Pioneer House

Extremely crowded by tourists and locals, this decorative place serves great breakfasts in a old-​fashioned cowboy atmosphere. Staff is efficient, which they have to be with all these hungry folks. Best breakfast in the area for a decent price.

Came here for brunch, i ordered a brochette Benedict and my husband ordered 3 eggs omelette tiabatta. It was a reasonable price, good serving and a cosy atmosphere. only thing was i was still a bit hungry afterwards and i’m not a big eater …

THE hangover breakfast joint. Their breakfast menu is great and reasonably priced. Service is good but beware it gets VERY busy on weekends especially.
Get one of their pies to take home. They’re made in house and I’ve sampled several and let me tell you, they goooood

So we visited due to the reviews from Unilocal and my brother. Now I don’t know what he had or what most people writing the reviews have (whether the specials or the pub type fare) but my wife and I got excited when we had a look at the BBQ ribs menu.
First off, I will point out that the waitresses were great and very fast with the drinks at a moderately busy time. The menu looked fairly regular and the place definitely had that ‘frontier’ look.
My wife ordered a half rack of BBQ pork ribs and I had the beef ribs. We started to worry about the food when it arrive about 2 mins after ordering it. I have never gotten food that fast ever. It looked alright so we dug in and discovered that it must have been sitting on a counter for a couple of hours then microwaved. Seriously, if I wanted reheated ribs, I could have gotten then in better condition from 4 day old ribs I did on my own BBQ. The only thing that was fresh was the green salad my wife received and the red potato salad that they slapped on the plate before then brought it out. The baked beans weren’t, the corn on the cob actually wilted and the fat in the middle of the ribs was white solid.
I gave this eatery 2 stars mostly to the servers. They were a great bunch that kept our drinks full and we’re very prompt. I wanted to do all the complaining about the food but my wife restrained me and we finished up and left. It might serve wonderful pub fare, but their specials leave much to be desired. Good luck to you.

Holy smokes this place was great! My husband and I both had the shrimp stuffed mushroom cap sandwich and stuffed ourselves! It was so good that here it is 8 hours later and I’m still thinking about it! The atmosphere was cozy and inviting and we would definitely go back!

I have been coming for over five years ! And have seen the quality of food and service diminish year by year… I am very sorry to say I will not be back and it does take a lot for me to be disappointed– So goodbye pioneer house and I wish you could have been as good as yesteryear !

The best clam chowder my husband ever had, I had the crab cake benny with homemade hollandaise sauce… delicious and tasty. It doesn’t look like much from the outside but it is very quaint inside. I wish we had a restaurant like this in Abbotsford.

Surprisingly good family lunch, especially for the price.
As my son said: «This place is exactly what it tries to be.»
FOOD: 4 stars for the price. Wife had ribs: «best sauce I ever had». I had spinach and feta omelet. Excellent. Son had buffalo burger and enjoyed it.
Coffee very good.
SERVICE: 3 stars. Fast and efficient. No banter.
AMBIENCE: 3 stars. Log Cabin, with outdoor area. Good for family, but not for a romantic dinner.

Driving from Victoria to Nanaimo and north? Here’s the place to stop! A log structure, at the edge of Whippletree Junction, a gift and antiques/​collectibles «mall» idea, this rustic space offers breakfast, lunch and dinner choices… always good food, their fresh sheet offers exactly that, in season choices… when I’m in the Cowichan Valley, and anywhere nearby, I choose this as the destination. It’s the kind of place you can count on, and it can busy! By the way, if you’re into peanut butter cheesecake/​pie, then leave room… it’s the best!

The menu features a hodgepodge of different cuisines (thai noodle salad, butter chicken, fajitas — complete with sizzling plate, and pasta all on the same menu) and well over 100 dishes, many of which could be found on the menu of a faux-​irish-​pub chain restaurant circa 1985. While this all-​over-​the-​place approach could easily fail, the Pioneer House manages to serve up high quality meals, at varying, and reasonable prices. On the higher end scale, you can order off of the restaurant’s local/​seasonal menu. On the lower end, they have sandwiches and salads.
On our way home from a day of swimming at the Chemainus River, we opted to come here for our anniversary dinner, as we had eaten breakfast here before and liked the log cabin décor. We thought, hey, we should eat at one of those tables on the balcony overlooking the rest of the restaurant. But unfortunately, and understandably, they would not serve us up there.
So we found a table, nestled between a window, a wall, a tv, and an wooden bar circa 1880, which was trucked in from Butte, Montana.
The Pioneer House features an awesome wine selection, due to its location in the Cowichan Valley. They offer nearly 20 local wines by the glass, they also offer a mini flight of four 1.5 ounce glasses for $ 8. I decided to try two whites and two reds, further confirming that the Cowichan Valley Wineries can make fantastic whites, but the soil/​weather just isn’t the right fit for the reds.
We opened our meal with a rich spinach and artichoke dip, which was topped with gruyère or another super-​creamy cheese. i like the fact that the dip was mostly cheese, and not mostly mayo.
And as it had been five years since I had last indulged in Prime Rib, I opted to order it, largely because it came with Yorkshire Pudding, which I found to be a bit dense for my liking. I also found the gravy, which topped both the Yorkshire Pudding and the Mashed Potatoes to be saltier than I like.
My wife loved her pasta, which tasted as if it was made in house, or at least locally, rather than a mass produced fresh pasta plant.
We closed our meal with a homemade cheesecake — a rich way to end a rich meal.
It’s hard to do better than the Pioneer House in this area.