Hearthstone Inn

560 King's Road

Sydney, NS

Our first outing of the year was to the Hearthstone Inn, or as most of us know it, the old Quality Inn on King's Road.  This motel was built many years ago when King's Road was two lanes and when the old Holiday Inn and the Isle Royale Motel were the only competitors in the area.  In the last number of years, however, the Holiday Inn has changed names and owners, the Isle Royale died a slow and painful death, and fierce competition opened up over the hill.

But this building has good bones and high hopes.  We were curious and anxious for our old friend.  How did our evening go?


The restaurant is still in the same place as it was, as is the see-through stone fireplace. The pictures on their website do not lie - the dining room is comfortable and cozy, with a nice view of King's Road.  Even though it was a Friday night at supper time, there were very few people in the restaurant and as it turned out, people at our table knew people at their table. The lounge was very busy - more on that later.

The first clue as to how the evening would proceed was in the title of the restaurant, which we learned when we sat down.  Believe it or not, the new owners chose the name "Commoner" for their newly renovated dining room, a title which turned out to say it all.

Our waitress met us at our table and passed us our menus, which were printed on plain white 8 1/2 x 11 printer paper. No watermark, no logo, no colour, no effort, no imagination. This was a bit jarring, considering we were sitting in a nice dining room; quite frankly, our expectations were a bit higher. While we were looking at the menu, we could see that the party in the lounge was heating up - there were dishes being delivered to the lounge, beautiful people were standing at the bar with drinks in their hands, and we could hear laughter. But we were still optimistic that we weren't going to be treated like commoners - the prices suggested that perhaps they thought we had money in our pockets, if nothing else.  And so, full of hope, we ordered.

Caesar Salad

Although we were seeing plates piled high with nachos and wings going by our table, those items were not on our menu.  And we were only allowed to order from our menu.  So our choices for "Befores" were minimum, to say the least.

Having said that, the two members of the group who ordered the Caesar Salad both told us how tasty it was - "really very good."  And yes, you can get a small version of this dish if you order it as a side, without everything else, which you will order later. Confused? So were we.

Chef with Watermelon Baby

Well, the party next door was beginning to get off the ground and we spotted one of the Chefs heading into the lounge with a watermelon.  He must have heard us chuckling, because this Sweetie came over to our table to show us his creation.  Yes, it's a baby in a watermelon and the poor souls next door, who were having such a marvellous time, were actually having a "Diaper Party."

We were still enjoying ourselves, mind you, as we always do, but honestly, I ask you.

It was like they were filming a Smirnoff party next door and we were actors in the group that was not drinking the right vodka.

The Special - Beer Battered Fish & Chips

So how were our meals?

Well, four of the members ordered the Special and just look at the serving!

Two huge pieces of fish and lots of home-made fries with a small container of coleslaw - true, there are no vegetables and three of the four people had to take some of the fish home, but again, it was very tasty.

Cranberry Chicken Sandwich

This meal was another tasty one - two of the members had ordered this item and both of them enjoyed their meal very much.

Again, there is nothing fancy about the service, which is just a bit curious considering the prices of the dishes.

Really, it was beginning to look like the Chefs (I watched at least two in the kitchen) haven't eaten at other restaurants in the city and haven't seen how other Chefs do it.

Chicken Stir Fry

Here is the Chicken Stir Fry and again, looking at the price of this dish, a little something more was expected.

It was very good, if not just a bit spicy, but surely a Chef who can make a Watermelon Baby could come up with a classy presentation. Or even a roll.

I mean, really.

Open-Faced Turkey Sandwich

This is the dish that I ordered - that is supposed to be "home-made" bread under the turkey, but unless they consider Ben's to be "home-made", they are lying.

And couldn't that have looked just a bit more appetizing?  At least, cover the bread if you're going to lie to me.

But it was tasty and I enjoyed it.  Not for that price, mind you, but I enjoyed the flavours.

Candles on the table

Here we were, sitting in a very comfortable dining room, with a nice fake fire burning and pretty pictures on the wall and we were confused.  Something was wrong.

Just look at the "candles" on the table. Only one of the cheap mason jars has a tea light in it! Didn't we deserve more? Two lights?

The Hearthstone renovated our old motel but forgot to look at their food service.  The lounge was rocking, but the dining room was not.

This, dear readers, is our tea service. Again, it could have been so much more - I did see one of the Chefs putting away two large and gorgeous Brown Betty teapots.  Two teapots that he wasn't going to share with us, Commoners, nope, no way.

Instead, we had our meals with lukewarm tea that fluctuated in depth and taste as the waitress served us throughout the evening.

And to make matters worse, one of the ladies at the table is still waiting for her tea.

Now comes the most infuriating part of the evening! Yes, there is, in fact, more. The Commoners restaurant does not have a dessert menu...you read that correctly.  You can sit in their nice dining room, you can watch the party next door, you can almost taste the nachos and wings going by, you can suffer through with one tea light, but no, you can't have dessert.

I think our jaws hit the floor because our waitress actually went into the kitchen to see if she could find something for us.  And do you know what she found?  She found 5 slices of frozen carrot cake that had been put aside for the Sunday Buffet. Two of us opted to have the cake - by this point, I was determined to have the full Commoner experience - and here it is:

Frozen Carrot Cake

It was delicious!

Do you remember that there was another group in the dining room at the same time that we were there?  Well, as they were leaving, they stopped at our table and said "it would have been nice to have had some dessert" in such sad voices. Imagine - no desserts! That's almost as bad as the restaurant (September 2014) that told us to go next door to buy our tea. Actually, if I hadn't been there, I wouldn't have believed it.

I have lots of good memories of dinners at the old motel and my heart goes out to the old building. It was meant to be so much more; it could have been so much more. Truly sad.