Slow Coffee at Crescent Coffee House

A thirty-year-old Richmond warehouse hung with classic records and old instruments, serving crab cake bennies and waffles from 8am, seven days.

A 1912 heritage room at the foot of Dundarave Pier, gutted so nothing stands between the table and Burrard Inlet.

Chef J-C Poirier's Michelin-starred Railtown room where Québécois comfort food arrives in quantities your willpower simply won't survive.

The only Ladner table actually over the water: chowder, coconut prawns and the fishing fleet sliding past the deck.

North Van's original nano-brewery, still pouring one of the best IPA lineups in the region out of a tasting room that has never once tried to be fancy.

A tiny Railtown chalkboard room doing nose-to-tail, seed-to-fork cooking that changes with whatever's actually good right now.

Granville Island's under-the-bridge seafood institution, where the oysters are cold, the sushi bar hums, and False Creek handles the mood lighting.

A tiny Commercial Drive room built on Italian aperitivo culture, amaro walls, and booths sized for exactly two.

Reed Point Marina's floating restaurant, with a blanket-stocked patio and BC seafood that lets the sunset do the romancing.

Vancouver's first natural-wine bar, a tiny bare-bulb Kitsilano room built for organic pours, premium sake, and losing track of time.

South Surrey's tiny, fiercely good open-kitchen bistro: Chef Veen's French technique, BC farm sourcing, and a 4.7 that politely destroys every chain nearby.

Chef Hector Laguna's plant-draped Coal Harbour room, where the world-ranked cocktails alone justify the good shirt.

Frying halibut on Horseshoe Bay's waterfront since 1946, which makes Troll's older than the bridges you probably crossed to get here.

Vancouver Foodie Tours runs a two hour progressive meal through the market: cheese, charcuterie, candied salmon, chocolate truffles and a honey-dip donut finish.