Blue Canoe Waterfront Restaurant

Hi Everyone,

I had lunch at the Blue Canoe Waterfront Restaurant today in Steveston Village’s waterfront area. This place is full of waterfront restaurants with nice patios and great views of the water. It’s just a few steps away from Sockeye City Grill, the other restaurant that I blogged about, and in fact Jess and I were considering trying this restaurant last time but they were busy as well, so we walked on and ended up at Sockeye.

We arrived at this restaurant right when they opened, so there was no trouble getting a table, but soon after the patio was filling up fast and becoming full in no time. Their website says they won Richmond’s Best Restaurant award, so this must be good. The patio was nice and spacious, covered, had heating available, and several tvs as well. They also provided blankets for each table in case it was cold, which in the beginning it was a bit chilly as the breeze from the water was coming in and it wasn’t that warm yet. The table was a bit sticky, but not too bad that I wouldn’t put my wallet and phone on. Our server came by with water soon after we were seated and took our drink order first.

I had a mojito of course.

Their mojito tasted pretty good, but it wasn’t amazing or memorable. Overall a decent mojito still.

The oysters arrived first, and this was my first time having raw oysters! We ordered the Fresh Oysters of Royal Miyagi (Cortes Island, BC) and Chef Creek (Bayne Sound, BC) 12 for $31.99. I was taught to check if the oyster was separated from the shell so that it can be slurped up, and to not cut it off from the shell. We took a bit of each of the condiments from the middle and mixed it in, then slurped up the oyster. Very interesting first experience with this! They tasted very fresh indeed as they had just come off the fishing boat down by Fisherman’s Warf below the patio, and was quite delicious! Apparently the Royal Miyagi oysters are supposed to be one of the best, and I do agree that they were better than the Chef Creek. Now that I’ve had my first experience with oysters, I won’t hesitate to eat more next time around!

Next up was a dish that we did not order so we were surprised when it arrived. A different server brought us a plate of Canoe Chicken Drumettes $13.99 in Sesame Soy flavour and Jerk Rub flavour, and mentioned that these were compliments of our server! How nice of him! We each started off with the Sesame Soy and they were absolutely delicious! They were cooked through nice and even, and the flavour was just amazing! We tried the Jerk Rub after, and either it was the effect of the first one being so good that it caused the second one to taste relatively less flavourful, or it just wasn’t as good as the first one at all. The Jerk Rub flavour tasted a bit bland and was quite dry on the inside compared to the Sesame Soy, albeit it being a dry flavour, it didn’t carry enough flavour to make it taste as good as the Sesame Soy.

Soon after, the rest of the food arrived and our table got filled with food very quickly. Next up was the Grilled Pork Skewers $13.99. From looking at them, they looked a bit burnt from the grill, and when I tasted them, indeed they were. The pork was pretty tough and did not have much flavour to them, so this dish was not very good at all. Even if I dipped the green sauce did not help the pork, so I don’t recommend this.

We also had the Fish Tacos $14.99 and these were much better than the skewers. I believe it was salmon that was in the tacos and these tasted very good. The tomatillo jalapeno hot sauce went very nicely with the tacos as I poured it in the taco before rolling it up. Overall a good dish and I’d recommend ordering it.

The Smoked Salmon Flatbread $14.99 was AWESOME! The smoked salmon was amazing and the mix of toppings (lemon dill crème fraiche, capers, red onion, shaved asparagus, fennel & pea shoots) worked together very nicely to give it loads of flavour. I highly recommend ordering this dish!

The Haida Gwaii Halibut $31.99 arrived last and it a bit disappointing from what I expected it to be. The presentation looked nice but the flavour of the fish was just not quite there for me. It was served with some white and wild rice, with this mix of veggies and pineapple. You definitely had to eat a mix of all 3 together to get the most out of this, as eating just the fish did not yield much flavour as I expected it would. I personally wouldn’t order this again but if you’re really curious, you can give it a try.

Our meal finished with yet another surprise from our server! We were brought a complimentary Tuna Ceviche $14.99 from our server! This was an appetizer served in a martini glass consisting of chilled albacore tuna marinated in coconut milk, lime, cilantro, and avocado, with crispy plantain chips to scoop them up in like a nacho chip. This was my first time having this type of dish so it was a very interesting experience! The mixture in the middle was good and went well with the plantain chips. The server even brought over another side bowl of plantain chips as we were running out of chips with more “dip” left to eat. This was a very good dish and I would recommend you try it out if you haven’t.

Overall this restaurant was a very good experience. The food was great for the most part and the service was excellent. The views from the patio were amazing on a nice summer day. I highly recommend trying this restaurant out for the fresh seafood and top notch service!

Service:

5/5

Food:

4/5

Price:

$$-$$$$

Overall Rating:

4.5/5

Thanks for reading everyone! Happy eating!

- Phil