I have to confess that for years I shied away from the Pointe Restaurant at the Wickaninnish Inn. Tofino’s highest-profile and most renowned establishment was too expensive and fancy for me, I always thought. Then one evening a friend took me there for dinner and I was blown away. The service, the friendliness and the quality of the food were all fantastic. It was an amazing experience, worth every penny – though definitely priced in the fine dining range. And as you’d expect the setting is amazing, right on Chesterman Beach, complete with surf, seabirds and the ocean’s eternal thrum. Wine lovers will also know right away that they’ve come to the right place. The Pointe’s very capable sommelier will take you through their long list of exceptional wines to make sure you won’t be disappointed. The locally caught seafood is a favourite, of course. In fact, almost all the ingredients, including meat, game and produce, are locally sourced and lovingly prepared. Also just a five-minute walk from Tofino Hummingbird Cottage via Chesterman beach. Highly recommended for those special occasions.
Driftwood Café/On The Rocks bar
These two sub-establishments at the Wickaninnish have the same seaside cachet and excellent service as The Pointe. The Driftwood is right on the beach and offers excellent cappuccinos, lattes or other caffeinated (or non-caffeinated) beverages of your choice. And they have an area for dogs, so I can bring my Jack Russell terrier, Kando. Great place to have a coffee! For a glass of wine, craft brew or creative cocktail, the Wickaninnish’s On The Rocks licensed lounge is a classy retreat for appies and reconnecting.
As you might guess, the Tacofino name – so well known today in Vancouver and the BC Lower Mainland – started right here in Tofino. Their original food truck is still the spot for tacos, burritos and gringas filled with seared albacore, beans, tempura ling cod and pork. The food is delicious, and the company’s success is well deserved. On the other hand, it also means they simply can’t keep up with the strong demand in most busy seasons – mainly summer – when the lineups can be up to two hours long. But if you’re hungry enough or patient or both, the food is consistently great, and the truck is only five minutes’ walk from Tofino Hummingbird Cottage. In the off-season, I typically phone in my orders and pick them up 10 or 15 minutes later.
When I’m looking for a light breakfast with top-quality coffee (voted best in Tofino, many times), loose-leaf tea, Matcha or “gourmet chocolate frothy delight” as their website calls it, I head for the Tofitian. Located right on the Pacific Rim Hwy, next to Beaches Grocery and Wildside Grill. Gluten-free and vegan options are available in the array of breakfast sandwiches, sausage rolls, cookies, muffins, cakes and other treats that emerge daily from their in-house bakery.
Commercial Fisherman Jeff Mikus opened the Wildside Grill in 2008, which became a favourite restaurant for take-out in Tofino. Some years later, Pacific Sands Beach Resort approached Jeff to open Surfside grill, offering take-out on their beach-front. Surfside Grill now serves freshest seafood and family-oriented meals to Pacific Sands guests and visitors to Tofino.
A fine dining establishment with a casual twist is the relatively new (2013) Wolf in the Fog. With what it calls its ‘hip-meets-chill vibe,’ and located right in town, it specializes in local, naturally sourced ingredients – salmon, chanterelle mushrooms harvested from nearby forests, squid, tuna, halibut. Lots of cocktails, local brews and BC wines to choose from as well. Chef Nicholas Nutting has a simple approach which he says honours local ingredients from the Island’s fishers and farmers, as well as foraged goods from Tofino’s forests and shores. Says the website: ‘We’re proud to be a part of this culinary community in such a quirky corner of Canada, right at the end of the road.’ The prices lean toward the haute side of cuisine, but if you can afford them and want to treat yourself to a classic Tofino lunch or dinner, the Wolf is calling.
Situated right on the inner harbour with a postcard backdrop of forested mountains, scrap-scrounging eagles and the occasional departing float plane or schooner, Shelter is a great choice for breakfast or dinner. I’d recommend Shelter for atmosphere alone, but the meals earn equal billing, with such seafood delights as side-stripe shrimp and mussel fettucine –– or non-seafood dishes such as slow roasted beef chuck flat or a Shelter salad with Tofino grown greens. In fact, most ingredients are sourced and foraged from Tofino’s oceans, shoreline and forests.
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