Temagami is a small town on Hwy 11, about 100 km north of North Bay. It’s a good starting point for canoeing and boating on a beautiful lake. I pass through about once per month. Sometimes the timing works out to eat a meal there, sometimes not.
Long ago there was a fine Danish restaurant there, run by a couple who have since retired. There was also a Chinese-Canadian place that was OK, but it appears to have closed during the pandemic. And there have been a couple of chip stands, which sometimes served a decent pickerel and chips. And there is the gas station, where you can get subs, burgers, and the like.
Temagami is not the place one would expect to find a smokehouse, so The Outfitter is a pleasant surprise. It is only open during warmer weather months and it has a patio with a lovely view of Lake Temagami.
There’s only so much I’ve been able to try as a solo diner, but I can now at least comment on the meats and many of the sides. The brisket is only OK, certainly moist, but undersalted and not very smokey. The pulled pork and the chicken are fine, but unremarkable. However the sausage is very smokey and tasty. And the best meat is the pork ribs, which are smokey and fall-off-the-bone.
The best side is the Korean pickles, redolent with sesame and chilis. The homemade pickles are also very good. The coleslaw has a nice creamy, mustardy dressing. The mac and cheese is fine, if unexceptional. The beans were very firm and didn’t seem like they had baked in the sauce for any length of time. For drinks, they have a bunch of cocktails, the best of which is the Haskap Gin Smash, which includes locally grown haskap, Bombay Sapphire, lemon, mint, and soda.
And now, in the place of one of the chip stands is a place called The Happy Dumpling. There are many varieties on hand, a few which are semi-Asian and others veer off non-typical dumpling territory (butter chicken, beef taco, pizza). The pork version I had was more traditional, with chopped cabbage, carrots, green onions, and ginger. They went nicely with the house sauce of soy, black vinegar, and chili oil. They were certainly enjoyable and certainly a treat to have this far away from a major centre.
