Cape Fine Dining

Old Yarmouth Inn Hauntingly Good

The Old Yarmouth Inn Restaurant and Tavern has been hosting and haunting guests since 1696. 

Located on Route 6A in Yarmouthport,  "halfway between Plymouth and Provincetown", the inn is renowned for it's ghost stories, gladly retold by current innkeepers, Sheila Fiztgerald and Arpad Voros, on the menu.

But the real story with the Inn is the food and wine. A thoughtful menu of traditional dishes prepared in updated presentations served with expertly selected wines to back it up, and meticulous attention to detail paid to diners by the hosts and staff.

On this winter evening, we walked back in time to savour some of the best fare of the present.

Food  Of the three features of fine dining, this one is the hardest to get right,  and it happens to be the weakest link here. The dishes we tried had all the right features of fine cuisine prepared with great flare, but were a little too heavy on a sauteed sauce or too light on the grill seasonings, and therefore  just misses.  The Veal Saltimbucca and Mustard Roasted Salmon were overall beautifully prepared dishes with excellent proportions of starch, vegetables and meat, but the tastes didn't blend as perfectly. The sum of the parts were still greater than the whole.

Wine It's not easy creating an excellent wine list and keeping it within the reach of the occasional fine diner. But the Old Yarmouth Inn has managed to do so, while winning awards. An ecclectic selection of both white and red wines from the west Coast and Europe, with many varietals to choose from, compliment the food menu with reasonable prices. Several wines served by the glass were expertly selected and fairly priced to go.  We chose a bottle of petite syrah from a small vineyard; hard to find but easy to like, while sampling some Chardonnay by the glass.

Service  Impeccable water, bread, table (linen, silver and stemware) and wait service, not to mention the very attentive oversight of the innkeepers. The place runs like precision clockwork.

Atmosphere  The Inn has charm to be sure, and a timelessness. A collection dining rooms and a small tavern room, with low ceilings and fireplaces, give it a colonial feel, but the colors and updated decor keep is squarely in this century.

The Inn provides some of the most authentic "olde Cape Cod" dining to be found, but with the necessary modern improvements.

We rate our visit to the Old Yarmouth Inn 3 *** overall.  Worthy of the 3 $$$ required to savor the experience.  We are not of a superstitious nature, and we did not see any ghosts on this evening, but it was fun wondering if they were watching.

www.oldyarmouthinn.com