Hellloooooo Victoria!

I just booked passage up to your fine neck of the woods and while I've been to Vancouver many times, it will be my first visit to Victoria. I of course can do my own research on Yelp but as a supplement, I do like to shout out on Talk to see what suggestions people have off the top of their heads. So, can anyone suggest:

1. Where to eat. I prefer regional specialties if at all possible. Nothing touristy or famous for the sake of being famous. I'm looking for actually good food. What can't I miss?
2. Craft cocktails: Do they exist and where can I find a mean Toronto or Manhattan? Clive's? The Mint?
3. What attractions are totally overrated? Nothing is worse than battling a crowd to get ripped off by some tourist trap that sucks.

Thanks for any help you can provide.

Yo Dustin! Thanks for the tips. That's super helpful. I come up on June 7th so I won't be able to make Daidoco (sadly). Will bookmark the others. keep 'em coming!

Hi Don!

1.My number one recommendation for restaurants for anyone coming into town is the Black Olive (yelp.com/biz/black-olive…). It is mediterranean style (without being themed)with really good food, but it is not well known by the tourist crowds (likely as it sits away from the hotel district in the north of downtown).
Another one which I think is kinda under the tourist radar is Aura (yelp.com/biz/aura-waterf…). It's a nicer place (which is kinda odd as it's a hotel restaurant), the food is really good and the view is phenomenal. Though if you get reservations, book by phone, their OpenTable online reservation system does not work properly.
If you're ranging a little farther out, the Penny Farthing (yelp.com/biz/penny-farth…) in Oak Bay village is a really good english style pub. It's easily a match for its tourist saturated downtown brethren 'The Bard and Banker' and 'Irish Times' (both are also quite good (B&B is my fav of the 3), but you said away from tourists)
I'll also second Dustin's recommendation of Devour. I'm not sure what else to add other than *drool*

2.What Dustin said (sorry, I'm a beer drinker. The local brewpubs are my alcoholic playground)

3.I'm afraid I can't give the best perspective here as I haven't really done much of the tourist in my own town thing. The only thing I can think of, and this is based on rumor alone, is that the undersea gardens are not really worth going to see.

I'm out of ideas for now. I'll try to keep thinking of things. Hope this helps!

Black Hat's good but I'd say try dinner at Bistro 28 - it's got some amazing food and great cocktails . Also Bon Rouge downtown has good french food.

Thanks all! These are truly great suggestions. I plan to eat and drink well when I'm in town!

Thanks for the recommendations, all! I was staying downtown and had some long work days so I didn't have a chance to venture far out  to try some of the recommendations on here. But I did get to some spots that I really enjoyed, some of which came straight from this talk thread:

1. Clives - LOVED it. Right up my alley. Went 3 days in a row
2. Ulla - Fantastic food that's almost too pretty to eat. Great cocktails as well. Loved this spot too.
3. Bon Rouge - Tasty French. I was very happy with this, especially the prix fixe meals. Went twice
4. Red Fish, Blue Fish - I love fish, and this place served it up to me
5. Bengal Lounge - Had to hit it for the history. WAYYYYYy to expensive, but worth it simply for a quick visit.
6. Ferris' Oyster Bar - Tasty oysters. 'Nuff said.
7. Soprano's - Super dodgy but we had fun massacring some karaoke

My wife made it by Hilary's, and I also hit some other spots that ended up being pretty touristy simply by default since we did some bar-hopping and wanted to stick close to my hotel. I know some of the spots I listed above are well-touristed, but I had less time than I thought and my inability to use my Yelp app when not on wifi (stupid American cell chip) kept me from being able to reference this thread and search Yelp while out and about.

I thank you again for the recommendations. I will keep the ones I didn't get to in mind for future visits, of which I am sure there will be (since we had a blast).

Cheers, and please if you come to visit Portland don't hesitate to private message me for any recommendations. I'd gladly return the favor.