7 Jun

Last Chance to Eat at the Stanley Park Fish House in Vancouver

Photo credit: Miss 604 | Flickr

A beacon of fine dining in Stanley Park for the last 25 years is set to close its doors.

The Fish House, the quaint, cottage-style restaurant perched above English Bay and next to the Stanley Park tennis courts, is closing on Sept. 30. Known for its Dungeness crab cakes, fish and chips and surf and turf, the white-table-cloth fixture has long been a standby for special occasions, from Mother’s Day to New Year’s Eve.

A prime location in Stanley Park has assured a steady traffic of tourists and locals, and it’s not for lack of business that The Fish House is closing shop. Instead, the operator, a hotel company that leases the space from the park board, is getting out of the restaurant game altogether. Hopes are to find another restaurant that can fill The Fish House space and keep the venerable tradition of Stanley Park dining alive. The park board expects to put out a request for new proposals early this summer.

Photo sourced from fishhousestanleypark.com

The building itself dates back all the way to 1930, according to an article in the Vancouver Sun by Kevin Griffin. It initially functioned as a clubhouse for golf and tennis players using nearby park facilities. It transitioned to a restaurant in 1949 as the Third Beach Tea House (not to be confused with the current-day Tea House in Stanley Park, which is in fact located above Third Beach.) It was rebranded as The Beach House in 1974 and became The Fish House in 1991.

The restaurant, which has three dining rooms with lots of light from windows and skylights, seats up to 120 people. Countless guests have spent long afternoons enjoying meals on its twin patios, one facing English Bay and the other facing to the east. Consistently full, The Fish House stands to be more packed than ever this summer, as nostalgic regulars pop in for one last order of calamari with sun-dried tomato remoulade, bowl of clam chowder with Manila clams or heaping surf and turf for two (sirloins, Alaskan king crab and weathervane scallops and grilled prawns).