Cumberland · Comox · Courtenay · Royston · Created with Tourism Comox Valley
From vineyard evenings to seaside coffee stops, the Comox Valley has plenty of good reasons to slow down and stay hungry.
I’m often asked where to eat and drink around here, and while no five-day trip could cover every favourite, this route brings together some of the places I love sharing.
Created in collaboration with Tourism Comox Valley, Laura Zgud and I spent five days exploring the Valley through food, drink and the people behind them — from Cumberland to Comox, Courtenay and Royston.
Here’s how our edible roadtrip unfolded.
A vineyard evening at 40 Knots
There are worse ways to begin an edible roadtrip than with a glass of wine among the vines.
We started at 40 Knots Winery for one of their summer Wine Wednesdays — live music, a busy patio and that relaxed feeling that comes when nobody is in much of a hurry to leave.
With wine, sparkling pours, local cider and cocktails on the menu, we settled in as the evening light moved across the vineyard.
It was an easy first taste of the Valley: local wine, music and a table worth lingering around.
Eating our way through Cumberland
Cumberland may be best known for its trails and mining history, but food has become a pretty good reason to spend time on its main street too.
We started at Gonza with onigiri and okonomiyaki made right in front of us — warm, savoury and exactly the kind of casual food that suits Cumberland.
Across the street, Dark Side Chocolates shifted things firmly into treat territory with handmade chocolates and real-fruit snow cones.
Then came a flight at Cumberland Brewing Co. before one final decision at Love’s Ice Cream.
My recommendation: don’t choose between hard scoop and soft serve.
Get both.
Cumberland is good at that combination of outdoorsy, creative and slightly unexpected — and its food scene fits right in.
Coffee, bread + the Comox waterfront
In Comox, we started with coffee at The Mill Coffee before picking up wood-fired sourdough from Church Street Bakery.
There’s something particularly good about buying something freshly baked and immediately taking it down to the waterfront.
From there, lunch meant classic fish and chips from Surfside Fish ’n Chips, followed by beers — and a beer-garita — at Rad Brewing Co..
Coffee, bread, seafood, beer and a walk beside the water.
Comox doesn’t really need to make things more complicated than that.
A couple more reasons to linger in Comox
Dubois Summer Kitchen
Set inside Filberg Park, Dubois Summer Kitchen is one of those very seasonal Vancouver Island experiences: eat outside, surrounded by gardens, while chef Marc-André Dubois works with local ingredients and a from-scratch approach.
It’s worth building a summer afternoon around.
Downtown Courtenay, one stop at a time
Downtown Courtenay makes it easy to build a full afternoon around food and drink.
At Freyja the Croissant Story, laminated pastries and slow-fermented sourdough make choosing just one thing difficult.
Then Habibi’s brought colour, spice and scratch-made Middle Eastern food into the mix.
We followed that with a flight at Ace Brewing and its lively patio before ending the day around the table at Javier’s Latin Cuisine.
That final stop felt especially fitting for me: generous plates, Latin flavours and the kind of meal that works best when everyone orders something different and shares.
It’s one of the things I love about downtown Courtenay. Within a few blocks, you can move between very different food traditions while still keeping that small-town sense of place.
One last coffee in Royston
Every roadtrip needs one last stop.
For us, it was Royston Roasting for locally roasted coffee, treats and their chili mocha.
Coffee in hand, we headed toward the water for a walk along the shoreline, looking out toward Royston’s old shipwrecks.
After five days built around eating and drinking our way through the Valley, it was an appropriately simple finish.
Good coffee. Salt air. A walk beside the water.
And no real need to rush home.
From Royston, the Old Island Highway carries on south — one of my favourite slower routes when the journey itself still feels like part of the day.
The places that make a place
Five days barely scratches the surface of the Comox Valley food scene.
There are plenty of restaurants, farms, breweries, cafés and makers we didn’t reach — and that’s part of the point.
An edible roadtrip doesn’t really need to be comprehensive.
Pick a town, a neighbourhood or a stretch of road. Follow what looks interesting. Order something you haven’t tried before. Talk to the people making it.
Food gives you a reason to stop.
And often, that’s where you begin to understand a place.
This project was created in collaboration with Tourism Comox Valley, with photography and content by Danika McDowell and Laura Zgud.
