The Woodpecker Fresh Dining and Lounge

Looking for an early dinner in Port Elgin, we stopped by the Woodpecker for a bite. The place was empty (it was Wednesday after all), but when we got upstairs, there were Reserved cards on many of the tables. By the time we left, the place was packed! And no wonder!The hosts are new owners of the restaurant and are tasked with improving an already successful eatery. They seem to intuitively understand fine dining and hospitality: they get it. In addition to dinner seating on the second floor, they serve lunch on the first floor and have a large deck/patio off the dining lounge.The menu has good options for every taste and the wine list has a good variety of new and old-world wines at quite reasonable prices.I ordered the Salmon special while my companion chose the Beef Tenderloin. Presentation was lovely and the proteins were perfectly prepared. A special shout-out to the crispy baked prosciutto on the salads - a perfect touch. Excellent service rounded out a very nice evening.We'll certainly return the next time we're in Port Elgin.

Gather here with friends for a great lunch or dinner. Well prepared by experienced chef. Nice drink selection. Dining alfresco on the roof patio is a great experience. Fabulous menu.

Ate in the bistro (open till 3pm st which point they open upstairs instead). Beautiful atmosphere and setup although the table beside us was quite loud. Cream of mushroom soup then I had the quiche with salad and my husband had a hamburger. Fresh delish food with food portion sizes. My problem was with ordering: every time something new came out for another customer I changed my mind on my meal! We split their delish cheesecake. Amazing!

Lunch was delicious, great burger and Montreal smoked meat sandwich. Cheese cake was incredible. Looking forward to going back to try the dinner menu. Will be back for sure.

This was our first visit to the Woodpecker, and we did not know what to expect. We had a wonderful evening! We chose to have dinner on the patio even though it was a little on the cool side. The staff made sure we were comfortable with lighting the heaters and offering us blankets. The food was all well prepared, beautifully presented and delicious. We shared a chartreuse platter between the four of us, with crackers made in house to start. The main meals were salmon with lavender and honey glaze, hunter chicken, veal scaloppini, and lobster tail. We then finished off our meal with a variety of desserts, Irish whiskey and coffee. The meal was well paced, well presented and well served. We will definitely be back.