I'm curious what restaurants you were going to... were they Lumiere,
Tojo's, Gotham, and the Observatory by any chance? If so, you were
dining at the most expensive restaurants in the city. Most restaurants
in Vancouver are otherwise very affordable, where the entrees start
around $14 Canadian, and maybe steak and lobster can reach $30
Canadian. Most restaurants I dine at in Vancouver have entrees half the
price of what you're quoting at. It sounds as if you might have been
dining at the creme de la creme of Vancouver's restaurant scene. If
that was the case, you hand selected the most expensive restaurants. A
quick look at most of the websites of the restaurants listed in
Vancouver Magazines Restaurant Awards will show you that most Vancouver
restaurants are priced at well under $40 an entree.
> Virtually every restaurant we wanted to go to had entrees over $40C (as high as
> $78C), much higher than, say, Equinox or Kincaid's in DC -- e.g.: fish and chips
> at over $20 in many restaurants. Also much higher than equivalent restaurants in
> Seattle and San Francisco, where we were for a week each before going to
> Vancouver. Higher than Chez Panisse for an equivalent meal.
>
> Wine prices were astronomical -- about twice the price of the same bottle in
> most US cities (this is due to taxes, I've been told). BC wine was *way*
> overpriced for the product. Even beer was pretty steep ($5.75 minimum for a pint
> of Granville Island Pale Ale.)
>
> The current weaker US dollar would explain some of that, but not all.
>
> We still had a great time, but at a price I didn't anticipate.
>
> -- Larry
|