The Dining Room at The Courtney Room

Excellent food and service!

The food was very well presented, gourmet in nature and quite original. e.g. the use of sunflower seeds instead of rice. The service was also exceptional in that the waiter was attentive and attune to our needs e.g. the time we needed to leave for the theatre. Our only minor concern was as the restaurant is tucked away above the bar/bistro level and is a somewhat small area and seemed to attract a fair amount of noise from the bar. This will not stop us from eating there again. Another perk was the view of the Parliament buildings which was a nice surprise.

Delicious, elegant meal with great service! The view of the Parliament Building was delightful and added to the ambiance of the restaurant. Excited for our next special occasion to celebrate here!

Overall was happy with the service and food at the Courtney room. Thanks!

We chose the 5 course chef's tasting menu, with wine pairings. Plus, we added a couple of "requests" (for example, mushrooms are wasted on me). The food was appropriately adjusted without fuss. The wines were beautifully paired with the plates. We also really appreciated that we could take our time... that the meal was served at our own pace. At one point we enjoyed the wine so much we asked for another glass before we continued with the rest of the meal. There was no sense that they wanted us to "move along" so they could get another seating in.

I was really looking forward to the aged rib eye steak but what I got was a steak drenched in some kind of sauce that didn't look anything like a steak

Went for the dine out Victoria. All the meals were amazing.

Everything went well but we did find the menu a bit limited.

Wonderful food that we really enjoyed. Staff was very friendly, but we were seated for 20 minutes before we were asked if we wanted to order anything. We did the dine around and the food was excellent but a very long wait between courses.

Excellent food. Good ambiance. Great service.

Amazing service and amazing tasting menu! The wine pairings were spot on! We had a celiac with us and they catered wonderfully to her needs!

Excellent well done food with good and pleasant service in a low noise ambience.

Exceptional service and over and above presentation. Was my Girlfriends birthday and the servers went over and above to make it a special day for her.

Exceptional service and food. The staff are very professional and treat you like royalty. The food is innovative and delicious. It is forward thinking to have the chefs come to your table to describe each component of the meal. We truly enjoyed the conversations.

We went to the Courtney Room for our anniversary so we thought that the great experience we had would be the same. We were disappointed. There were 2 servers working. Our server, initially, was good. He chatted with us and ordered our drinks. Then he disappeared. So the next drink orders ere difficult to make. The food, also, took far too long to come out. I understand that fine dining is supposed to be slow to be enjoyed and it was NYE so the restaurant was trying to drag it out so customers in the restaurant could potentially join the party downstairs. That being said 3 hours for 9 courses is far too long. By the end of it, I was annoyed with the younger server, who disappeared, the loudness of the party below and the fact that the younger server was all over three tables and brought them their bills and they left while we were sitting there waiting and waiting and waiting. I am seriously reconsidering coming here for our anniversary and dine around.

We stayed at the Magnolia five days over Christmas and had reservations for Christmas dinner at The Courtney Room. Our server Nolan was delightful! We ordered salted beet salad and Lingcod. The food was delicious and ample. The chocolate cake dessert was over the top! We were surprised and disappointed however not to be seated in The Courtney Room. We were seated instead in the Bistro at a tiny table next to the stairs to the elegant upper room.

Due to time constraints, we arrived at 5, and were given the table right in front of the main window.
My friend was most impressed! We kept the poor server waiting since we had so much to talk about, but he was very patient with us. We both had the steelhead and were tempted to lick the plates.
Very excellent. Then we talked more and finally spent about 3 hours in your excellent surroundings. We chatted often with the server about places, England mainly. Very pleasant and smart guy. Only negative....my friend and I could have talked longer but the server was not sure what time he could serve breakfast. But overall, an excellent experience. We will be back. (...just kidding about breakfast...)

Service was amazing. Food was delicious. Only complaint was crime caramel was not good. Tasteless and texture was not as smooth and silky like creamer caramel should be.

Our meal was very good and the service was excellent. The staff goes the extra mile to make dining an experience.

Great service and nice ambience for an anniversary dinner!

Excellent. Pre-concert dinner

The name of this fine dining section of the Courtney Room makes for a bit of an unwieldy name, but that is about all I can find to criticize about this place. The food is excellent, the service is superior, and the atmosphere is wonderful. The Dining Room is located a few steps up from the bar and the less formal Brasserie, and open to both. Furnishing is minimal and the views from our table were beautiful. We had a good view of the Legislative Buildings of British Columbia from our table.

The service is superior. Our waiter for the evening was John who provided us thoughtful service and plenty of time to get settled. We were never rushed to make a decision on any part of the meal. There were only 3 tables occupied in the dining room on Sunday evening when we were there, but the Brasserie below was pretty much at capacity.

We arrived about 45 minutes before our reservation with the express intention to have a cocktail at the bar. The bartender was friendly and invited us to try out a new hot toddy recipe he was working on, along with our ordered cocktails. The 45 minutes passed quickly and right on time the hostess approached us at the bar and escorted us upstairs into the Dining Room.

We had looked at the menu online on their website and knew what we were going to order for our main course, but we decided to order and share two appetizers. My partner ordered the roasted scallops which came with crispy cauliflower, fermented black bean, radish, chili, sesame, while I ordered the seafood escabeche consisting of mussels, clams, prawns, seared tuna, shiso, fermented vegetables. Both appetizers were delightfully presented and tasted wonderful. Both of us were delighted with our choices. Our main course selection was identical, each ordering the Cache Creek Beef Tenderloin Oscar which comprised seared beef tenderloin, Dungeness crab, béarnaise sauce, potato purée, seasonal vegetables. The tenderloin was perfectly cooked to our preferred medium-rare.

The food offered at the Courtenay Room is extraordinary from the cashew dip with housemade crackers to the lamb and Steelhead Trout. The chef serves many of his delectable dinners himself. The service is exceptional. The setting is lovely. “Happy Hour” is very good value for a nice variety of smaller plates. A gem of a restaurant!

The upstairs dining room is quieter than the main floor bistro, and the food is superb. Excellent service .

I feel bad for not remembering our waitresses name, but my sister and I had a great evening. The host was so kind when we called to say we were going to be late for our reservation, and the waitress was outstanding. The food tasted great, especially the lamb, and the drink I had was quite strong. Unfortunately we had to leave early and our food and bill was packaged and brought to us very quickly. All in all, a great experience at The Courtney that matches and may even exceed the Hawksworth.

This was our first time at the Courtney Room. We went for our third anniversary and we were blown away - the service was impeccable. From hanging up our coats, to giving us an anniversary card and complementary champagne - we felt like special guests. The food was amazing, the ambiance and service exceeded expectations. I hope you become a long-standing successful fixture in the Victoria food scene. Fine dining is much needed and you've filled the space left by Matisse wonderfully.

Extremely overpriced for the limited menu, poor food quality and service. Very dissapointing.

We had the tasting menu and it was amazing having Chef Chris come out and introduce the items. They also go above and beyond to make our honeymoon special.

This was our first visit to the Courtney Room. The dining area is very nice, clean and minimal which is my preference, an additional feature or lighting focal point would't hurt (I'm a designer so extremely critical). The food was outstanding, I had the best fish I've ever had in a restaurant, the Lois Lake Steelhead. The Steak Tartare and Tenderloin Oscar were equally wonderful and the portions were very generous for a fine dining restaurant. The service was also outstanding, perfect balance of friendliness, professionalism and thoughtfulness and done at a very nice pace.

An excellent meal with attentive, but not intrusive service. Definitely one of Victoria’s best fine dining establishments. Service was a touch slow, but it was a quiet Thursday night and I expect they let staff go home early. Presentation and quality of food was impeccable. Highly recommend the restaurant.

Elegant, Innovative, Fun Experience!
To celebrate our anniversary, my husband and I dined at the Courtney Restaurant in the Magnolia Hotel. What a first class experience! We were surprised with two glasses of local sparkling wine and a lovely note of congratulations. The Chef’s tasting menu is the way to go if you want to enjoy the creativity of the kitchen. Nine beautiful courses for $82. If you want a wine pairing, add another $60. On our night the courses included fois gras, steelhead, tomatoes, pasta, bread, duck, chevre, peaches and corn ice cream and assorted candies. Every bite was off the charts delicious. Our very congenial and talented server was Nick, who always had a big smile on his face and information about every dish. Chef Chris came to the table to share his influences and thoughts behind the dishes he designs. He sources as much as possible locally, and always from Canada. Even the sunflower in the vase harbored a surprise ingredient for a dish. When you visit Victoria, this is a must-dine restaurant. It’s not pretentious, the service is impeccable, the personalities fun, and the food….yummm, yummm, yummm.

Excellent food let down by a very slow kitchen (60 mins to arrival of appetizers, 1h 40 mins to arrival of min course), and intermittent (but otherwise good) service.

Fantastic experience due to the excellent service. Server (Australian gentleman) was highly knowledgeable and very accommodating. The food was creative and delicious as usual and all topped off with an elegant ambience. The Courtenay Room is by far my favourite spot to go in Victoria.

I had been wanting to visit The Courtney Room since before it even opened. The service was top notch and the good was exquisite. We both opted for the tasting menu and it did not disappoint. Our server offered great drink suggestions that complemented our meal perfectly. I highly recommend everyone try the Roots & Wings Vodka straight up - it'll be like no Vodka you've ever tried and you'll be hunting a bottle down days after. I was also super impressed with how dedicated the chef is to utilizing local ingredients and cultivating relationships with local businesses.

The only hiccup we had was a neighbouring table... A four top sat down, phones in hand, and proceeded to watch videos with volume loud enough I could hear it down the hall on my way to the bathroom. Being right beside us, it was pretty annoying. I wrestled with handling it myself but at the end of the day, we're in a dining room that, IMHO, required a level of respect which they were not affording to other guests. So, I ended up going over and asking them to turn down the sound. I would have preferred the restaurant staff been the ones to take action but that didn't happen. I get the potentially awkward position it puts the staff in but by not saying something they are risking all the other tables being annoyed.
Given at the only issue we had was with a table of people we'll probably never see again, we're still looking forward to coming back as often as possible.

Yes Absolutely. We had great service the food was excellent. Everything was right from the confirmations of our reservation by the sweetest most charming person ever ... to the birthday card for my spouse right through a delicious meal and desert.

Outstanding menu, lovely location, view of the Legislature.

Nick was a wonderful server and went above and beyond

Incredibly inventive and delicious. Absolutely worth the trip and great value. Caviar and crispy potatoes unreal! Try the duck and morels. Enjoy!!

Romantic and excellent quality. Perfect date night or special occasion spot.

Got off to a bit of a rocky start with awkward pacing, no drink pairing until the third “course”, and got some mini-dishes and drinks served out of order, but everything was quickly fixed up and by mid dinner they got back into their stride. The meal was fantastic. Just awkward pacing issues.