Date ideas in Vancouver

A storybook heritage corner store turned French-countryside cafe, so charming it feels slightly unfair to the competition.

A sandwich board and some stairs in Gastown lead to a brick-arched basement with two live bands a night until 2am.

Flame-kissed aburi sushi by Burrard Inlet, where the salmon oshi arrives, gets photographed, and makes the table go silent.

Michelin-starred Mount Pleasant room with zero attitude, precise West Coast cooking, and a wine list that will respectfully wreck your schedule.

Plush velvet, live jazz and a drinks menu named for literary icons, under the Hotel Georgia until 2am.

A sun-filled European room on West 4th with a hidden garden patio and a weekend tiramisu worth planning your day around.

Seventeen seats, one sitting, Edo-style nigiri piece by piece, and your phone face-down all night. Michelin-recommended and books out fast.

Whistler's cooler, cheaper neighbour sits 45 minutes up the Sea-to-Sky with a gondola, a giant rock, and brewery rewards at every trailhead.

Vancouver's original multi-roaster, where the coffee list rotates weekly and the baristas take your pour-over more seriously than you take most things.

Gastown's newest bistro serves one dish, an eight ounce striploin with green sauce and frites for $44, and refuses to apologize for the short menu.

Vancouver Foodie Tours runs a two hour progressive meal through the market: cheese, charcuterie, candied salmon, chocolate truffles and a honey-dip donut finish.

Ninety minutes east, a mineral-fed pool town where the lake is sandy, the mountains are misty, and your shoulders finally drop.

Climb the Robson staircase into a golden room where a six-foot wood grill has been perfuming everything since noon.

Downtown's chocolaterie-patisserie on Alberni: thick drinking chocolate, a macaron case that looks like jewellery, and cheap enough to be completely spontaneous.