High Tea at the Empress

A tiny chandelier-lit Fisgard Street patisserie of glossy macarons and cream-filled Paris-Brest that sells out before you have decided.

A tiny Cadboro Bay shop churning small-batch scoops like Vietnamese coffee and honeycomb, two blocks up from Willows Beach.

Steak frites and French red by candlelight in a Chinatown schoolhouse that doesn't take reservations for two, so arrive early.

A women-run Fort Street bakery of French pastries and tarts, where the last croissant always causes a diplomatic incident.

Victoria's Chinatown tasting menu that critics keep whispering 'Michelin' about, with just enough seats to feel like a genuine secret.

Tiramisu gelato and espresso in a century-old farmhouse, far enough out of town to make a cone feel like an afternoon.

A candlelit brick courtyard down a Victoria back alley, doing wood-oven Italian for 35 years and not sorry about it.

Modern Pacific Northwest tasting menus with fresh Fanny Bay oysters, in a Magnolia Hotel room that genuinely glows.

Thirty seats in Sidney, chef Matt Jackson's French-technique hyper-local cooking, and a 4.7 that explains why those seats go fast.

A 112-year-old James Bay house, a Genova-born owner cooking your pasta personally, and herbs from the garden out back.

Fort Street's Italian-leaning West Coast institution: house salumi, 300 bottles of wine and a room that makes three hours vanish.

Peter and Jo have run Zambri's for 25 years and the hand-rolled pasta has earned every one of them.

Fort Street Korean tapas and cocktails: low-lit, late-running, and serving a 'Squid Game' gochujang dish with the world's most appropriate name.

The hotel restaurant exception: Chef Peter Kim's seafood-forward Inner Harbour room where locals actually fight for a table.