Food in Nova Scotia _ Heartwood Cafe

Rhowena MacCuish with fresh mint tea in a cast iron teapot at Heartwood cafe, Halifax, NS

Whilst honeymooning in Nova Scotia for two weeks in September my husband and I had ample opportunity to try out the local restaurants and cafes which we did with great delight. Firstly I would say that I was delighted to find that NS was not too heavily influenced by American culture, especially when it came to the food. Now I’m not saying there is anything wrong with American food, and I know there are plenty people who love it, it’s just not my cup tea. To my delight NS has lots of fantastic farmers markets to offer, fresh seafood and in general supports the prohibition of pesticides. And with the influence of French culture there is plenty of quality cheese to be had. Excellent.

My following blog posts will detail some of the best dining experiences that we had around the province and since we started in Halifax that is where I will begin with my food journey of NS. Heartwood Cafe found on Quinpool Road is a little gem, a casual dining experience recommended to us by our wonderful Irish Pebble B&B host Liz.

So on our second day in NS we headed over there for lunch ducking out of the pouring rain we slid our buts into one of their booths. I was delighted to find that they had mint tea available, but when they said it was dried, I requested fresh mint and they were very happy to oblige. They brought it out in the cutest cast iron teapot, I really wanted to keep it!

Heartwood is a vegan/vegetarian cafe but don’t let that put you off, anyone who thinks eating vegetarian/vegan is boring should try this place. There were so many things I wanted to try on the menu. All of their produce is organic and they had many options which were gluten free. Admirably, they also bake their own bread in house and grow their own sprouts. Even my husband who normally insists on having meat with everything enjoyed it thoroughly. He had one of the bowls which was quite large in size and tasted just devine. I had a lentil burger which although was very nice was a little dry as can be the case quite often with veggie burgers. Great presentation on both dishes and excellent service. I would definately go back and probably order one of their bowls next time.

This was a great place for lunch or a casual dinner with excellent value for money. You can find their website here for more information. So if you ever find yourself in Halifax, NS and hungry, do pop in.