You’re in for some good eating. I’ve just returned from six nights in Vancouver with my two sons. I am a seafood aficionado, less so oysters. I can recommend Joe Fortes which was just around the corner from our hotel on Alberni. We wound up eating there on our first and last nights. We all loved the oysters, my son enjoyed his bone-in ribeye, and I was happy with my ling cod. Other standout items were the local trout and hangar steak at St. Lawrence, hot chocolate and sweet treats at Thierry, and black sesame gelato at Bella Gelateria on Cordova St.

Sludick, we arrived at our hotel around 4:30 p.m.—it had taken an hour (it was the Sunday of Labor Day weekend) to get through customs at the airport. We were looking for something good but also easy to get to for that first night, and came across Joe Fortes’s by happenstance. We had no reservations and it was mobbed when we got there around 7:30. After not too long a wait, we were seated outside at the bar-type seating facing the street, with a platter of oysters tasting as though they’d just come from the sea.