Sidney is a small town on the Saanich Peninsula that consistently surprises people who write it off as a ferry stop. Twenty minutes north of Victoria and sitting right on the water, it has a compact, walkable food scene built almost entirely around independent operators. The coffee is taken seriously, the seafood is fresh, the wine bars know their lists, and a full day spent eating your way through it is one of the more enjoyable things you can do on Vancouver Island.
Start at 3rd Street Cafe on Beacon Avenue. The eggs benedict has a devoted local following and the house-made hot sauce is worth knowing about. Owned and run by Jess Birring, the cafe has built its reputation on consistency, genuinely warm service, and food that is made with care every single day. It fills quickly on weekends so arrive early, order a coffee, and take your time. Locals consider it one of the best breakfast spots on the Saanich Peninsula and visitors who find it tend to agree.
Sidney Bakery on Beacon Avenue is the next stop and has been a fixture in this town since 1903, making it one of the oldest bakeries in British Columbia. The same family has run it since the 1940s and they have used the same recipes since 1944. Mike and Colleen Hay have kept the place exactly as it should be, resisting the urge to modernise in ways that would have ruined it. The Texas donuts are dinner-plate sized, made fresh each morning, and reliably gone by mid-morning on weekends. The bread, pastries, sausage rolls, and squares are all worth your attention. Go early or adjust expectations accordingly.
From there, head to Quince Café on Beacon Avenue for a second coffee and something baked. Everything here is made from scratch using local and seasonal ingredients, with a focus on the kind of food that is simple, well executed, and better than it needs to be. The carrot cake has developed a reputation well beyond the street it sits on. The patio is worth taking on a good morning.
Sidney Scones on Third Street deserves proper time. Owner Chelsey Columbus started baking scones at home, took them to a house party, and left with a business. She has since created over 800 flavours, from earl grey vanilla to salted caramel apple to churro to everything bagel and cream cheese, and built around them a shop that is joyful, pink, and completely unlike anything else on the peninsula. The bubble tea menu is taken equally seriously, with flavours designed to complement the scones. Gluten free and vegan options are available throughout. Go before noon for the best selection and expect to leave with more than you planned.
A short walk away on Bevan Avenue, Smør Scandinavian Bakery is one of Sidney’s most exciting recent arrivals. Owner Leah Hayward started selling Christmas cookies from home in 2022, expanded to farmers markets across the Saanich Peninsula and Gulf Islands, and opened her permanent storefront in Sidney in 2024. Everything is baked in house each morning. Rye bread, cardamom buns, heart-shaped waffles, open face sandwiches, and authentic pastries from Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and Finland. To her knowledge there is no other bakery on Vancouver Island specifically focused on Scandinavian baking. The bread sells out without announcement so arrive before noon.
Maria’s Souvlaki on Second Street has been feeding Sidney for over thirty years, which in a town this size amounts to a genuine institution. The Greek food is fresh, the prices are fair, and the souvlaki is exactly what it should be. No reinvention, no shortcuts, just three decades of doing it right. It is the kind of place that locals take for granted until they leave and realise how lucky they were to have it.
The Fickle Fig Farm Market Express on Beacon Avenue makes everything from scratch daily. Sandwiches, wood fire pizzas, gelato, and baked goods built around local and seasonal ingredients. The farm-to-table commitment here is genuine rather than decorative.
Start on Third Street where Small Gods Brewing and Beacon Brewing sit two doors apart inside the Oceanna building, each worth your time for different reasons. Small Gods was built around a literary concept, with every beer named after a book connected to its ingredients and brewing style. The flagship German pilsner is called Neverending, after The Neverending Story. The seasonal taps are consistently interesting and the dog-friendly patio is one of the better spots on Third Street. Beacon Brewing is family run by a husband and wife team and her brother, all local to Sidney. The approach is classic rather than experimental, with approachable well-executed styles and a loyal following built over years. They welcome you to bring in food from anywhere in town, which tells you something about how the place is run. Vinyl night runs every Thursday with records brought in by locals and played first come first served in full. Worth timing your visit around if you can.
From there, head to Janet’s Special Teas on Beacon Avenue. Over 141 varieties and Janet knows her regulars — local and from further afield — and what each of them drinks. She has built something quietly exceptional here, a tea shop with genuine depth of knowledge behind it and a customer base that keeps coming back. Worth taking your time with the selection rather than grabbing the first thing you see.
End at Victoria Distillers on Seaport Place, where Empress 1908 gin is produced right here on the Sidney waterfront. The distillery takes its name from the Empress Hotel in Victoria and the 1908 gin is made with butterfly pea blossom, which gives it a striking deep indigo colour that shifts to blush pink when mixed with tonic. It has won international awards and is now served in bars and hotels around the world, but it is made here in Sidney. The tasting room is on site and the bottle shop is next door. Take your time with both.
Scoop and Waffle on Beacon Avenue opened in March 2025 and the origin story is about as Sidney as it gets. Amanda Coe’s daughter simply wanted a place in town to get ice cream. After looking around and not finding quite the right spot, Amanda joked, “Let’s start our own.” One idea later, here it is. There had been no dedicated year-round ice cream shop in Sidney, which tells you something about the gap she filled. The menu runs to 28 rotating flavours alongside mini donuts, milkshakes, sundaes, and waffle pops, mini Belgian waffles served on a stick. There are vegan sorbets, gluten-free waffles, and gluten-friendly cones. The flagship order is the Scoop and Waffle Sundae, two scoops in a waffle cone bowl with whipped cream, chocolate sauce, and a cherry on top. Flavours are put to a community vote on Facebook each month, so the regulars have a say in what’s on. Amanda’s own go-to order, for the record, is a gluten-free Belgian waffle with chocolate peanut butter, Nutella drizzle, and whipped cream.
Tonollis Deli and Coffee on Bevan Avenue sits just off the main strip at the corner of Bevan Avenue and Fifth Street. Run by a family very much involved in the day-to-day, it has built a reputation as one of the most welcoming regulars-know-your-name kind of places on the peninsula. Staff make a point of getting to know the people who come through the door. The baking is taken seriously, the cakes and baking in particular has become a reason people come back. The deli side holds up too, with sandwiches that are properly made rather than assembled. Dog friendly, open seven days. The street-facing patio is one of the quieter places to sit on a sunny afternoon in Sidney, a block removed from the busier end of Beacon Avenue.
10 Acres at the Pier sits inside the Sidney Pier Hotel on the waterfront, part of the 10 Acres Farm and Restaurant Group which runs its own farm on the Saanich Peninsula and was drawn to Sidney in part because the farm and many of its growers are already out here. The menu features Ocean Wise and sustainably caught local seafood, a raw bar with freshly shucked oysters at half price during happy hour, and meat from Berryman Brothers Farm and Four Quarters Meats, including pigs raised on the 10 Acres farm itself on food sourced from the restaurants. The twice weekly harvest from the farm is the foundation of the menus, season by season.
Atelier by Matt Jackson on Fifth Street opened in November 2022. Matt Jackson previously worked at a Michelin Star restaurant in England before bringing that background to a small room tucked away off one of Sidney’s side streets. The kitchen is built around a French-inspired approach using the finest and freshest Peninsula ingredients from land and sea. Local farmers drop off fresh produce and Matt designs his menu around what is seasonal and available. The menu changes monthly and the wine programme is serious, with the restaurant rated among the best for service, food, ambience, and value across Vancouver Island. The room seats around 30 people. It does not announce itself loudly, which is part of what makes it so good. Book well ahead.
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