Restaurants in North Cowichan

With its soaring 15-foot ceilings, Show Case Restaurant and Bar evokes images of airy cathedrals where guests dine on white tablecloths among a wall of windows, white oak pillars, and spindly floor lamps. In contrast to the streamlined dining room, chef Frank Gort prepares a complex, exotically spiced menu of upscale fare. He and his kitchen crew drizzle succulent cuts of beef tenderloin and free-range chicken with flourishes such as a lemongrass kefir emulsion, which ties each bite into an artistic and decadent package. Additionally, the restaurant uses Ocean Wise-approved sustainable seafood almost exclusively. The restaurant is also open for breakfast and lunch, whose menus take the stage with the same emphasis on unique flavour combinations.

The chefs at Red Pagoda Bistro stock platters with savoury tastes of Asia, including spring rolls, chicken and pork brochettes, and vermicelli salad. Diners also hover over steaming bowls of Vietnamese pho, known to clear the respiratory system faster than a fledgling comedian clears a banquet hall.

Taso's Family Restaurant's cadre of chefs and servers has satiated palates with homestyle Italian and Greek cuisine since opening its doors in the late 1960s. Topped with 100 per cent mozzarella cheese and a house tomato sauce, more than 25 pizzas arrive sliced and adorned with delectable ingredients such as capicollo and pineapple. Leather booths flanked by framed paintings bracing the dining-room walls shelter families of patrons scarfing down piles of pasta, Greek dishes, and meats and seafood fresh from the charcoal broiler. The eatery also hosts private parties for up to 50 guests in its back room, where celebrants can feast from preselected menu items, gather round their favourite TV program, or toast at a fireplace that abets the environment by burning breadsticks instead of wood.

Back when street trolleys still rattled through the Loop, Herman Berghoff founded a saloon where men could stop in to refuel with corned beef sandwiches and Berghoff Beer. Throughout the succeeding decades that took the Berghoff through Prohibition and, afterward, obtaining the city's first liquor license, Herman's descendants have shepherded the restaurant through changing times while meticulously preserving an old-fashioned feel. Carlyn Berghoff now steers a menu of contemporary, German-inflected bistro fare where wiener schnitzel, pierogies, and sauerbraten try to pick up the more-modern lingo of mascarpone mac and cheese and coffee-crusted beef medallions. The Berghoff’s Teutonic roots—carried on in an annual Oktoberfest complete with alpenhorns and lederhosen—intertwine with its local ones: the 200-Mile Initiative sends seasonal ingredients and produce from within 200 miles of the city spilling into the better part of the menu during the summer and fall.

Setting aside the modern crowds, the Berghoff's interior might resemble a much better-smelling museum diorama. Warm wooden wainscoting cradles every wall, checkerboard tiles gleam underfoot, and murals above the bar peek onto sprawling vistas from the balconies of pastoral retreats.

Subeez’s team of chefs—champions of contemporary fare infused with eclectic twists—whip up familiar-yet-unique noshes for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Amid an open kitchen looking on to the warmly lit dining room, culinary gurus chop and stir for an audience of eaters as they architect dishes featuring mouthwatering ingredients such as watermelon-jalapeno coulis, house-cured duck leg, and foccacia bread fresh from the oven. Alongside hearty steak frites and lamb shanks, a host of meatless fare dapples the menu and exemplifies the kitchen’s dedication to pleasing the palates of vegans, vegetarians, and visiting apatosauruses. Dexterous bar tenders concoct artful libations before launching them down the sleek wooden bar, and baristas specializing in the art of bean brewing send mugs of perfectly percolated coffee out to tables.

Intent on fostering a welcoming atmosphere, attentive servers continually wend and soft-shoe through the dining room’s intimate booths and tables to ensure that each patron remains sated and free from stomach growls. To further enhance the restaurant’s sense of youthful, eclectic energy, a lineup of DJs holds court in-house on Thursday through Sunday evenings spinning sonic webs of R&B, funk, and dubstep.

Located within the Hilton Vancouver Airport hotel, Carmichael's greets its guests with a casual and open dining room where local ingredients transform into West Coast cuisine at breakfast, lunch, and dinner. While seated in high-back chairs and sipping cocktails, diners gaze at the royal-blue and yellow ceilings that support modernly designed chandeliers. The kitchen staff puts its personal touch on gourmet burgers, succulent steaks, and pan-seared sockeye salmon drenched in the same lemon-caper sauce that fills the Pacific Ocean. Shareable offerings foster communal dining, tempting patrons to devour gourmet cheese plates between sips of imported wines and draft beers. As their ovens start to crow each morning, the culinary staff turns focus to breakfast and cooks up farm fresh eggs alongside bacon and sausage.