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I am in Sidney pretty often so i can give an opinion of the restaurant selction which hopefully can be somewhat helpful! There is a new restaurant in the Sidney Pier Hotel & Spa called Haro's, it's at the end of the main street Beacon). It's pretty new and the food was good but the restaurant was quite disorganized, i would give it time to work itself out before i went back, they do have a lounge area that was much better, great for drinks. If you want to take a short 10 min drive, there is a french restaurant called The Chalet that as far as i'm concerned, is the best restaurant in Sidney. The chef Pierre is the funniest little Alsatian you will have ever met!! The food is very authentic and soooo good. Other "less that fine dining" choices would be -A Thai restaurant call Sabhai (on the Beacon St, 2493 Beacon Avenue) -A mexican restaurant called Carlos Cantina, their Margarita's made from scratch are really good!! (just off Beacon St. at 9816 Fourth Street) -3rd Ave Cafe for breakfast, at 3rd and Beacon Also, the new Dockside Grill restaurant, formerly Doc 503, was re-opend by different owners and if you are expecting the same high standards as before, you may be dissapointed. Hopefully it is only because it has been open a few days and things will pull together. They do have a really great patio right on the wharf, gorgeous on a nice day! That's my opinion! Thanks, Megan

There is an Italian place near that main intersection as you come into Sechelt, i can't remember the name of it but there aren't too many so i'm sure it will be easy to find! They had really good paninis

Villa de Lupo, they have a private room for two, and we had an excellent dinner

How is the brunch at the Waterfront these days? Still as good as I remember? ←

Really? We ended up there for reasons best left unexplained last Sunday and I thought it was terrible. Paltry selection of seafood, poor baked goods, the eggs benedict with salmon was with dry, overly fishy cooked salmon, not smoked salmon or lox, and the regular benny had some kind of ham that was so gluey it was like Spam. And the hollandaise was a perturbingly florescent yellow and a cloying texture. The sausages were thick, tasteless, and possibly undercooked. Small consolation: waffles. Hard, lukewarm waffles. I would rather have spent the extra $3/person and gone to the Waterfront for their Sunday brunch - I haven't been in some time, so possibly it isn't as good as I remember it to be. Or remind myself never, ever to do a brunch buffet again. ← Are you talking about the Pan Pacific or the Hotel Vancouver? ← Actually i think you are talking about the Hotel Vancouver. Wow, it sounds like you had a pretty bad experience......i was there with a group of 12 people and everybody enjoyed the food, good to know that they are not very consistent. I prefer a menu brunch normally, buffet brunch is usually a once a year kinda thing. Talking about eggs benidict though, I did have an amazing one not too long ago at Cassis on Pender, with sable fish, it was so good. Does anyone know if they are still open for brunch?

Really? We ended up there for reasons best left unexplained last Sunday and I thought it was terrible. Paltry selection of seafood, poor baked goods, the eggs benedict with salmon was with dry, overly fishy cooked salmon, not smoked salmon or lox, and the regular benny had some kind of ham that was so gluey it was like Spam. And the hollandaise was a perturbingly florescent yellow and a cloying texture. The sausages were thick, tasteless, and possibly undercooked. Small consolation: waffles. Hard, lukewarm waffles. I would rather have spent the extra $3/person and gone to the Waterfront for their Sunday brunch - I haven't been in some time, so possibly it isn't as good as I remember it to be. Or remind myself never, ever to do a brunch buffet again. ← Are you talking about the Pan Pacific or the Hotel Vancouver?

I think the best buffet brunch is at the Pan Pacific Hotel at Cafe Pacifica, although it is on the pricey side ($48 per person), so a couple weeks ago we went to the Hotel Vancouver at Griffin's restaurant and it was really good($30 per person). Much smaller that Pan Pacific, but still a good selection of food. M

I went to Chen's today and it was sooooo good! I didn't realize that it was not traditional Chinese dim sum, as our waitress explained to us, but more ShangHai style. She was very helpful, explaining all the dishes to us and being very patient, really good service! One of my favorite dishes was beef wrapped in a really yummy green onion pancake, i could have eaten ten of them! And the cold curry prawns.....so fresh! Everything was really good and i can't wait to go back to try everything else. Thank you all for the good reviews! M

Hey Oyster Guy again..... Hope you don't mind me asking so many questions, but you just seem to know so much about oysters! we are having an oyster party and are trying to choose a few varieties to serve. we like smallish size oysters and have the following to choose from, just wondering which you would recommend (we will probably get three or four different varieties) kegan bay chef creek beach belon crystal bay yaquina bay gold mantle effingham gorge inlet hopefully this isn't too much trouble for you? thanks! Megan

Hey Oyster Guy, A while back in this thread you mentioned Kegan Bay oysters from South Moresby Island. Do you know if you can get them in Vancouver? Preferably from a fish store because i like to bring them home and shuck them myself most of the time! Thank you! M

I can attest to the fries I had THE best falafel in Jerusalem near the Hebrew University at a tiny place called the 5 Shek (5 shekels for a huge falafel, that's about $1.50 canadian!) They had so many toppings, including mini french fries, that we had to go back atleast a half a dozen times to try everything, and we were only there for five days!! yummy yummy! ps. this was a few years ago, does anybody know if they are still there?

Guess i'm going to have to make it to Florida for a grouper sandwich!!

Just wondering if anybody has bought grouper at a store (or fish market) in Vancouver? Thank you! M

I am so happy to hear that other people have had the same problems as us!! Some of your stories are pretty funny! Needless to say, we will be switching to Lombardo's from now on (and WHY is Marcello's so busy all the time??? i just don't understand!)

teamboot, here's the story.. when we started going to Marcello's (about 4 years ago), we always went to the restaurant to eat even though the service wasn't great. We seemed to get the same waiter each time and swore he must be the owner's son or something. Sometimes we wouldn't even get our wine before our pizza came (and they don't serve their pizzas very fast!) He was just generally rude and very slow, we would be ready to order and he would be standing at the bar flirting with the waitresses! Each time was the same but we love their food so we kept going back for the torture! chocklateer, when we go with friends i warn them about the service too!! So eventually we just switched to take out, sometimes the pizza was a little on the cool side but nothing an oven wouldn't fix! And then, a couple weeks ago we ordered a pizza for take out and when we got it home it wasn't the type we had ordered (it had artichokes which my husband hates and tinned black olives which i hate!!) So we called and the girl apologized, took our name and number, and she said the next time we ordered the pizza it would be complimentary. So we tried to order the free pizza tonight and the girl we talked to said there was no record of our name or number and she would not give us a credit. It just made me really mad and prompted me to start this topic!

I think I have to give this restaurant the award for THE WORSE service in the city of Vancouver! Has anyone else had any experiences to back up my complaints!! We like the food but are very reluctant to go back..... Thanks!

Do you happen to know if there are any Oyster Festivals coming up in Seattle? Thanks!

I just received a 1953 edition of Better Homes and Garden New Cook Book. I have to make cupcakes for a wedding this weekend and was looking up various cupcake recipes in my "new" cook book. I noticed the cupcake recipes call for shortening instead of butter. Does anyone know which turns out better? or what the differences are? Thank you!

Hello, Does anyone know of any Oyster Festivals coming up in Vancouver? Thanks

Busboy, So are you saying that it is only benificial to have a wine fridge if you want to keep wines for more than two years? The wine that you had around for a long time, under what conditions was it kept? Also, is it worth having really good wines that you want to age, if you don't have a wine fridge or a wine cellar? sorry, lots of questions, just curious! ps. i wasn't suggesting they go out and buy a subzero!!

I would suggest a standalone wine fridge where you can control the temperature. There is tons of information on the internet about these fridges, and how they can preserve your wine. They come in a variety of sizes as well. I know that Cosco sells them if you are near one.

Bridges at Granville Island on the dock patio -i always have the smoked salmon pizza, it's so good! Havana on Commercial -we used to go here all the time, now we sometimes just go for drinks, the food seems to have gone a bit downhill? The Chicken Wrap has always been good though Il Giardino -we had a very good dinner here, the food and service were excellent, it has such a nice homey feel to it

Has anybody tried the little place in between Salt and the Irish Heather, Shebeen? Owned by the same people, right? It looks very interesting...