Best Other Vancouver Island Restaurants 2015

Best Other Vancouver Island Restaurant winners of Vancouver Magazine’s 26th Annual Restaurant Awards

• Gold: Wolf in the Fog
• Silver: The Pointe at the Wickaninnish Inn
• Bronze: Unsworth Restaurant
• Honourable Mentions: Hudson’s on First, SoBo

 Wolf in the Fog (Gold) has been the recipient of so many honours—not only locally, but nationally—since opening last year, its only apparent drawback is the difficulty in securing a table. (And, being in Tofino, it’s a bit of a drive…) It looks like the mess hall of an upscale summer camp, and many of the staff appear to be surfers just back from the beach (because they are), but there’s nothing kitsch or hipster about chef Nick Nutting’s “lusty, generous, and creative cooking,” whether you drop in alone for a burger and fries or with a group for the Szechuan Surf & Turf share plate, filled with fabulously seasoned braised short rib and grilled octopus. Just down the beach, The Pointe at the Wickaninnish Inn collects Silver in this category but is “the gold standard for waterfront fine dining in Canada,” says a lovestruck judge. Its serious commitment to local ingredients extends from scallops harvested from the Georgia Strait to a Wine Spectator-approved cellar bursting with B.C. bottles. Unsworth Restaurant (Bronze), at the same-named vineyard in the Cowichan Valley, complements its 1900s farmhouse venue with trend-resistant classics like seafood paella and crème caramel. Naturally, the wine pairings are bang-on. Honourable Mentions: Hudson’s on First, SoBo