Restaurants

For travelers who love to dine out and dine well, Vancouver is a delightful discovery. Most of Vancouver's top restaurants offer tasting menus, and if you're into food, I recommend that you try them. In particular, the tasting menus at West, C, Raincity Grill, and Cin Cin will give you a brilliant sampling of the best, freshest, and most creative cooking in Vancouver.

Restaurant meals in British Columbia carry no provincial tax, but venues add the 6% goods and services tax (GST). Restaurant hours vary. Lunch is typically served from noon to 1 or 2pm; Vancouverites begin dinner around 6:30pm, later in summer. Reservations are recommended at most restaurants and are essential at the city's top tables.

Caffeine Nation

"I've never seen so much coffee in all my life. The whole town is on a caffeine jag," said Bette Midler, when she performed in Vancouver.

Though the population had been softened up to the idea by a generation of Italian immigrants, the fine-coffee explosion started first in Seattle, Vancouver's sister city to the south. Vancouver now has more than 60 of the Seattle-based Starbucks, as well as Blenz, Roastmasters, and other chain cafes. The Starbucks franchises facing each other on Robson and Thurlow are famed for the movie stars who drop in and the regular crowd of bikers who sit sipping lattes on their hogs. Some claim that the city's best java joint -- fittingly enough -- is Vancouver's Best Coffee, 2959 W. 4th Ave. (tel. 604/739-2136), on a slightly funky section of West 4th Avenue at Bayswater.

Nearly as good and far more politically correct is Joe's Cafe, 1150 Commercial Dr. (tel. 604/255-1046; www.joescafebar.com), in the heart of the immigrant- and activist-laden Commercial Drive area, where lesbian activists, Marxist intellectuals, Guatemalan immigrants, and little old Portuguese men all sit and sip their cappuccinos together peacefully.

For the best lattes, see the review for Caffè Artigiano. Latte competition has become more intense with the opening of Sciué.

Tea for You? -- Everyone knows Vancouver runs on coffee, but tea has become the latest craze. The quality of tea depends on its growing region, soil, weather, harvesting season, and ways of processing. You can see (and taste) the difference at T, a tasting boutique located on the West Side at 1568 W. Broadway (btw. Granville and Fir; tel. 604/730-8390; www.tealeaves.com), where over 100 varieties and blends of tea from the four corners of the world are available. Visitors can sample whole leaf, premium leaf iced, and whole leaf pyramid teabags. The boutique also sells spa kits, including the popular Jetlag AM and PM packs. Moonstruck Tea House, 1590 Coal Harbour Quay (tel. 504/602-6609; www.moonstruckteahouse.com), located across from the Westin Bayshore Resort right on the water, has a vast selection of teas, edible flowers and herbs direct from China's best tea farms. Moonstruck also offers Chinese tea ceremonies for two to four people.