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
32 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
Steveston Village is Richmond's Christmas centre, with Winter in the Village running November 19 to December 31, a free Winter Tram in December, a Christmas craft fair, and Santa at the Cannery.
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.
Richmond's 2026 Remembrance Day service is at the cenotaph on the east side of City Hall on Wednesday, November 11: parade 10:20am, ceremony 10:40am, silence at 11am.
Minoru Park's 40th annual Halloween fireworks festival, a 40-year pumpkin patch at Richmond Country Farms, Halloween Hoot at the Nature Park, and Richmond's fireworks rules.
The Night Market's final season is the loud story. The quieter one: free admission at the Cannery ends Monday, Britannia keeps summer hours through Sunday, and Steveston does sunsets better than anyone.
Nothing on Alexandra Road is a secret. 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.
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 realize, 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 center 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.
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.