My family and I will be staying in Vancouver over the Christmas weekend on our way back from Whistler. We are finding many of our favorite restaurants closed both on Christmas Eve and day. We are looking at some chinese restaurants (Sun Sui Wah and Imperial Seafood) and also hotel dining rooms, but the hotels look rather expensive. Does anyone have some suggestions for us? We are open to french, italian, japanese or continental, also somewhere serving a traditional Christmas dinner would be great. Thanks in advance for your help.

I've never actually done Christmas dinner out, but the Sutton Place Hotel is supposed to be great. The Wedgewood would also be good but probably more than you want to pay.

One restaurant I thought you might want to check out is the William Tell. It is not a cutting edge Vancouver restaurant but has been a quality, nice place with a good reputation for many years. The cuisine is continental/swiss. The price also seems better than the hotels. Here's a link:

http://www.thewmtell.com/festive_christmas.html

I'll post if I can think of anything else.

Actually, Cat, the William Tell is in a hotel - the Georgian Court Hotel.
I haven't eaten there for years, but it was good when I did.

By definition Christmas dinner in a good restaurant will not be cheap. My family has gone out to Christmas dinner a few times in Vancouver and it's generally a set price and set menu of perhaps 3 choices for a main. Many of the good ones book up well in advance and most do only two sittings. You might have a better chance at a Chinese restaurant.

Thks Taggie. I knew that but had sort of forgotten it since it doesn't seem like a hotel-type restuarant to me...

Thanks for all your suggestions. I feel a bit silly now for not knowing most restaurants are closed for the holidays, but am glad I found out early enough to make some reservations.

Christmas Eve dinner will be the Imperial Seafood Restaurant which is walking distance from our hotel for chinese food. We have had dim sum there before so are familiar with the restaurant.

Christmas Day we decided on the William Tell for a traditional roasted turkey dinner, not cheap, but at $42.50 Cdn per person it was a better value than some of the other hotel buffets and set meals which ranged from $75 to $100 per person.

Wish me luck on the Whistler slopes, my first time in snow!

Here is SF we always opt for Dim Sum and the movies on Christmas Day. By far, the best dim sum I've ever had was at Kirin in Vancouver (Georgia
Street location). They have many. We tried two and found the Georgia Street location, which is near Stanley Park, the more desirable.Hit the movies or take a walk along the seawall or both.

Yes, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and New Year's Day are just about the only times of the entire year when virtually EVERYTHING in Vancouver shuts down. Except for Chinese restaurants.
If I may suggest an alternative Chinese restaurant: Floata (yes that is how it is spelled) Chinese Seafood restaurant, located in the old Chinatown nearby. It is authentic, a lot cheaper, and I love the noisy crowded atmosphere. The Imperial Seafood and Kirin restaurants are good too but they are just too stuffy for my taste. In my opinion, it is THE place to go for dim sum in the area, because of the quality and variety of the choices. Or go there for dinner and choose from one of their "set dinner menus" - this means for a set price you get a pre-decided selection of dishes served to your table, thereby saving from having to figure out what to order. Are really hungry and enjoy real Chinese food? Get 10 to 12 of you in a group and order ahead from one their "special" set menus - $398 and up depending on the menu chosen - your group will get serve a HUGE feast, of which half of the dishes are seafood such as lobster, crab, fish, scallops, etc. Check out www.floata.com.