An Evening Out in Vancouver

We had a wonderful evening as we dined with friends at the Botanist Restaurant in downtown Vancouver.

Jun 04, 2025

Step inside Botanist, a world where day blurs into night,
summer into winter, and food and drink are plenty.

So says the blurb on the Botanist restaurant’s website, inviting guests to wine and dine at the restaurant in the Fairmont Pacific Rim. The second-floor restaurant was sunny and filled with plants. It was a bit on the loud side, with sound ricocheting off the minimalist stone surfaces, but lovely to behold.

CACTUS KISS, blanco tequila, prickly pear, ginger, cointreau, lime, sage
The prick of a cactus is a cactus kiss, because we all know love hurts. Delicious!

Sadly, the notes that we took for Sherpa’s beer have been lost in our packing paper shuffle, and there was no online beer menu, so we have no way to identify this beer. Sherpa said is was “fine” which means it was in the 5.5-6.5/10 range.

STEAMED SABLEFISH shishito pepper, baby artichokes, salted cod stuffed morels, spring radishes. Delicious!

DRY-AGED STRIPLOIN, foraged mushrooms, spring peas, farro verde, taleggio, bordelaise jus. Delicious!

MAPLE WALNUT TART smoked maple crémeux, spruce tuile, candy cap mushroom ice cream. OMG, delicious!!!

Colourwork, a solo exhibition of paintings by Vancouver artist Angela Teng was on display on the second floor lobby near the Botanist’s entrance. A lovely display of color and texture!

Her process is described as this: “After squeezing and drying lengths of different coloured paints into thin strips which approximate yarn, Teng uses a single hook to crochet the paint into rectangular and square compositions. As she described in a 2016 interview in Canadian Art magazine:

"The paintings have the ability to speak to sculpture and painting and feminism-craft, women's work... And there's still so much within colour, form and gesture that I have yet to explore."

Our shipmates were foodies, always on the lookout for the best restaurants at various ports of call. We were grateful for their invitation to join them for dinner in Vancouver. What could be better—enjoying great food and excellent drinks in a space with a great atmosphere, and doing so with new friends!

Next port of call: Victoria, British Columbia.