French Dinner at L'Abattoir

Gastown's newest bistro serves one dish, an eight ounce striploin with green sauce and frites for $44, and refuses to apologize for the short menu.

A fun, fabulous French bistro on Hornby that Tripadvisor ranks in Vancouver's top ten, open from morning croissants to last-call cocktails.

The Fraser St bistro that locals call FauxBo, guard jealously, and can't stop recommending despite the notoriously tough reservation.

The Marinaside seawall's grande dame: French-leaning West Coast seafood and a wine list a hundred deep by the glass, with False Creek lapping past the patio rail.

A tiny family-run French kitchen hiding on a Lower Lynn side street, rewriting its whole menu every week.

Duck confit and beef bourguignon at a 55 acre Langley vineyard, poured with the wine that grew outside the window.

A Michelin-name Italian on Kingsway where spit-roasted meats, seasonal handmade pasta and wine do more romantic work than you ever had to.

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

A dim, jazz-soaked 1960s Tokyo cafe in Chinatown, where tajarin with uni is just how dinner starts.

Fort Langley's artisan bakeshop on the site of a 1910 blacksmith's, open at 7am for breakfast, oversized laminated pastry and Republica coffee.

Michelin-starred Kitsilano fine dining with vintage toys on the shelves, steps from the beach, and zero sense of its own importance.

Michelin-listed Main Street kitchen where Peru meets Tokyo and Canton: alpaca tartare, arroz con pato, and a pisco bar that hums until close.

Coal Harbour, Stanley Park and the North Shore mountains through floor-to-ceiling glass, with a Canadian Culinary Champion kitchen to match.

Where Pondicherry's centuries-old French-Indian love affair lands in Hastings-Sunrise, with a coconut tequila chaser.