The Pointe Restaurant

Should You Book The Pointe Restaurant?

If you have been to The Pointe before, the question on a return visit is not whether the kitchen still holds its standard — it is whether the season has given the team something new to work with. At a venue where Canadian seafood drives the menu and the Pacific Rim surrounds you on three sides, the answer changes with the tide, literally. The Pointe earns a 4.5 out of 5 on Google across 663 reviews and carries a White Star recognition from Star Wine List (published December 2021), which, combined with an 850-selection wine list and a 12,400-bottle inventory, signals a kitchen and cellar operating well above the typical Tofino baseline. Book it for dinner. If you are a returning guest, book it again — the room and the wine program reward the effort.

What Makes The Pointe Worth Your Time

The Pointe sits within the Wickaninnish Inn property, a detail that matters when you are weighing the experience against comparable options in Tofino. The McDiarmid family has operated the venue for decades, which gives the dining room a continuity rare in a remote coastal town where staff turnover tends to run high. Chef Clayton Fontaine leads the kitchen, with Wine Director Ike Seaman and Sommelier Pablo Castro Fuentes managing a cellar weighted toward France, Canada, California, and Italy , the kind of depth you find at urban destination restaurants, not typically at the end of a logging road on Vancouver Island.

The cuisine pricing sits at $$, meaning a typical two-course meal (excluding tip and beverages) runs $40 to $65. That is reasonable for the setting and the wine program on offer, though your final bill will climb if you work through the cellar. Wine pricing is similarly mid-range ($$), with selections spanning well under $50 through to $100-plus bottles. The corkage fee, if you bring something special, is $75. Lunch and dinner are both served, which matters for trip planning: a lunch seating gives you the panoramic ocean views in full daylight, while dinner trades that for a more atmospheric room.

From a seasonal standpoint, The Pointe is a different proposition in summer versus winter. Tofino's storm-watching season runs October through March, and a dinner here during a Pacific swell, with the windows facing the surf, is a specific experience that summer visitors simply do not get. Conversely, summer brings the leading of the local seafood supply chain at peak freshness. Neither window is wrong , they are just different reasons to visit. If you are planning around Pacific storm season, note that the Wickaninnish Inn packages tend to sell out well in advance; the restaurant fills alongside the hotel.

The wine list's strength in Canadian selections is worth flagging for the food-and-wine traveller. British Columbia producers sit alongside the French and Italian heavy-hitters, giving the sommelier team genuine regional pairings to offer alongside local seafood. If you are the kind of diner who wants to eat BC salmon and drink BC wine in a room that looks out at the Pacific, The Pointe is one of the more logistically satisfying places in the country to do it. For comparable regional wine programming paired with serious Canadian cooking, see Restaurant Pearl Morissette in Lincoln or AnnaLena in Vancouver.

Compared to other Canadian seafood-forward destination restaurants, The Pointe sits in a mid-to-upper tier on price but does not attempt the tasting-menu formality of peers like Tanière³ in Quebec City or Alo in Toronto. That is a feature, not a gap. If you want a serious meal with a serious wine list in a room that justifies the drive to Tofino , without a multi-hour tasting menu format , this is the clearest answer in the region. For more of Canada's leading tables, the Tofino restaurants guide covers the full local picture alongside national context.

Practical Details

Reservations: Easy to book; advance booking is advisable during storm-watching season (October to March) and summer weekends when the Wickaninnish Inn fills. Meals: Lunch and dinner. Budget: $$ cuisine pricing ($40–$65 for two courses, excluding tip and beverages); $$ wine list with a $75 corkage fee. Wine list: 850 selections, 12,400 bottles; strengths in France, Canada, California, and Italy. Address: 500 Osprey Ln, Tofino, BC V0R 2Z0. Getting there: Tofino is a 4.5-hour drive from Victoria or roughly 30 minutes by floatplane from Vancouver. There is no public transit option; plan accordingly. Also in Tofino: hotels, bars, wineries, and experiences.

Pearl Picks: If You Are Exploring Canada's Leading Tables

• Eigensinn Farm in Singhampton , for a hyper-local farm-to-table experience with serious culinary credentials
• ÄNKÔR in Canmore , mountain-setting destination dining in Alberta
• Narval in Rimouski , seafood-forward cooking on the St. Lawrence
• 529 Wellington in Winnipeg , Prairie fine dining worth the detour
• ARLO in Ottawa , contemporary Canadian in the capital
• The Pine in Creemore , small-town Ontario destination worth the drive
• Jérôme Ferrer - Europea in Montreal , for a classic Montreal fine dining reference point