This gingerbread house is life size -

Looking like it came straight out of Candyland, the gingerbread house can seat six guests inside and can accommodate nine seatings each day for breakfast, lunch or dinner.  When not being used for meals, the gingerbread structure is home to Santa, where he meets good little boys and girls.

You can reserve the house for a meal for 20.00, plus the cost of the meal.  The reservation is donated to a local charity. Dining reservations are available to the public, as well as to Great Wolf Lodge guests.

This year, the Lodge is partnering with Child Advocacy Centre Niagara, a group that helps abused children in Niagara’s twelve municipalities.
This marks the fourth consecutive year that the Great Wolf Lodge has partnered with a local agency. To date, more than $8,700 has been raised for local charities.

It looks like you can get the whole Winter wonderland experience when you visit Great Wolf Lodge.
They will have:

• Picturesque horse-drawn sleigh rides straight out of a holiday carol
• Visits by Santa, Mrs. Claus and all of their cheery elves
• Freshly made and oh-so-delicious “Taffy on Snow” treats
• Holiday magic performed right before your eyes – during the Forest Magic shows
• And fun and games the whole family will enjoy

For gingerbread house dining reservations, call (905) 354-4888 ext. 5718, or visit the restaurant’s host stand. Select holiday dining times are available. Those with reservations can be seated at the gingerbread house December 3rd through Jan. 9 (does not include New Years Eve).

We arrived a half hour before closing and were welcomed with a smile.  The place wasn’t super busy, probably because it was a work night and late at that.  You walk in the restaurant through the gift shop, and are escorted back , where they put us at a table overlooking the petting zoo next door with their European Deer.  As we walked to our seat, we glanced at the buffet we knew would be there.  We really looked, because the food looked scrumptious – a half hour before closing on a weeknight and the food looked fresh, so fresh, they were refilling some of the bins.

As we sat down, our server took our drink orders and let us know that if we wanted the buffet, we could go and start, and if we wanted to look at the menu that she would take our order when she came back with our drinks.  No pressure.  I don’t love going to places that have a buffet and they give you the look that makes you wonder if someone will spit in your food because you want a special order.  We decided to go with the buffet because the food look so great.  I’m not a fan of buffets, but this one was perfect.

There is warm soup – it was navy bean though on such a warm day, neither of us wanted soup.  The salad bar had a lot of different items, lots of fresh cut vegetables and the other salad bar regulars.  Amish style chicken and noodles, a regular at the buffets was very good, not thick and gooey, but my favorite side dish was the sweet potatoes.  The sweet potato casserole tasted like the real thing, freshly made.  It had a crunchy brown sugar topping that was good, but I didn’t need the topping, I loved the dish as it was.  Some of the vegetables, like the green beans and the mixed veggies looked uninspired, but I had the sweet potatoes, so I wasn’t worried.  My husband ate two plates of mashed potatoes, real mashed potatoes.   There were two types of chicken, fried and broasted, both were delicious.  I liked the broasted better, my husband preferred the fried.  There was also ham, and pork and for the really adventurous – chicken livers.  Yeast rolls were the bread of the evening, they were the standard type you get around Thanksgiving.  We both drank the tea, and I usually sweeten mine, but it didn’t need it.  It’s probably the best brewed tea I’ve had in a restaurant, not bitter but cold and good.

There isn’t a dessert bar, but you can find pudding in the salad bar.  Pies are offered by the slice off the menu and would be great if you weren’t full.  We were full to the brim and though the pies looked mouth watering, we waddled back out through the gift shop to get to our car.   I recommend this restaurant as a nice alternative to McDonalds and Wendy’s.  We will probably visit it again when we travel to pick up or drop off our son at college.

The cabins were exactly what I was looking for. We wanted enough space for us to spread out and relax without being stuck on the bed to watch TV or read, if that’s what we wished to do.  The cabins are two separate rooms, a living room, with a very comfortable couch (not a hard futon – I am so tired of those), some chairs, a fireplace, a two person Jacuzzi, and a television set.  The bedroom was the other full room, with a king size bed, closet, dresser, etc.  Both rooms were very very spacious.  There’s also a nice size bathroom with a walk in shower and in between  the living room and bathroom was a small walk through area with a microwave and fridge and sink.  Off the back of the cabin was a nice small deck with table and chairs.  I love that the bedroom in the cabin had dark curtains and faced away from the morning sun.  I am not a morning sun person (ask my sister), and when I’m on vacation, I’m especially not a morning sun person. The inn is off the beaten path, and very much a quiet relaxing place.

They ask that you drop off the slip and indicate whether you’d like breakfast at 8:30 or 9:30 and if you want tea or coffee with your breakfast.  I’m a coffee person and their coffee was perfect.  My husband had the tea, which is hot water and a tea bag of your choice.  You stop in at the common room of the main house for coffee while you wait to be called to breakfast.  I wasn’t sure how I’d enjoy breakfast with a bunch of strangers;  that’s usually not my style.  However, it was a very pleasant, even very pleasing experience. Everyone chatted together so well and enjoyed each other’s company. Breakfast ended too quickly, the conversation and food was that good.

Sunday’s breakfast we started off with blueberry muffins, still warm from the oven and warned to be careful because blueberries can be hot when they burst in your mouth.  Next was a fruit plate, with a little mint, which I’m sure came from the patch outside the kitchen door.  Finally, we were given a sweet choice, or savory and if we couldn’t decide, half and half.  The sweet choice was French Toast stuffed with Nutella and the savory choice was an egg soufflé of some kind. Both were served with a delicious peppery bacon and juice of your choice.  Everyone else was leaving on Sunday, but since Sunday was our actual anniversary, we decided to stay Saturday and Sunday nights.

Saturday, my husband and I went to Gambier to check out Kenyon College area and The Brown Family Environmental Center.  They have a neat butterfly garden, with plants I’ve never seen before . We took a short hike along the river, and actually waded in to cool off, since it was 90 degrees and a very warm day.  Lunch was at the Deli on campus.  My husband an I shared a sandwich and side salad.  Half of a sandwich was very filling and we knew that our dinner was going to be awesome and so didn’t stuff ourselves.  We went back to the inn, and we were on relaxation time, so we grabbed our books and sat on the glider on the front porch and read for a good while.  My husband and I love to relax with a good book, immersing ourselves in reading was such a great way to spend some down time.

Ian let us know the dinner basket was coming to the cabin soon, so we went back to clean up a little.  When Yvonne came in, she showed us how the coffee table pulls up to use as a dining table.  The basket was perfect, every thing was wrapped to keep warm and clean for the short walk, but on nice plates with real silverware.  I would have been disappointed for paper, this is a class establishment.  We had a really warm crusty loaf of French bread with butter, a garden salad with mandarins and lightly dressed,  a cheese plate with assorted cheeses,  a main course, desserts and chocolates.  The main course was two roast Cornish game hens served over top a buttered pasta with cheese.  These hens were so tasty.  My husband is a poultry lover, it’s his favorite entree, so this was perfect.  The hens had a crispy skin covered in a rub or coarse salt.  It was delicious, and even though I don’t eat the skin, I did take a taste or two because it was so tempting.  For dessert, there was a chocolate cake, with melty chips inside.  The cake was to die for moist, plus there were also some of the Inn’s cookies. These cookies are better than any I’ve had before.  I need to tell you that after I was back home, I chastised myself for not checking the cookie jar on the way out to see if I could swipe any to take with us.  The dinner came with sparkling pear wine and wine glasses.  They don’t serve wine (unless it’s a wine weekend), but you are welcome to bring your own.  The sparkling wine worked fine with our meal, though we had packed our own wine to take on the trip.

Ian and Yvonne let us know they would be out the next morning for breakfast, but their staff would take care of us just fine.  Our breakfast the next morning was equally delicious.  Banana nut muffins  and a fruit plate with mint.  I had the blueberry pancakes – perfectly made so that the blueberries burst in your mouth, and my husband had the herbed scrambled eggs.  Both came with a maple sausage pattie.  We took our coffee and tea back to the room, and still stole some reading time.  Checkout wasn’t until 11, and we were savoring our last minutes before we headed back home.

I give the Inn an A and 32 pluses.  It was the perfect Romantic Weekend Getaway.  Yvonne, Ian, the staff and Dougal (the dog) all made it a wonderful 23rd anniversary.

This was not a sponsored review.  I found the White Oak Inn online and we tried it out on our own money and time.