Village Breakfast at Ruth & Dean

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

A Tudor heritage manor ringed by wild oaks, with crackling fireplaces, heated patios, and Times Colonist dining wins year after year.

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

A tiny room at the far end of Sidney's pier where the halibut is worth the money and the Mount Baker view is free.

Fort Street's beloved all day breakfast room since 1991, with art crammed onto every wall and a benny list that runs to double digits.

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

Floor-to-ceiling harbour views and a West Coast kitchen at the literal edge of the Inner Harbour seawalk.

A brand-new marina room in Sidney where nearly every table looks out over the boats, wild BC seafood and an award-list of wine.

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

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

Victoria's original neighbourhood pub since 1954, with Mount Baker in the window and a fireplace for the days it isn't.

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

Air Canada Best New Restaurants longlisted Kerala cooking with a patio pointing straight at Victoria Harbour.

Oceanfront fire pits, a Wine Spectator wine list, and wood-fired pizza named The Spicy Beast, all at Oak Bay Beach Hotel.