Things to do in Kitsilano, Vancouver

Chef Trevor Bird's Michelin-listed Fable Kitchen on West 4th rewrites its menu around whatever BC farms are producing that week and keeps exactly two things, the fried chicken sandwich and the burger (a main and a drink, about $36 to $52). A few doors along, chef Angus An's Michelin-listed Maenam cooks Thai, and the family-style chef's menu hands the ordering to the kitchen and lets the chilli heat build in the background, a gift if neither of you can decide ($34 to $70). At Delara, modern Persian with Michelin recognition, a shared-dips opener arrives before the crunchy tahdig, so you start with something easy to share ($44 to $67, dinner Wednesday to Sunday, from 11am Friday to Sunday).

Down by the beach on West 1st, AnnaLena holds two Michelin stars and still keeps vintage toys on its shelves while the $178 tasting menu comes out. On the same street, Veda cooks naturally fermented dosas to order in a 20-seat room from the team behind Karma Indian Bistro ($21 to $40 with a drink). It was announced under the name Benne before it opened as Veda. Octopus' Garden has served sushi off Cornwall Avenue at Kits Point since the early 1990s; the omakase is $100 to $120, and it's closed Tuesdays and Wednesdays. That's three very different budgets near the beach, so you can match dinner to the occasion.

The Naam opened on West 4th in 1968 and now keeps the latest hours in this guide, until 3am on Fridays and Saturdays and midnight the rest of the week. So the neighbourhood's hippie past has become its most reliable late-night plan: vegetarian, usually with live music, and led by sesame fries with miso gravy. Grapes & Soda on West 6th, open Tuesday to Saturday from 5pm to 11pm, was Vancouver's first natural-wine bar, a small room of dark walls and bare bulbs pouring premium sake and organic, low-intervention bottles. It's where we'd go for a drink that doesn't need a big plan attached.

The Hollywood Theatre on West Broadway is the one Vancouver nearly let slip away. The 1935 Art Deco cinema was restored, curved balcony and all, and now books film, live music and comedy with a bar, open until midnight Friday to Sunday. The Eatery, also on Broadway, serves until midnight on Fridays and Saturdays, and back in Vanier Park, The Dome stays open until 11pm.

Here's some good news for parents: Vanier Park's museums get cheaper the younger your kids are. Children 12 and under enter the Museum of Vancouver free with an adult, and children 5 and under enter the Maritime Museum free with a paying adult, to a maximum of two; its family pass is $48.50 plus GST. The Maritime Museum also has a Children's Gallery and the St. Roch, whose cramped crew quarters are, for once, just the right size for the smallest visitors. The Space Centre runs Space Camp Saturdays for families.

Kitsilano's best-known locomotive is no longer in Kitsilano. Engine 374, which pulled the first transcontinental passenger train into Vancouver in 1887, stood in Kitsilano Park from 1945 until its restoration began in the early 1980s. It's now on display in a free pavilion at Davie Street and Pacific Boulevard in Yaletown, so that's where you'll need to go to see it.

The Museum of Vancouver, the Maritime Museum and the Space Centre all offer pay-what-you-can entry on the first Sunday of the month, so you can see all of Vanier Park's museums for whatever you decide it's worth. Each summer the Kitsilano Showboat, beside Kits Pool, stages free evening shows on its oceanside amphitheatre; 2026, from June 17 to August 23, was its 91st season.

The rest costs nothing all year. Vanier Park's wide lawns and steady English Bay wind suit a cheap kite flown badly, the eight volleyball nets on Kits Beach are free to use, and the sun goes down over English Bay from the driftwood logs every evening. Honestly, that last one might be the best date in the neighbourhood.