Just before you get to Sooke and 17 miles from Victoria's city hall, you'll find the 17 Mile House Pub. Built as a rest-house in 1894 and loaded with ghost stories, the 17 Mile Pub has a truly authentic olde England feel and a somewhat sordid past (the website notes among other things that the hotel was known as a place unmarried couples could get a little privacy).

While they have a patio and beach volleyball court out back these days, the 17 Mile House much more lends itself to a dreary winter day with it's small windows, poor lighting and uneven floor boards. The furnishings and decor are painfully genuine and true to the history of the place, with details like insignias for the former occupants of favoured bar stools. Patty noted, "you don't see a lot of pubs with wall paper?!"

Enough with the past, on this Sunday afternoon we arrived ready for a a hearty lunch and a couple of pints. It was a little odd, that upon seating ourselves at a table near the bar, that there appeared to be no service staff whatsoever either on the floor or behind the bar. This went on for a few minutes and we certainly thought it was unusual, but hey it's haunted, maybe the ghosts were watching the taps. That said, the service wasn't top notch. Our server was friendly and competent, but wasn't terribly present -- Patty went without a refill for his beer for too long -- gawdforbid!

I ordered the 'famous' seafood chowder in a sourdough bread bowl ($8.95). It was yummy - extremely creamy and the top of the bread bowl had been grilled, a nice touch. Patty had the Super Burger with fries ($9.25). A giant, fully loaded burger, with fries.  The beef patty was pretty standard, but the toppings were reasonably fresh and the bun had good structural integrity - what more do you need. Pints of Race Rocks were on special for $4.75 and at the end of our meal, our tab was a whopping $31.75- ya can't beat that!

The 17 Mile House Pub is a friendly place, with decent food and a cool atmosphere. A good choice when you're heading west.

Value of Food: 90100

Quality of Food: 76/100

Service: 64/100

Ambiance: 85/100

Average score: 79/100

  Reviewed: March 12. 2006