Find the Door at Artemis Whiskey Bar

The quieter, candlelit alternative to the Empress: Victorian afternoon tea in an 1890s mansion, five minutes from the Inner Harbour.

A 30-seat art-filled room in Sidney for French-inspired Peninsula cooking and a smoke-and-rum cocktail worth making the drive for.

The 130-year-old tea house where choosing between a hundred loose-leaf options and the pastry case somehow becomes the whole, happy date.

Climb above a Victoria bar to find Spanish tapas since 2014 and a happy hour with 50% off the wine list.

A tiny face-to-face bouchon in Oak Bay where the wine list has won awards and the elbow room has been intentionally omitted.

A Sidney fromagerie by day and wine bar by evening, owned by two wine-shop refugees who cut 150-plus cheeses to order.

The Toptable group's Victoria showpiece: Japanese-style raw bar, West Coast plates, and the atrium is where the intimate seats live.

A properly small room on Herald Street pouring funky low-intervention bottles and chef Billy Nguyen's seasonal plates, worth every booking.

A brick basement off Yates Street with old-book niches, lamplight, and cocktails consistently ranked among the city's best.

A neighbourhood pub on the Saanichton corner that has been an inn since 1859, and the only room out here that runs to midnight.

Vancouver Island's best-known brewery pours its whole range in a bright sixty-seat lounge with a patio the same size again.

Seven nights of live Celtic fiddle, the largest Irish whiskey list in Canada, and 1am doors on Bastion Square.

Downtown raclette scraped tableside, gourmet cheese boards, an international wine list, and staff who know exactly what you should be drinking.

Free live music every night inside one of Victoria's most gorgeous rooms, in the old Bank of British Columbia, until 1am.