Hank's *A Restaurant

Easily one of the best dining experiences I've ever had. Sit at the bar and do the 'cook for us' option. You will not regret it.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Hank's brings you a delightful rotating menu of things that you aren't making at home. Excellent service by knowledgeable and friendly staff. We had the rillets, pork skin, deep fried cheese, and rabbit ragout, each item easily devoured.

Atmosphere: 4

Food: 5

Service: 5

Please install a proper ventilation system! Food was middling but it was infinitely worse to walk around smelling like grease for the rest of the evening.

This place is dope! The food was really delicious, and every dish looked and tasted great. The service was good. The vibe is nice and casualish, and it's pretty clean. I think this is a hidden gem

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

I never leave reviews, but we just had the best experience at Hank’s. For $50 each, my husband and I got a 4 course meal that was one of the best culinary experiences we’ve had lately. Everything was creative and fun with excellent execution from the chef. The lingcod was one of the best fish dishes I’ve had, and the beef pancake I could eat 100 of. We had amazing cocktails, and the service was fast, attentive, unpretentious, and the chef was interacting with everyone. So much fun, left absolutely stuffed and happy. Earned every bit of 5 stars.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

The chef wanted to be creative and made impressions, but didn’t have the knowledge nor skills to put ingredients together harmoniously. Instead of developing novel and coherent flavor profiles, most dishes have unrelated flavors competing with each other. The fish is overcooked. Only good one was the dry crab rice noodle.

Atmosphere: 3

Food: 2

Service: 3

The best thing we ate while visiting Victoria and one of the better meals we have had in along time.

Everything we ordered was excellent and had an interesting twist. Really recommend the melon salad, bing bread, and wok mussels.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Had a fantastic dinner at Hank's last night. We had the chef's choice tasting menu and every dish was so unique and delicious really highlighting the passion and creativity of the chef. On previous occasions we have ordered individual items from the menu and also have been really impressed. If you live in Victoria, or are visiting, head to Hank's for some of the best food in the city.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

The only place you can listen to Nickelback back to back with Doja Cat while being served top notch food and drink. Highly recommend.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

I could gush about this place…the food, the service, the vibe…everything about it was amazing. We loved everything we tried (watermelon salad, tomato salad, meatballs and sticky rice, bison and potatoes, smashed pork). Seriously good. It was one of those meals that leaves you planning your return asap.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

This small restaurant is tucked away, and easy to walk by without noticing, but for those who find it, there is a supreme gastronomic treat awaiting.
We have lived in Victoria for 30 years and recently at Hanks we had the two best meals we have ever had in Victoria. The first time was so good, we had to try it again and this time the 7 course, ‘the chef decides’ tasting menu was absolutely fabulous. Every dish was unique, creative and delicious. We washed it down with a few glasses of very good BC wine. We can’t wait to go back.
Sitting at the bar overlooking the chef at work is the best seat in the house.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

We ended up coming in, unintentionally, when they were doing some kind of whole cow menu so you had to order the cut if you wanted steak. We came in specifically for the steak and had been looking forward to thoroughly enjoying a restaurant with such rave reviews so we went all in and ordered two ribeyes.

The ribeyes, if memory serves me correctly, were $84 each. We also found out that these didn’t come with any sides. When we tried to state how we wanted it cooked (i.e. rare, medium-rare), we were cut off and told the chef decides how to cook it based on the cut of meat. This was shocking and came across as very pretentious, but we trusted it was to stop the heathens from ordering their steaks well done and then complaining about the dryness.

What came out was the tiniest ribeyes I’ve ever seen that were cooked medium-well (my husband’s) to well done (mine). The meat was dry and chewy. As someone who prefers a rare steak, this was atrocious.

My husband and I are still salty about our experience here. We were told this was THE place to get a nice steak along with some interesting dishes. It was about $250 for our dinner with our overpriced steaks, a couple of sides and a few drinks. The sides were just ok, but not good value at that price point. If I’m paying $84 for my tiny cut of meat, I should get to choose how it’s cooked. Saying the chef decides seems like a cop out for when the steaks are poorly cooked. We will never go back here.

Atmosphere: 3

Food: 1

Service: 1

Incredible - Hank does not miss!

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Amazing. All ingredients are fresh and house made, creative menu and everything tastes so delicious!!

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Hanks is a mind bending blend of from-scratch, farm-to-table, explosively flavourful food and drinks with authentic down to earth service (perhaps the only group of folks I’ve ever been served by that aren’t there to put on a fake customer service voice for you?) while offering this all at - or even below - average prices. The quality-to-money ratio is off the charts and it’s the only restaurant where every meal has been the best version of that particular dish I’ve ever had in my life.

One anecdote - we had a shrimp cocktail once and decided to pair it with corn chips. Mark didn’t just open some restaurant style bag of corn chips - he made them from scratch in front of us, fried them and served them fresh. That is the kind of place this is. Every last detail is home made and from the heart. If there’s a problem, it’s that from-scratch authenticity showing through and the staff are never shy to fix it. Buying yourself this kind of quality meal is self care - buying it for someone else is true love.

If you are expecting highly commercialized consistent menus of standard restaurant food surviving off mass produced frozen ingredients, this is not your spot. If you want a truly next-level experience with food and an open mind to whatever fresh ingredients local to Victoria can provide today, this is your heaven.

10/10

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5