people wanting to share their experience and that comes down to the work that our team does here.鈥�
She added one of the first people to congratulate them was Richard Norwood,
Barr noted Norwood鈥檚 had also cooked up a long list of awards in its day.
鈥淥bviously there鈥檚 a horseshoe somewhere in this building,鈥� he laughed.
He added he and Verney-Downey are 鈥渧ery hands-on鈥� and work hard to ensure the restaurant鈥檚 staff is as happy as its guests.
鈥淲hen we first conceived Pluvio in our brains, the focus was always going to be on the team. If the team鈥檚 happy then the guests are going to be happy as well. A miserable server is not going to deliver a really happy, positive experience. So, we wanted to focus on a positive team environment,鈥� he said.
Verney-Downey explained the 17-member crew is vital to the restaurant鈥檚 success.
鈥淲e wanted to create a restaurant that we would want to work at and that people want to be long-term,鈥� she said. 鈥淣otoriously, hospitality has a really high turnover and ideally we would like to never have to hire again, we鈥檇 like every single member of our team to be here forever.鈥�
Barr added the community鈥檚 welcoming and rustic charm provided a hearty foundation to build the restaurant鈥檚 menu around.
鈥淲e鈥檙e definitely trying to deliver a world class experience to the best of our ability here, but we also want to make sure you know you鈥檙e in Ucluelet and on the West Coast of Vancouver Island. So, we鈥檙e trying to marry those two things,鈥� he said. 鈥淎s thought out and meticulous as it is, we try to keep a bit of a rugged edge to it because that鈥檚 just what I think about the coastline here. It is a little rugged along the waterfront here and there鈥檚 that feeling when you鈥檙e walking along the Wild Pacific Trail; everything is beautiful and magnificent, but it鈥檚 pretty raw still and untamed, so we try to carry that feeling through the food program as much as we can.鈥�
Verney-Downey added the community鈥檚 support has been palpably robust since day-one.
鈥淭hat warm welcoming service and that connection that our team makes is a reflection of the community here,鈥� she said. 鈥淔rom the moment we opened our doors, we felt so supported by the community. We had people that we鈥檇 never met showing up at the back door to drop flowers off for us that they鈥檇 grown in their garden, people reached out to us and said, 鈥榃e鈥檝e got an abundance of redcurrants. Do you want to come down and pick some for the restaurant鈥欌�here鈥檚 a lot of guests that we see quite regularly and then there鈥檚 guests that we see once or twice a year to celebrate those really big special occasions and that鈥檚 so wonderful to be able to have that here. We feel very supported.鈥�
andrew.bailey@westerlynews.ca
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