Island Night at Di Reggae Cafe

Off-Fraser corner café, 4.7-rated, with jerk chicken that falls off the bone and oxtail rich enough to end an argument.

Commercial Drive's Trinidadian counter spot, where you tear buss-up-shut roti with your hands and bond over the glorious mess.

Surrey's street-suya cult favourite turned proper lounge, where fire-grilled yaji spice and smoky party jollof make every date feel like a party.

Ethiopian stews by hand, a live Friday band, and the kind of injera-sharing that requires getting very comfortable very quickly.

The only dinner where eating with your hands from the same plate is not just allowed, it's the whole point.

The Drive's long-loved Jamaican kitchen, where jerk, oxtail and a sunny terrace do the date-night heavy lifting.

New West's Ethiopian-Eritrean spot where dinner is a shared platter you eat by hand and ends with a traditional coffee ceremony.

Six or eight tables, Ethiopian art, and a tradition called gursha where you hand-feed each other, which is romantic on purpose.

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

The Vietnamese street food that made Anthony Bourdain misty on television now has a permanent home on The Drive.

Butter chicken poutine, paneer tacos and spiced cocktails in Surrey's slickest Indian lounge, open until 3am.

The Burnaby sleeper locals quietly guard: a 4.6-rated Ethiopian-Eritrean room where regulars insist the food is the best in the province.

Robson St Korean with tabletop grills, banchan aplenty, and the universal icebreaker of shouting 'is that done yet?'

A decades-long West Broadway fixture serving Kashmiri and Mughlai recipes nobody else in the city is cooking.