Dining in Vancouver - The Sylvia Hotel

The Sylvia Hotel
The Sylvia Hotel, built in 1912 is a designated heritage building. It was originally designed as an apartment building with an amazing view on Beach Avenue facing English Bay. During the Depression the Sylvia Court Apartments fell on hard times, and in 1936 the building was converted into an apartment hotel. After the war the number of permanent residents in the hotel gradually decreased, until by the sixties the Sylvia had become a completely transient full-service hotel. In 1954 it opened the first cocktail bar in Vancouver. Today it has a restaurant, lounge and a small patio with one of the best views in Vancouver.

Food and Service
We had been to the restaurant once before a few years ago but the weather was not good enough to sit outside. This time the weather was perfect and we secured a prime table along the patio railing. The restaurant and the patio is elevated off the street so the views from both inside and out are above street level. Our server was slow getting us water, then getting us drinks, then taking our order so we were waiting for quite a while. No problem thanks to the great view.

Jeff chose the late riser breakfast and I had the Crab Mac & Cheese. Both meals were pretty good.

The mac and cheese was creamy and there was a good portion of crab meat. The salad was OK, not quite enough dressing, but not the star of the show.

Jeff’s breakfast was hot and cooked well with a little side of fruit. The prices are not cheap – $12 for breakfast and $17 for Crab mac & cheese but the view is worth the price on a beautiful day. The view on the way home did not hurt either!