On a recent trip to Parksville, exploring the Oceanside area brought us to Coombs Old Country Market looking for the Goats on the Roof. Unfortunately, the Goats weren’t on the roof but in their backlot enclosure. After browsing the Market shops, all the fresh produce and food products made us hungry.
We didn’t have to look far for dinner, Cuckoo Pizzeria and Trattoria is located right in the complex. The stucco walls and wisteria gave the restaurant a charming, old world feel and the variety of seating in the dining room felt like we’d entered someone’s Italian villa and not a restaurant in a tiny rural hamlet. The surrounding tiled verandas must be a summertime treat for al fresco dining. Our server stated the Cuckoo seats 350 in total but it never felt overly crowded or busy, just lively and vibrant.
The food lived up to the charm and style with rustic but classic Mediterranean fare. A basket of house-baked breads with a cup of rough cut tomato bruschetta, was a great start, the foccachia was a highlight of the breads. The duo of crab cakes is almost enough for a single person, shared they make great starters. The cakes were solid West Coast crab, not a lot of potato filler, like some restaurants. The tomato aoili and lightly dressed spinach round off each bite.
For mains, Billy choose Linguine Pescatora, a heaped bowl of linguine with local clams, mussels, prawns and scallops in a light coating of garlic, olive oil and fresh tomatoes. The seafood was definitely the featured flavour as the dressing was very mild, a couple of turns of fresh ground pepper added some accent to the dish. My Conchiglioni, shells stuffed with spinach, asiago and ricotta in a rich tomato & basil sauce. The only problem with this dish was wanting more of the tasty bundles, but the five large shells were plenty for a main course especially with some more of the focaccia to dip in the sauce.
We didn’t have any room left for desserts but everything else we saw coming from the open kitchen looked equally as great. We look forward to a future visit to Coombs to try more of Cuckoo’s menu.
Cuckoo in Coombs Trattoria & Pizzeria is located at The Old Country Market, 2326 Alberni Highway, just 10 minutes outside of Parksville.