Date Night in Pitt Meadows

Nineteen thousand people. You can count the dinner options on two hands, and the honest thing to admit is that a lot of couples here get in the car and go somewhere else. I did that for years.

I mostly stopped, for two reasons. The short list turns out to be better than its reputation, and nobody has to be the one who does not drink. That second point is worth more than most people credit it for, and it is the whole argument for eating in your own town.

What follows is ranked by what I would actually book, with the reason attached. A place missing from it is usually missing because it is a lunch place, or because it is perfectly fine and you already know about it.

1. Inkantu Peruvian Artisan Cuisine

The best dinner in Pitt Meadows, and it wins on a fairly simple argument: it is cooking something nobody else here is cooking. Peruvian food, in a room small enough that you can hear the person sitting opposite you, which in a town of newer retail unit dining rooms is not nothing.

Small rooms fill and small rooms keep their own hours, so phone ahead rather than turning up and hoping. This is the one I book when the evening is supposed to mean something.

2. The Firehall Bistro

Table service, a short menu, and a room that is not trying to impress anybody. Both of the last two are recommendations. A short menu means somebody is making decisions on your behalf, and a plain room usually means the money went somewhere more useful than the light fittings.

It ranks second rather than first only because Inkantu is doing something rarer. On plenty of nights it is the better call, particularly when you want a proper sit down dinner with no driving involved at all.

3. Akasaka Japanese Restaurant

Third, and third is not a criticism. A Japanese dinner is the easiest thing in the world for two people to agree on, which matters more than it should on a Friday when neither of you wants to be the one making the decision.

It is also the most forgiving option on this list if one of you is hungry and the other wants to sit and talk for two hours. Those two people are usually married to each other.

4. West Coast Grill

The one I suggest when the point of the evening is a long, unhurried dinner rather than any particular dish. Grills are easy to be snobbish about and hard to beat when two people want different things off the same menu, which describes most couples I know.

It is also the safest booking here if one of you is fussy, and in a town this size a safe booking is a compliment. The alternative to a safe booking is often no booking at all and a long argument in the car.

5. Foamers' Folly Brewing Co.

Not an anniversary. Very good for a third date, a Friday that got away from you, or the kind of evening where the conversation matters more than the tablecloth. A taproom is a forgiving room: nobody is listening to you, nobody is rushing you, and the bill will not ruin the week.

Check what is happening before you go. Taprooms run their own schedules, and the place is a very different proposition on a busy night than on a quiet one.

The rest of the evening

The Jolly Coachman Pub is the correct answer for a drink before or after almost everything above. It is a pub and it behaves like one, which is the entire point.

Sweet Tooth Creamery plus a walk out on the dike is the cheapest good date available here, and I will defend that placement against anything higher up the list. Ice cream, the river, an hour, no bill worth mentioning.

Tomes & Tales Books is a decent way to fill the gap before a table is ready, assuming you both enjoy the kind of date where you wander off into different sections and meet again at the till. Check the opening days first; small shops here do not all keep the same ones.

Wedge Bar & Grill works when you want to sit somewhere pleasant without making an occasion of it. Easy, unfussy, and useful on the nights when neither of you can face a decision.

And if the answer is a night in, Pitt Meadows Beer & Wine Store rescues most plans, provided you get there before it shuts.

Four blunt notes

• Book the small rooms. The best places here have very few tables. Walking in at seven on a Saturday is optimism, not a plan.
• Check the closed days. Several of these shut at least one day a week, and it will be the night you decided to be spontaneous.
• Kitchens close earlier than you think. This is not a late night town. Eat early and use the rest of the evening for something else.
• Walkability is limited. Only the Town Centre and Osprey Village let you park once and do the whole night on foot. Plan around that or plan a driver.

That is the list. It is short because the town is small, and I would rather give you four or five honest answers than pad it out to fifteen and waste your Saturday.