Restaurants
A long-running seafood room on the Bayview Pier, one floor below Catch. The kitchen keeps things simple: local fish, chowder and shellfish, with harbour views from most tables. A reliable choice when you want a proper sit-down dinner in the village.
Wanting a seafood dinner on the water narrows your options in Richmond very quickly. Steveston is where that request gets answered, and the pier buildings on Bayview Street are the reason. Blue Canoe occupies the lower floor of one of them, below Catch, with the harbour immediately outside. A position like that usually costs something on the plate, so the fair test for any waterfront room is whether the kitchen is still trying rather than coasting on the view.
The village runs two entirely separate personalities depending on the season. Summer brings tour buses, sales off the boats at the wharf, and a parking situation that tests everybody's patience. Winter empties it out completely. The water is still there in February, and the pier is arguably better with rain coming sideways than in August with a queue behind you and nowhere to put your bike.
Dinner in Steveston otherwise skews casual, with fish and chip windows, pubs and a few small rooms up on Moncton Street. That makes a proper waterfront dinner a different proposition rather than a pricier version of the same evening. You can walk in along the boardwalk from Imperial Landing, and the whole waterfront connects, so arriving on foot from anywhere in the village is straightforward. Summer weekends are the hard ones. Anyone crossing the city for this should treat it as a trip to Steveston rather than a trip to a restaurant, leave time for the walk in, and plan on the harbour being the better half of the evening.
In the Steveston neighbourhood of Richmond.
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Upstairs on the Bayview pier with big windows over Fisherman's Wharf, Catch serves West Coast seafood alongside steaks, burgers and pasta. Locals come for the sunset patio, the halibut and black cod, and a kitchen that runs late on weekend nights.
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A seafood bar and grill on the Steveston boardwalk, with Vicky's Lounge upstairs for drinks and harbour views. Fish and chips and chowder anchor the menu. The patio is packed in summer and it settles into a quiet local pub the rest of the year.
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Persian and Mediterranean cooking on the Steveston boardwalk, with charcoal kebabs, lamb and vegetarian plates plus a fish-and-chips option for anyone who wants the classic. Waterfront seating and later closing on weekends.
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Family-run Punjabi kitchen that outgrew its small Moncton Street takeout counter and moved into a larger Bayview dining room. A dozen curries, biryani, Indo-Chinese dishes and vegetarian platters, open daily from late morning until nine.
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Steveston's barbecue joint, smoking brisket, ribs, pulled pork and chicken in house with rubs made on site. Order at the counter, grab a craft beer, and watch the game on the big screens. Burnt ends and cornbread are the sides people come back for.
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A waterside eatery tucked behind the Bayview shops, best known for burgers and a brunch that runs all seven days and stretches to crab cake benedict, cabbage rolls, borscht and chowder. Casual and rustic, and easy to walk straight past.
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From the blog
Longer reads from the editor, with the places worth a detour linked inside them.
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.
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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.
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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.
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