Nestled in Coal Harbour, amongst the boats and fancy apartment buildings, Cardero’s is built on the water and has intrigued me since Day 1. I noticed on our first walk here that the window display listing shrimp and oysters is accompanied by trays of… oranges and tomatoes. Each time I go past it (which is more often than you might think: being on the Sea Wall I regularly exercise past there) it makes me smile.
It took us many months before we made the trip there, but to my delight, when we eventually made the trip there was no expense spared. We scored a table right by the window which gave us a magnificent view of the twinkling lights in North Vancouver and closer by, insight into the boats and yachts below with the water and Stanley Park shadows glowing in the background. Our server was exceptionally kind and read our vibe well: once we’d ordered a delightful bottle of wine, he attentively disappeared for a long while, giving us time to sip and soak up the sights around.
Cardero’s is much bigger than it looks. From the outside, there is a cozy looking, heated patio and then it’s actually quite hard to comprehend what seating exists beyond that. Turns out there is a stack of seating inside too. Most nights there is also live music. We were very happy with the seats we had, but I suspect there would be lots of great spots around, especially on the patio.
To eat, we shared a pork sausage and fennel pizza, truffle fries, a beetroot and salmon salad and the sticky date pudding for dessert. Everything was great: I particularly liked the salmon salad and even once we were both super full, we couldn’t stop eating the fries. I had no expectation that dessert would also be on the cards, but when our server planted the seed that the sticky date pudding was his favourite, we suddenly found ourselves ordering that too. Divine!
The service across the course of the night was exceptional and the prices weren’t anywhere near as ridiculous as I had perhaps been expecting. The menu is vast: there are heaps of casual options among all the seafood, so there is definitely something for everyone.
