The blog
I started writing these because I was answering the same questions one text message at a time. Where to take a visiting parent for dim sum. Whether the night market is worth the parking. What is still open on a wet Sunday in February. The long answers live here, and they are written for people who are going this weekend, not for people planning a trip next year.
Written and checked by
June Tam
28 guides published
Every guide comes from going. I rank places, I tell you what the ranking is based on, and when I have not been back since somewhere changed hands I put that in writing instead of hoping you do not notice. Some of it is logistics: parking, the hour the lineup starts, which places take cash only, how to feed eight people on a Saturday without a booking. Some of it is me being opinionated about lunch.
The one rule I hold to is that the guides cover the whole city, including the half that is harder to write about.
Latest guide
Nothing on Alexandra Road is a hidden gem. It is just in a strip mall with bad signage and no patio, which is why visitors never find it. Here is how I actually use Richmond's plazas and food courts, which specialists are worth the drive, and when not to bother.
From the editor
A guide that likes everything is useless. So I rank things, I say why, and I tell you when I haven't been back since the owners changed.
More from the blog
The newest guide sits at the top. I go back and rewrite the older ones when something changes on the ground.
The West Dyke Trail is about five and a half kilometres of flat gravel between Terra Nova Rural Park and Garry Point, and I ride it most mornings. Here is what is actually at the north end, which way to walk so the wind is on your side, and why winter is the better season for it.
I live four blocks off Moncton Street, so this is the Steveston I actually use: where to park before the Bayview lots fill, how to buy fish straight off the boats at the wharf, the honest answer to the Pajo's versus Dave's question, and why the history here is not decoration.
Richmond rain does not arrive as a storm. It settles in for nine days. Here is the rotation I actually use when it does: the Oval, the Golden Village malls, the library and gallery at Minoru, Riverport with the kids, and why Steveston is better wet.
Richmond does not hand you a view the way downtown Vancouver does. What it gives you is sea-level horizons, fog on the dyke, working boats, and the No. 3 Road corridor after rain. Here are the spots I keep going back to, and when the light is right at each.
Richmond BC has far more park than people realise, and a lot of it is a gravel path with no washroom. Here is my working list of the ones that actually hold up with kids, ranked by parking, toilets, wind off the Strait and how far you are from a snack when it all goes wrong.
The Oval stopped being an Olympic venue a long time ago. What it is now is the biggest rec centre in Richmond BC, with a pine roof worth looking up at. Here is how to get in, where to park, what the skating and court situation is really like, and where to eat after.
The Richmond Night Market sets its own season every year, so I am not going to pretend I know the 2026 dates. What I can tell you is where it sits, why the Canada Line beats driving, how to walk food alley properly, and which night of the summer is actually the best one to go.
The Richmond Maritime Festival takes over Britannia Shipyards on the BC Day long weekend, and Steveston fills right up. What the festival actually is, why you should not try to park at the site, and how I would spend the other two days of the three.
A third of Richmond BC is still farmland and the food shows it. Where to buy at the farm gate, why the Steveston market is not every Sunday, how to buy spot prawns off the boats at the wharf, when the cranberry bogs flood, and the everyday greengrocers I actually shop at.
Fall is the best season in Richmond and I will argue about it. The dyke in low light, snow geese off Sturgeon Bank, pumpkin fields on the east side, bog trails nobody uses, and a proper indoor plan for the weeks when it rains for nine days straight.
Six years of walking the same Richmond routes with a rescue mutt named Biscuit: the off-leash parks worth the drive, why the dykes are the real dog infrastructure, the two-towel system for delta mud, and the questions I ask before booking any pet service.
Tips and corrections
Somewhere I missed, or something I got wrong?
I read everything that comes in. If a place has closed, changed hands, or is simply better than I gave it credit for, tell me and I'll go back and eat there again.