Arms Reach Bistro

Alistair Knox and chef Erick Kauko opened the bistro in 2004 as a small family restaurant on the water, and it has now run for more than twenty years. The dine-in menu moves from warm marinated olives and coconut green-curry mussels up to a pan-roasted BC lingcod at $42 and lamb chops at $43. For a lighter bill, the bucatini with roasted butternut squash and toasted hazelnuts costs $25, and any pasta can switch to gluten-free fusilli for $2 more.

Brunch runs at weekends and on holidays until 2 pm, with a carnitas breakfast bowl and Timo's Benny on smoked steelhead, and the kitchen politely declines substitutions on that menu. On Tuesdays from 5 pm the feature burger comes with a local craft beer for $22 until it sells out. Sunday is the night for wine, when bottles from the reserve list drop by 30% outside holidays.

Indoor tables book through the bistro's website, and patio seats go to whoever arrives first. The bistro closes from 24 to 26 December, so plan a Christmas week dinner on either side of those dates. North Shore News readers named it a finalist for restaurant for a romantic date in their 2023 Readers Choice Awards.