After coming back from the hot springs we were a little worn out, kind of dirty, and MEGA hungry. We parked the car in the middle of Tofino and wandered around in search of seafood. The Fish Store and Oyster Bar (that’s the actual name!) was perfect.

I was having MAJOR indecision with the menu. I couldn’t stop flipping between the mussels and clams with bread, and the shrimp and scallops dishes. Like seriously I must have changed my mind 20 times. Eventually I just told the waitress that I couldn’t decide and asked her what I should get. She said that the shrimp and scallops dish was actually pretty small, and if I wanted she could actually get the cooks to make me the mussels and clams dish with a bunch of scallops too FOR THE SAME PRICE. OMG! Made my day.

So that’s my giant bowl of mussels, clams AND scallops, with a butter garlic sauce, and bread. It was SOOOO GOOD. It came with FIVE scallops on the shell! Plus probably 10 each of mussels and clams. Yum yum yum. I was extremely pleased. I love molluscs.

Scott got a Thai salmon noodle dish. He thought it was delicious. I don’t know what else to say about it.

They also have a small shop in the back of the restaurant. We bought a little bit of their smoked salmon to put on bagels for the next day’s breakfast. The guy was nice and rung it up as smoked tuna to make it cheaper too, awesome.

Overall we were really happy. Great service, great food. Highly recommended.

We arrived in Tofino right at dinner time. We checked into our cabin and then headed into town. By chance we ended up on the pier right at the right time and saw a GORGEOUS sunset over the harbour. So nice.

Dinner at the Ice House Oyster Bar overlooking water and the fading sunset. Not sure why this restaurant doesn’t have a Zomato profile, it was great! All their waiters have man buns and/or beards and are very enthusiastic.

I had a cider mule (BC Rumrunner cider w/ fresh lime, house made ginger syrup and vodka) that was huge and very tasty. I love when cocktails aren’t tiny things!

We shared this cold seafood platter that came with ceviche, smoked halibut, clams, crab and shrimp. The smoked fish and ceviche were particularly great. We also split a challah bread pudding dessert.

I really like the glasses from the Tofino Brewing Co. Actually lots of things in Tofino are wave-themed: the pedestrian crossings, the bike racks, etc. Cute.

Tofino is pretty awesome. It’s relaxed and beachy with tons of awesome food options. We spent a lot of time chilling out at our cabin or the beach just staring out at the ocean, watching surfers and paddle boarders and dogs and campfires. Our cabin was right on the water and it was lovely to hear the waves crashing on the beach all the time.

One day we drove down to Ucluelet to walk the Wild Pacific Trail. We did the lighthouse section and part of the coast section. Both very nice walks, quite easy on well made trails, with beautiful ocean views. We kept looking for whales but didn’t see any.

Ucluelet was verrrrrry quiet, and the lunch we had there was pretty terrible, so neither of us really liked the town, especially compared to Tofino. Also the drive between the two towns is ultra boring.

Cross stitching on our porch while watching yet another gorgeous sunset. Not pictured: glass of wine. Perfection.

It was sunny every day, which was great (but no storm watching). Too cold to swim though. I was planning on surfing, but kept procrastinating, until the last day when I woke up early all ready to go… until I checked the surf report and saw that the waves were 1 foot tall. Dang it. It was dumb of me to assume that the waves would be the same (good) every day. :/

Another trip highlight was the hot springs, but I took so many pictures I’ll have to make it into another post. Plus I have three more food reviews that I’ll have to make into separate posts too. Tofino overload, sorry not sorry!

We made most breakfasts at our cabin (bagels with cream cheese and local smoked salmon or tuna, OM NOM NOM), but the first morning we went to Wildside Grill.

I ordered the breakfast tacos (fried eggs, cheese, chipolte mayo, salsa, guacamole, lettuce, cilantro and green onions in a corn tortilla) and Scott got huevos rancheros (two overeasy eggs, cheese, pinto beans and salsa roja, guacamole, cilantro and green onion in corn tortillas). They were sloppy deliciousness. The eggs exploded with runny yolk. I liked the breakfast tacos slightly more than the huevos because of the freshness of the salsa, but both were definitely great.

Apparently Wildside Grill has the best fish & chips in town, and possibly better fish tacos than Tacofino, but we didn’t have enough meals on our trip to make it back. Next time!

Last week Scott and I took a holiday to Vancouver Island. We took the ferry to Victoria first to visit Leslie. The ferry to Victoria is so cool!! I was really surprised that such a large boat would weave its way through such narrow passages. Man some of those properties on Galiano and Mayne Island look so appealing. We didn’t see any whales, unfortunately.

Killing some time while Leslie was at school with a Kiwanis Club butter tart on the beach.

When Leslie was ready we picked her up from school and drove downtown. We wandered around the waterfront area for a bit and then had a delicious dinner at the Flying Otter Grill. It was yummy and I would have reviewed it properly but it was too dark and my food pictures look like poop.

The next day we went to Fisherman’s Wharf, a tiny neighbourhood of floating houses and tourist attractions. It was neat. We watched a lucky seal (?) get fed dozens of fish. Plenty of good photo opportunities there.

We headed back downtown, poked around Chinatown, drank really tasty bubble tea, squeezed through Fan-Tan Alley, etc etc. Probably more stuff that I am currently forgetting.

Then lunch at Red Fish, Blue Fish, on the water again. The line was pretty long, but it was worth it! Between the three of us we had chowder, jerk fish poutine, and three tacos (Albacore tuna, tempura cod, jerk fish). We were all stuffed.

The chowder was not your typical creamy potato chowder, instead it was tomato-based, spicy, coconut-y, with tons of big pieces of seafood, plus a lot of corn. Really really good soup. The poutine was a little odd (who makes fish poutine?), but tasty. Spicy halibut, cod, tuna and salmon over fries with a creamy dressing. And my Albacore tuna taco was really good. The fish was grilled rare perfectly.

Then we dropped Leslie back at her house and Scott and I started the 4.5 hour journey to Tofino!