Coffee and Baking at the Brentwood Bay Village Empourium

A local artisan ice cream shop in the walkable heart of Langford, sharing its counter with Victoria Pie Co.

A tiny from-scratch bake shop and ice cream counter at the top of Beacon Avenue, with outdoor seats a few minutes from the pier.

The Fort Street bakery's Uptown counter, putting proper French pastry and real espresso in the middle of Saanich.

A plain little counter in Esquimalt Plaza whose jam donuts and thick Scottish shortbread people cross town for.

The 130-year-old tea house where choosing between a hundred loose-leaf options and the pastry case somehow becomes the whole, happy date.

Down Trounce Alley in Victoria, a snug tapas bar where the sherry list is one of the biggest in Canada.

Climb above a Victoria bar to find Spanish tapas since 2014 and a happy hour with 50% off the wine list.

A tiny face-to-face bouchon in Oak Bay where the wine list has won awards and the elbow room has been intentionally omitted.

A neighbourhood pub on the Saanichton corner that has been an inn since 1859, and the only room out here that runs to midnight.

A working single-malt distillery and craft brewery under one roof, where a 45-minute tour ends in a tasting flight.

The Chateau Victoria's hotel bar, Canada-nominated, with rare vintage spirits and leather banquettes built for slow, low-lit evenings.

A moody Bastion Square wine bar with oysters, blankets in the back courtyard, and wines that reward asking questions.

A 1909 bank vault of a bookshop on Government Street, on every world's-best-bookshop list, and it costs nothing to wander.

The quieter, candlelit alternative to the Empress: Victorian afternoon tea in an 1890s mansion, five minutes from the Inner Harbour.