SUMMER PATIO PICKS

Cassis Bistro

420 West Pender, 604 605-0420

One of Vancouver’s best-kept secrets. Cassis’ diminutive sliver of a patio lies at the rear of the room and looks out into an open lot in one of Crosstown’s sketchier back alleys. It can be positively idyllic at lunch, but it morphs into an eye-opener late in the evening. Try the Coq au Vin — superb, and a bargain!

DARBY’S

2001 MacDonald, 604 731-0617

A part of the Kitsilano landscape for over 25 years, Darby’s offers virtually everything you could want from a no-nonsense pub: a straightforward but consistently well-executed menu (burgers and steaks have earned their status as crowd favourites), big-screen TVs tuned in to the game, and an unpretentious all-ages crowd.

DOCKSIDE RESTAURANT

1253 Johnston, Granville Island, 604 685-7070

This Granville Island mainstay’s floor-to-ceiling windows (looking out onto stunning city and water views) and on-site brewery have made it a year-round magnet for tourists and locals alike. A succinct but pleasing menu (divided into “Water,” “Land” and “Off the Rotisserie”) delivers plenty of hits.    

Fiddlehead Joe’s

1-1012 Beach Ave, 604 688-1969

An unpretentious, undersung, and very much improved little restaurant on the False Creek seawall that does gangbusters in summer due to an even-keeled kitchen and a hot-ticket patio. If you’re into measuring the wide strides of svelte rollerbladers while tucking into braised pork belly, it doesn’t get much better than this.

THE FROG AND FIRKIN

1941 West Broadway, 604 734-3418

Facing out onto the bustle of West Broadway, the Frog and Firkin patio is a perennially popular spot — especially among weekend and after-work crowds, who settle down to its parasol-covered tables for classic, unpretentious English pub fare and well-priced pints of beer. Service is always friendly, and the place always pulses with the friendliness of a laid-back summer day.

LAS MARGARITAS

1999 West 4th, 604 734-7117

One of the most consistently bustling patios in all of Kitsilano packs ’em in all summer long. Lunch and dinner menus boast every conceivable Tex-Mex favourite, while the province’s largest selection of tequilas helps ensure the namesake Margaritas flow freely from behind the bar. Your table’s first basket of house-made chips and salsa is free.

NEW INDIA BUFFET & RESTAURANT

805 West Broadway, 604 874-5800

The sprawling all-you-can-eat buffet brings ’em in by the dozens. But even if you don’t associate rich and spicy Indian cuisine with the summer months, New India’s balcony seating (with impressive views of the downtown lights) makes it a good — if unlikely — seasonal gem.   

Subeez

891 Homer, 604 687-6107

A recent shake-up in the kitchen at this always-buzzing downtown hangout has meant nothing but good things for the menu, which now boasts local and organic ingredients and vastly improved flavours. Running alongside the building (now with wireless), the patio has a feel to it that balances moments of inner-city serenity against the ridiculously busy street traffic.

ZIN RESTAURANT & LOUNGE

1277 Robson, 604 408-1700

This longtime fixture of the Robson strip offers some of the summer’s best people watching, as an endless parade of shoppers, tourists and nightlife seekers stream past. Fortunately, the “West Coast cuisine with a global flare” menu is an even better reason to visit, with well-executed standbys like steak frites, to more inventive fare like Vietnamese Grilled Berkshire Pork.