YAM'S 2024 RESTAURANT AWARDS NAME THE CITY'S TOP TABLES
By CINDA CHAVICH
Victoria has long been known for it’s rich and creative restaurant scene — independent operators and passionate sole proprietors on the cutting edge of trends, in what might be called the “small but mighty” genre.
Upscale dining on the island usually translates to carefully curated, fresh local ingredients, presented with a professional yet laid back vibe. It’s small city dining where a business lunch might be a really good handmade taco or a brunch meeting at one of the city’s famed breakfast spots.
But this year, the opening of Marilena Café + Raw Bar added something new to the mix — a major investment from Vancouver’s Toptable Group creating what can only be called a big splash in this small pond.
It represents a new rung on the local fine dining ladder, a big city-style culinary experience, with some serious sophistication that Victoria diners have enthusiastically embraced. Like Toptable’s other celebrated restaurants in Vancouver, Whistler and New York, there’s a high level of service and design, a deep wine cellar and commitment to top quality ingredients, leaning on sourcing the best fish and seafood, from the Pacific Northwest and around the world.
Mainland investment will also see the beloved Sooke Harbour House reopen this year, with new ownership and management.
And stay tuned for my upcoming review of Janevca at Rosemead House in Esquimalt, another revitalization project by a Vancouver developer which promises to be one of the city's finest new spots to dine, with chef Andrea Alridge and team cooking over wood fires in this beautifully-restored historic property.
We’ve sadly lost some of our favourite independent restaurants — Saveur, Sherwood, Chorizo & Co. Niche Grocerant, The Marina Restaurant, Little Jumbo — but there are new openings, too.
Jess Taylor settled his popular shellfish catering business into a permanent space, opening Shuck Taylor’s where you can try an array of freshly-shucked west coast bivalves or indulge in big buttery lobster roll.
The team from Wind Cries Mary expanded operations to open Rudi, with a vintage European-inspired menu. Taisho Japanese Grill & Bar, the latest offering from the Nubo restaurant group, opened in Cook Street Village.
The classic Neapolitan pizza from tiny Seal Point Pizza in Fairfield is worth the drive, wherever you live.
We’re also enjoying authentic fare from around the world, thanks to an influx of passionate people sharing their flavours from home.
You can try a taste of the Philippines with a modern twist from Jonna Deutscher and Keem Herrera at Ate, or explore chef Ervin Maliwanag’s traditional Filipino menu at Benjamin’s Café. Have a bowl of homestyle Asian noodles at Jiang-Yung Noodle House, or beautiful Syrian food at Syriana. The chefs at Café Malabar are offering some delicious South Indian dishes that reflects their shared roots in Kerala. And at Zambri’s, Argentinian-born chef Matias Sallaberry wows with his pop-up Asado Experience, a long table South American barbecue feast.
So, dig into our 2024 YAM Restaurant Awards issue, and celebrate a world of new flavours in the city we all call home!
Restaurant of the Year
Winner: The Courtney Room
The Magnolia Hotel, 619 Courtney St.
Price: $$-$$$
When fans talk about The Courtney Room, they point to the creative cuisine, the craft cocktails and wine list, the professional service and artful ambiance — in short, the whole hospitality experience.
It’s that complete package that puts this restaurant at the top of our awards list this year, a dining spot that’s loved by locals and visitors alike, whether you come for the chef’s seasonal Tasting Menu, a happy hour drink or a breakfast meeting.
“The team is the best we’ve had in the last five years,” says Executive Chef Brian Tesolin, whose innovative Pacific Northwest cuisine is at the centre of The Courtney Room’s success. “We all have the same vision, to create a fine dining experience, with the best quality products we can find.”
The restaurant is part of The Magnolia Hotel + Spa, and like this locally-owned boutique property, it’s a carefully curated, stylish space, upscale yet intimate and inviting.
“The goal for this restaurant, for the team, is that it’s not a hotel restaurant, but rather it’s a restaurant that operates in a hotel,” says Tesolin.
That means juggling competing demands, and it’s impressive to see what comes out of Tesolin’s compact kitchen — from room service for hotel guests and breakfast service, to weekend brunch, lunch and happy hour, plus the innovative selections on his dinner menu, featuring wild foods delivered by a local forager, pristine produce from nearby island farms, and premium beef and fish, dry aged in house. ]
Tesolin’s seasonal menus change regularly, whether it’s the catch of the day of halibut with kosho emulsion; a seared duck breast with gnocchi, morel mushrooms and rosehip jus; or a special of pretty fuchsia beet and potato gnocchi with fresh peas and blue cheese. The popular duck fat potatoes may be topped with shaved pine mushrooms and your brunch eggs served with local nixtamal tortillas and fermented black bean salsa.
“We have 21 different services a week,” he says, “and we are creating five menus a week, to make sure we can use all of that local product properly.”
If all that doesn’t sound like enough, Tesolin is channeling his Italian heritage, studying the traditional art of hand rolled pasta and offering at least four choices for dinner service, whether tender linguine with clams or pillowy pockets of ricotta-stuffed agnolotti.
Beyond the food and drink, is the chic, two-tiered dining space and bar. Like the Art Deco-inspired exterior of the hotel, the room is reminiscent of an elegant Parisian brasserie, a study in understated luxury, with soaring ceilings, a glassed-in wine room, soft colours and tactile textures throughout, from the velvet banquettes and bronze bead curtains and chevron marble tiles.
Insuring sure that all works in perfect harmony is a real team effort, from the leadership of hotel manager Bill Lewis and F&B manager Renee Lauzon to Chef Tesolin and his chef de cuisine Graeme Parker, super sommelier Colin Davidson and Bar Manager Anton Wilson.
Winner of several national awards since opening in 2018, TCR is a restaurant worth celebrating.
Runners-up: Cafe Brio, Nowhere * A Restaurant
Best New Restaurant
Winner: Marilena Cafe + Raw Bar
1525 Douglas St
Price $$$
Vancouver’s Toptable Group truly raised the bar in Victoria’s restaurant scene when they opened Marilena Café + Raw Bar this year.
Marilena is a beautifully-designed, upscale space in The Rotunda building, and covers all of the dining bases, whether you want top drawer sushi, a sharable feast of chic small plates, or a spectacular seafood tower of chilled oysters and the finest caviar.
If you’ve dined in any of Toptable’s other properties in Vancouver and Whistler (CinCin, Blue Water Café, Araxi), you’ll recognize the level of service and selection here, a fine dining experience on every level.
Much of the talent is imported from Vancouver, starting with Executive Chef Kristian Eligh, a Victoria native who returned to his hometown to plan and open Marilena. Eligh can now be found most nights leading his team and entertaining guests in the restaurant’s impressive open kitchen. Victorians are clearly impressed, too — the restaurant busy serving 250 guests, 90 per cent local diners, every night.
“The first year has been quite a whirlwind,” says Eligh. “We wanted to create a restaurant that Victoria could get behind.”
And he seems to have hit that sweet spot with his exciting and approachable seafood-forward menu. Dinner might start with the signature seared aburi sushi from the raw bar, with a trio of crispy little tacos (filled with steelhead trout or lobster) or a classic shrimp cocktail. There are pasta and vegetarian plates — English pea agnolotti with black truffle butter or charred cauliflower with garlic cashew emulsion — and dishes designed “for the table”, from whole grilled branzino to steaks, and sides of crispy onion rings, truffle fries and brussels sprouts.
Marilena, named for owner Francesco Aquilini’s late mother, also means “bright star of the sea”, appropriate for this celebrated new dining destination.
Runners-up: Block Kitchen and Bar, Café Malabar
Chef of the Year
1001 Douglas Street
Price: $$ to $$$
Clark Deutscher is the first to admit that he’s not a chef, in the strictly “culinary school, Red Seal” sense of the word.
He’s a hard-working and creative cook, his restaurant experience arising from his own entrepreneurial endeavours, with a focus on ethical ingredients and the local farmers who produce them.
“I read a lot, I travel a lot, and I just love food,” says Deutscher, who started his career as a banker, and how has three restaurants, clustered together in the historic Sussex Building on Douglas Street.
It all started with his obsession with competitive slow BBQ and a little joint in Ucluelet. A decade ago, Deutscher opened the meat-centric Hank’s in Victoria, where he honed his cooking skills and gathered a solid following for his to nose-to-tail butchery. Next came Nowhere, with co-owner Devon Revelle, channeling the same hyper local ideas in seafood forward tasting menus. Last year, his wife Jonna — a geologist with an MBA — gave up her day job to open Ate, a casual spot showcasing her Filipino family recipes, with a modern twist. And they've since turned their talents to the new menu at the funky Friends of Dorothy lounge.
Deutscher is in charge of developing menus for all of the restaurants — as seasonal ingredients arrive from their farm partners, he riffs on the possibilities. At Hanks there’s a $50 Today’s Best Things menu, and a $75 Chef’s Tasting Menu, along with a variety of innovative plates. It’s a scratch kitchen on every level — whether the Filipino purple yam (ube) buns made with house-milled island grains for Ate, or the ricotta cheese for smoked sturgeon agnolotti. Zero waste makes for innovative, and sometimes challenging, ideas — the Count Chocula pig blood, chocolate and cinnamon ice cream, based on an Italian dessert, is just one example.
Deutscher, a self-described food geek, happily juggles it all, and it’s always an adventure to see what he’ll cook up next.
Runners up: Corbin Mathany of Ugly Duckling, Ken Nakano of Inn at Laurel Point
Best Pastry Chef
Winner: Kimberley Vy
AURA, Inn at Laurel Point
680 Montreal Street
Price: $ to $$
It’s tempting to call Kimberley Vy Victoria’s “Dessert Diva,” but while her amazing skills make her a leader among local pastry pros, she’s no diva. Vy is warm, generous and even a little shy — letting her fine pastry work, with all of its layers of flavour and precise technique, speak for itself. And if you’ve ever had the pleasure of dining at AURA at the Inn at Laurel Point, or enjoying their new DUO bakery café, you’ve heard her, loud and clear.
Vy is the master of subtle and surprising flavour combinations, often using Asian ingredients such as yuzu, calamansi or tea, alongside Valrhona chocolate, gooey dulce and lavender from the hotel gardens.
Every dessert is a sculptural masterpiece, with clean lines and precision piping — creations that look too beautiful to eat. But eat you must, because it’s those creamy, crunchy contrasts, exquisite flavours and subtle surprises that make Vy’s desserts a memorable part of every meal!
Runners up: Haley Landa + Curtis Helm of Goodside Pastry House, Dominique Laurencelle, Marilena
Best Big Night Out
Winner: Marilena Café + Raw Bar
1525 Douglas St
Price: $$-$$$
When you really want to impress someone — or celebrate in high style — Marilena is the place to see and be seen. The sheer opulence of the surroundings and the wide selection of creative dishes to share, makes it the perfect spot for an intimate date night or a lavish party.
Food lovers will want to book one of the four Chef’s Table seats that give you a view of the action in Marilena’s impressive kitchen, or you can opt for a table for two or the private dining room. Start with something from the dedicated sushi/raw bar — the seared sablefish oshi is a favourite — then have a small plate of plump diver scallops, with a creamy, vanilla-scented cauliflower puree, and share the whole branzino, the delicate grilled fish filleted and artfully presented in a French copper gratin dish.
With the attentive and professional service, you’ll feel pampered to the max.
Runners up: Ugly Duckling, Café Brio
Best Casual
Winner: Block Kitchen + Bar
#101 - 538 Yates St
Price: $$
With its exposed brick walls and colourful murals, friendly staff and globally-inspired dishes, the scene at Block Kitchen is clearly convivial. It’s a buzzy spot with mostly high-top tables and bar seating, the kind of place to slide in for a few drinks and bites to share, with two or 10 of your friends.
The original location is in Banff, but co-founder/manager Andy Burke and Chef Tyler Thompson opened Block Kitchen here last year. They’re all about creative cocktails, local craft beer and sharable plates — from the sake martini drizzled with sesame oil to Korean grilled short ribs with house made kimchi, octopus Tako Yaki dumplings or Tokyo fries dusted with sumac and nori flakes. It’s the kind of menu filled with delicious surprises that will have you coming back to try it all.
Runners-up: FARO Handcrafted Pizza and Tasting Room, L’Apéro Wine and Cheese Bistro
Best Patio
Winner: AURA
680 Montreal Street
Price: $$ to $$$
Victoria’s patio culture is growing and one of the nicest spots to dine al fresco is the seaside patio at AURA, at the Inn at Laurel Point.
Set on a prominent point in Victoria’s Harbour, it’s a perfect spot to enjoy a classic city view, with cute harbour ferries darting across the water to Fisherman’s Wharf, float planes landing and ferries arriving from points south.
Stay all day to explore all of the fine food from the AURA culinary team, whether a sunny breakfast, or the hotel’s impressive, Asian-inspired afternoon tea, complete with savouries and sweets from pastry chef Kimberly Vy. Their daily Happy Hour features cocktail flights and snacks, or admire the sunset and city lights over a Tasting Menu dinner from restaurant chef Gabe Fayerman-Hansen. Go dine outside!
Runners up: Craft, Glo
Best Brunch
Winner: House of Boateng Café + Catering
#105 - 2854 Peatt Rd, Langford
Price: $$
Castro Boeteng is a master chef so there’s always something creative and delicious on the menu at House of Boateng (HOB) in Langford.
A Toronto native, with Ghanaian roots, Boateng brings an international vibe to his daily brunch menu, plus a range of his own sauces and marinades, meals-to-go and long table dinners from his HOB Fine Foods catering kitchen down the street. The Breakfast Sandwich at HOB is haloumi BLT with fried egg and harissa aioli and the French Toast starts with his own banana bread. Or try one of his signature brunch dishes — the African Bowl with jollof rice topped with chicken sausage, scrambled eggs and smoky shrimp aioli; or the Huevos Rancheros with crispy tortilla, jerk chicken and Ghanan beans. Beautiful brunch with vegetarian options, and sparkling mimosas, of course!
Runners-up: John’s Place, The Ruby
Best Happy Hour
Winner: Block Kitchen + Bar
#101 - 538 Yates St
Price: $$
Block Kitchen + Bar also gets the nod for Best Happy Hour, the 3-5 p.m. daily slot when you can get discounted menu items from their greatest hits — think lettuce wraps with crispy cubes of pork belly or Kara Age chicken skewers with spicy mayo.
Get their Block negroni or Sake-tini tap cocktails at a discounted Happy Hour price of $12, plus $4-$6 pints of local craft beer. They also serve a mean non-alc Caesar (the drink) with global flair, the with honey Gochujang spiced Clamati and togarashi rim. Block attracts a mixed crowd says owner/manager Andy Burke, who describes his downtown demographic as “27 to 72.” No ageism here, he adds. “Happy Hour is super affordable and a chance to try the menu. It’s all sorts of people and it’s wonderful.”
Runners-up: The Courtney Room, Glo
Best Plant-based Dining
(vegan, vegetarian and flexitarian)
Winner: Nourish Kitchen & Cafe
225 Quebec St.
Price: $$ to $$$
Nourish has long been a city staple for the vegan and vegetable-forward crowd, with creative food that features locally-sourced ingredients and covers all of the healthy vegetarian and omnivore bases. Set in an historic home in James Bay, it’s a comfortable space and, since new chef/owner Maxime Durand began his regular dinner service last year, there’s even more to love. Brunch still includes nourishing fare — whether mugs of collagen-rich bone broth and gluten-free Sleeping Beauty pancakes, seedy bread crackers or vegan cashew cheese. And Durand’s evening menu ranges from roasted squash and beets with tahini and dukkah, to squash risotto with carrots and pumpkin seeds, or roasted pork coppa with sauerkraut and bacon vinaigrette. With all featuring local and seasonal ingredients, it’s a restaurant that puts fresh island vegetables front and centre.
Runners up: Be Love, End Dive
Producer of the Year
(growers, makers and innovators who feed the restaurant industry)
Winner: Finest at Sea
27 Erie Street
If you’ve ordered the fish at almost any restaurant in Victoria, it likely arrived in the kitchen from Finest at Sea (FAS).
Owner Bob Fraumeni, opened his seafood wholesaling business in 1984, focusing on wild, sustainable West Coast products. Once a fisherman himself, Fraumeni proudly points to the provenance of the fish he sells, whether the fresh salmon, halibut and crab from the retail fish counter, the value-added FAS products (think cold smoked tuna loins and artisan canned fish), and arguably the finest fish and chips in town, served from their own food truck, parked outside the converted Victorian house near Fisherman’s Wharf.
FAS buys from local fishers and has eight of its own boats — including the FV: Ocean Pearl, the largest vessel in the B.C. fishing fleet — plying the west coast waters for halibut in Haida Gwaii and tuna off the coast of Vancouver Island. Their fish shop is the place for fresh and frozen seafood, smoked fish and house-made seacuterie, seafood risotto and chowder.
Fraumeni is an industry leader, supporting local chefs, fishers and community causes, including his popular annual sale of donated herring that raises money for kids with cancer.
Since setting up shop in Victoria 40 years ago, FAS has expanded to serve customers in Vancouver and beyond. It’s always all hands on deck at this super seafood supplier, where local community comes first.
Tastemaker(s) of the Year
Greg Hays and Silvia Marcolini
Café Brio founders Greg Hays and Silvia Marcolini retired this year, after building some of the city’s most beloved and innovative restaurants, literally from the ground up.
The industry-leading couple started with The Herald Street Café in the 1980s, then launched the Oak Bay Marina restaurant, and built Café Brio, their own distinctive, Italianate restaurant, still a popular place to dine on Fort Street. Hays and Marcolini sold Café Brio this year, passing the restaurant to chef Sam Harris and barman Vince Vanderheide, a new generation of top industry experts who are keeping their legacy of creative fine dining and hospitality alive.
Enjoying the downtime of retirement after spending more than 50 years in the restaurant business, Hays says his mantra of “treating people that come to our restaurant like they are friends coming to our house for dinner,” was what always set their hospitality apart. Plus, he says, they hired top chefs and wait staff, focused on local seasonal ingredients, and stayed passionate about the industry, through years of both stresses and successes.
“The number one priority is your staff,” adds Marcolini. “We worked like a family, and if you bring a family commitment to what you’re doing, and stand by each other, you’ll do well.”
While Hays was always at the front door at Café Brio to greet and engage customers with his warm and quirky humor, Marcolini worked alongside their long-time service team, building a regular clientele, many who became close friends.
“We always spent more time there than we did here at home,” says Marcolini. “I miss my customers the most.”
Inducted into the BC restaurant industry’s Hall of Fame, the couple made Café Brio a popular dining spot for nearly three decades, a restaurant that continues to evolve and delight discriminating diners.
Best European
(French, Italian, German, Greek, etc.)
Winner: Brasserie L’Ecole
1715 Government St
Price: $$ to $$$
Set in an historic building on the edge of Chinatown (close to the iconic Victoria Chinese Public School), Brasserie l’Ecole might have been plucked from the streets of Paris, a cosy French bistro with a classic menu and wine list to match.
Owner and sommelier Marc Morrison opened Brasserie more than 20 years ago and it’s still the place for locals to gather for bowls of cheesy French onion soup, endive salads topped with smoky lardons, duck confit, steak frites and big rib-eye steaks to share. The beverages include well-chosen, and affordable, French wines and a range of Belgian beers, plus classic French cocktails. They resolutely eschew reservations, so you’ll have to line up before their 5:30 opening to snag a table, but our judges concur, it’s worth the wait.
Runners up: Café Brio, Zambri’s
Best Latin
(Spanish, Mexican, South American)
Winner: Maiiz Nixtamal
Name of restaurant
Price: $-$$
Chef Israel Alvarez Molina opened his Maiiz Nixtamal café in Chinatown just four years ago and has been wowing locals with his authentic Mexican street food ever since. What began as a passion project — to revive the traditional nixtamalization process and create authentic Mexican corn tortillas — has made Maiiz a household name.
He’s slowly expanded, from a take-out counter and a couple of tables to 30+ seats (both indoors and on a new sidewalk patio), and now you can find his tasty corn tortillas on restaurant menus, in independent food shops and major supermarkets.
Working with organic, BC corn, he’s recreating a traditional Mexican product with local provenance. Stop in for lunch or takeout — tacos, tamales and quesadillas with beef barbacoa, chicken tinga, huitlacoche (fungus) or even grasshoppers — this is the real deal!
Runners up: Benjo's Tacos, Bodega
Best East Asian
(Chinese, Japanese, Korean)
Winner: JiangYun Noodle House
830 Fort St.
Price: $$
Our judges have been hanging out at Jiang Yung Noodle House, one of the newest Asian eateries in town.
Set in a small storefront on Fort Street where a charcuterie shop once stood, it’s the kind of sole proprietor spot this city is famous for, with just one specialty — big bowls of Chinese- and Taiwanese-style noodles.
JiangYung’s noodles come with their own “signature” sauces and broths, with variations like roast chicken, grilled pork, slow-cooked beef or vegetarian toppings. Made from scratch — some wheat noodles even pulled by hand — these noodle bowls make for a simple, slurpable and filling meal. The Beef Noodle bowl, with tender braised beef in a slow-simmered, rich and aromatically spiced beef broth, is a must-have. But remember, this is a small owner/operator kitchen — don’t all go at once!
Runners-up: Hong Kong West, Nubo Japanese Tapas
Best South or Southeast Asian
(Indian, Vietnamese, Thai, Malaysian)
Winner: Café Malabar
#6 - 1701 Douglas St. (Victoria Public Market)
Price: $-$$
Café Malabar chefs/co-owners Kiran Kolathodan and Karma Tenpa are both from southern India, but their paths crossed by happy coincidence while working together at a local hotel. Each has an impressive resume and they combined their talents to open Café Malabar, a new eatery set in the Victoria Public Market. Cooking out of the Coho Commissary Kitchen, and serving meals in the market or for delivery, the young chefs have found a following for their creative Keralan cuisine. Start with their ginger mint tea and try the regional specialties including crisp vegetable cutlets, breakfast dosas and idli, black chickpea and fish curries, flakey parotta bread, steamed coconut puttu, or tender Lamb Shank Biryani.
They’ve just expanded the menu — and launched monthly pop-up multicourse dinners — with plans to open a larger location to showcase their fine take on the cuisine of Kerala soon.
Runners up: Ate: A Restaurant, Green Leaf Bistro
Best Middle Eastern / North African
(Iranian, Turkish, Moroccan, Lebanese, Israeli, Syrian)
Winner: Syriana
2-1258 Esquimalt Road
Price: $-$$
At Syriana, Safaa Naeman is in pay-it-forward mode, sending peace and gratitude out to her adopted home, and you can taste it in every bite of her homestyle Syrian food. A refugee from the war, Naeman opened the sunny little café in Esquimalt in 2023. It’s the first location for her burgeoning catering and restaurant business, itself an offshoot of what started as a simple sideline, selling beautiful baklava and pastries at farmer’s markets. Now she has a team of Syrian women in the kitchen, creating a range of tasty Middle Eastern foods — whether pillowy hand pies (fatayer) silky hummus, spicy yalange (dolmades) and handmade kibbeh for a mezze meal, or juicy skewers of beef kebab, grilled chicken or falafel served with seasoned rice. It’s comfort food at its finest!
Runners-up: Superbaba, Yalla
Best West Coast Contemporary
Winner: Wild Mountain Food + Drink
1831 Maple Ave. South, Sooke
Price: $$-$$$
Chef Oliver Kienast and sommelier Brooke Fader are champions of our local food shed and everything on the plate at their Sooke restaurant tells that seasonal story. With a massive wood-burning oven turning out perfect pizzas, fire-roasted vegetables and meats, Kienast lets the island ingredients shine.
Start with their own charcuterie — think creamy duck liver mousse, pork and fig terrine, bresaola and house prosciutto — with bull kelp crackers or polenta fries. Try the Cowichan beef tartare, fire-roasted Metchosin pork chop, or handmade pappardelle with oyster mushrooms. And finish with a housemade digestif and the single origin Peruvian chocolate pudding, served in a mason jar (must have, even if you choose to take it home!)
They’re food leaders and collaborators — championing BC wines and spirits, Slow Food and Slow Fish, island farmers and artisans — the Wild Mountain team reflects the island food community with style!
Runners up: Bray’s, Fathom
Best Cocktail Bar or Lounge
Winner: Humboldt Bar
722 Humboldt St.
Price: $$$
Humboldt Bar offers an “immersive cocktail experience” designed by long-time city mixologist and bar manager Brant Porter. It’s a journey into the world of historic polymath and explorer Anthony von Humboldt, through a cool cocktail menu that details his life with stories and vintage botanical prints. Imagine the discoveries of this famed 19th century German naturalist and his worldly adventures while sipping “Lost in The Woods” or “Concentrated Sunbeams” — and contemplate the many things named for him, from the Humboldt Current and Humboldt Squid to the downtown Victoria street where you’ll find this elegant and intimate bar.
One of our judges loves the Republic of Letters — made with Irish whiskey, Armagnac, amber vermouth, Benedictine, bitters and candle wax — a dark and complex cocktail that conjures Humbolt’s era of exploration in every sip.
Runners up: Citrus & Cane, Clives Classic Lounge
Best Sommelier and/or Wine Program
Winner: The Courtney Room
The Magnolia Hotel, 619 Courtney St.
Price: $$-$$$
The Courtney Room offers an exceptional wine and cocktail program, with a professional team that’s always ready to share their expertise.
Wine Director and skilled sommelier Colin Davidson has trained TCR’s service team well, so expect a knowledgeable recommendation or wine pairing suggestion to match your meal. Davidson is a champion of small, family-run wineries, and his carefully curated wine list includes an ever-changing selection of BC and international wines, all beautifully displayed in their glass-fronted cellar in the dining room. On the cocktail side of the menu, bar manager Anton Wilson is a creative force, too, leading a team of award-winning mixologists. Their new drinks menu, An Exploration of the Pacific Northwest Vol. 1., includes their signature cocktails, featuring wild and local ingredients, from wild mushrooms to spruce tips.
Runners up: Marilena, Tourist
Outstanding Service
Winner: Marilena Café + Raw Bar
1525 Douglas St
Price: $$-$$$
Several members of our judging team pointed to the attention to detail offered by the large service team at Marilena. Led by Restaurant Director Aaron Matsuzaki, a veteran from the Toptable Group in Vancouver, the service is smart and seamless, professional to a fault.
From the greeting at the front desk, to the knowledgeable wait staff and wine stewards, personable bartenders and sushi chefs, each zone of the restaurant has its own manager, with service staff moving from the pass in the open kitchen into the various dining areas, in a smooth coordinated dance. One of our judging team observed the bartender “not only recognize a business traveler that had sat at his bar a month prior but then remember his drink, followed by recommendations on similar options to try.” That’s outstanding service.
Runners-up: Café Brio, Nowhere
SMALL BUT MIGHTY
Sometimes you’re just after that one perfect bite but you need to know where to go. Victoria has a number of small restaurants, takeout spots, bakeries and butchers where the owners zero in on something specific, a house specialty they do well.
Here are some our favourites. So, when in the city, go for the:
CHICKEN
There’s fried chicken and then there’s Korean Fried Chicken and Victoria has some great spots to try it. But there’s no place quite like Chicken 649 for that box of double fried chicken that’s tender on the inside and shatteringly crunchy outside, marinated and fried fresh to order. Go for the original or the sweet and spicy Yang Nyeom, a half-and-half order lets you try both!
CROISSANT
You may have seen the people lining up in front of Goodside Pastry House on Fort Street. They’re coming for the bakers’ beautiful little mousse cakes and cream puffs, but especially for the buttery croissants. Chef/owners Haley Landa and Curtis Helm rock the laminated pastries — whether classic butter croissants, sweet and savoury danishes or pain au chocolate — but go for the Almond Double Bake, a flakey croissant filled with almond paste and crusted in sweet slivered nuts.
CHARCUTERIE
Chef Cory Pelan specializes in salumi at The Whole Beast, his own salumeria where artisan cured meats run the gamut, from house made hams and smoked duck to his addictive little jars of Chicken Liver Parfait. But if Italian salami is your jam, this is the place to taste through Pelan’s range of dry cured sausages, from a rotating list that includes Salami di Noci, spicy Salami Calabrese, Salami Parmigiano and my current fave, Salami Limone e Finocchiona.
FISH FRY
Whether rolled into a flour tortilla, served in a sandwich or with fries on the side, a perfectly deep-fried fillet of fish is something that defines west coast cuisine, and there are some excellent options for Victoria diners. You’ll find fried fish tacone, fish sandwich, or fish and chips at the iconic dockside Red Fish, Blue Fish, but arguably the best plate of fish and chips is served up direct from our favourite fish mongers.
Whether it's at the food truck outside Finest at Sea, or a table at Oak Bay Seafood, the best local fishers among us are also excellent purveyors of crispy fried fish and fries!
SOURDOUGH
We’re spoiled for choice when it comes to exceptional artisan bakers in Victoria, but for sourdough breads that are made with their own freshly-milled flours and baked in a wood-fired oven, Fry’s Bakery is a favourite. Line up with the other fans to get a big round loaf of Whole Wheat Country bread made with organic Canadian heritage wheat, and a touch of rye, or go on Saturdays for their dense, chewy Cinnamon, Raisin and Nut Rye, the best bread for morning toast slathered with butter and delicious with cheese. On Sundays, the wood oven is fired up for their house-made sourdough pizzas — go early!
BURGERS
The burgers at DeadBeetz Burgers (both the food truck and the bricks and mortar eatery) start with their own beef patties (or chicken and veg options) but the classic is the signature Beetrice Burger, with a generous topping of their house made beet pickles. Go for the basic Beetrice, or make it a Hot Mess by adding their bacon jam and a fried egg. And make sure to order their amazing Beets, Potatoes and Yams on the side — cut and fried like a chip and served with chipotle mayo dip.
DONUTS
Victoria is a bit of a mecca for donut (or doughnut) lovers. Whether you get the mix-and-match box of delightlfully decadent donuts delivered from Empire Donuts, grab a Yonni’s doughnuts with your Discovery Coffee (handcrafted classics including vanilla glazed rings, crullers and fritters) or opt for the small batch specialties from the Doughnut Vault (think Lemon Sea Salt, Ube Crème Brulee or Miso Caramel Black Sesame), a doughnut habit can’t be far off.
RAMEN
Everyone has their own favourite style of this Japanese salary-man’s nourishing noodle soup, but for a good selection of choices here in Victoria, its worth a trip to Ramen Arashi. This offshoot of a ramen shop in Banff offers 11 different variations on the theme of chewy noodles in soup, but go for the Arashi Tan Tan, made with creamy Tonkotsu pork bone broth and their own sesame base, plus tender braised pork belly, marinated egg, spinach and nori for a meal in a bowl.
DOSA
If you’ve ever travelled to southern India you’ll know why the dosa — an ethereal crisp pancake, made with rice and lentil flour, that rivals any French crepe — is a beloved street food. It’s not easy to find dosas outside the subcontinent but there are a couple of spots in town that make them, including Dosa Paragon where they specialize in this tasty treat (it’s in their name, after all) — go for the classic Masala Dosa filled with spiced potatoes (aloo), or add sauteed onions, cheese, chutney or chili paneer.
ICE CREAM
There are great artisan ice cream and gelato makers in Victoria — think Parachute Ice Cream, Mosi Gelato, 49 Below Ice Cream — so an icy cone is never far away. But for a tub to take home (or a giant ice cream sandwich to share) a detour to the quirky Cold Comfort is in order. Whether their creamy classics (made from scratch with egg custard base) or vegan coconut-based Nicecream, it’s always an adventure to see what’s in the freezer and check out the latest feature flavour.
A team of independent judges choose the winners of YAM magazine's restaurant awards each year and, since their inception, Cinda Chavich has been the head judge and writer of this popular food feature.
©CindaChavich2024
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