Best Victoria 2015

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

• Gold: Stage
• Silver: Brasserie L’École
• Bronze: Camille’s
• Honourable Mentions: Pizzeria Prima Strada; Cafe Brio and Little Jumbo (tie)

 Small-plates hot spot Stage (Gold) has only improved under the direction of new owner Graham Meckling and chef Sam Harris. Affordable wines and a tremendous cocktail selection (half a dozen different Manhattans!) accompany an array of plates—most under $15—that thrill with their simple charms; our judges were especially enamoured of a salad in which grilled halloumi mingles with Israeli couscous, cucumber, radish, and greens. Don’t bypass the house-made sausages either. Brasserie L’École (Silver) keeps its customers faithful with a menu that changes nightly but always includes traditional French bistro fare like oysters on the half-shell and frites of both the moules and steak variety. At Camille’s (Bronze), chef Stephan Drolet “creates gorgeous culinary landscapes for the eye and profound flavours for the palate,” which he conceives in response to seasonality and availability. The freshness of, say, a local-beet salad or Lois Lake steelhead is beyond reproach. Honourable Mentions: Pizzeria Prima Strada; Cafe Brio and Little Jumbo (tie)