Bullocks' Bistro

This story is from early July in Yellowknife, the capital of Canada's Northwest Territories.

As we were travelling towards Yellowknife two folk we encountered along the highway recommended that we eat at Bullocks' Bistro in Yellowknife's Old Town. The advice was the same in both cases, “It's expensive but it's worth it.”

So we made our way to the Old Town, which turned out to be an easier drive than to the visitor centre, and found a parking space by the Bush Pilots Monument. From there we admired the view and took photographs.

The monument

A view of houseboats on the Great Slave Lake.

We fell into conversation with another couple. They were John and Karen Dollar from Windsor, Ontario. They, too, were intending to dine at Bullocks' so we went down the hill together and requested a table for 4 so that we could continue chatting.

The bistro's specialty is fish, and the diner may choose between several species, and select either deep fried, pan fried or grilled. The prices were indeed very high. This better be good, even though our informants had also commented on the very large size of the portions.

A variation on straight fish is what the bistro calls “Slurp 'N Burp” - its interpretation of surf 'n' turf. This is a buffalo (i.e. bison) or reindeer steak with your choice of fish. The waitress added that these were enough food for two to share. The reindeer was unavailable that day, so we settled for a buffalo steak and pickerel meal to share. John and Karen also decided to divide a Slurp 'N Burp.

The servings were HUGE. The steak separated into two decent sized chunks of meat, and there were two generous pieces of fish, which made sharing easy.

When extravagance has already been committed, it was easy to add a drink to the bill. John Dollar even had a second beer.

Not only was there a lot of food, it was every bit as tasty as its reputation. Good food and good company. A great evening. John excused himself. The second beer obliged him to visit the washroom.

When he came back he announced that the bill had been taken care of. For all of us. This generosity was as lavish and sneaky as it was unexpected. Even sharing a plate at Bullocks' is not a cheap meal. And what can you say but “Thank you”.

Karen and John Dollar.

We swapped addresses with them. We determined that we would visit Windsor and reciprocate in some way.

But, alas, we didn't. The closest we got was Niagara. The weather was hot, humid and enervating. Windsor looked a long way away – almost to Detroit – and we were not enjoying driving on Ontario's busy main highways. And when we went to at least telephone, we had lost their address. An Internet search of the White Pages drew a blank. 

Karen and John have one of our traveling cards, but they have not sent an email. Our invitation to them to visit us in New Zealand stands, of course. But in the meantime, if anyone can magically locate a telephone number or an email address so that we may contact them, we will be very grateful.