bukko likes buck's. i'd like this place even if buck wasn't my name!
some places you're just meant to find. we were drivingbackto vancouver (the b.c. one) and noticed the homey-looking country music saloon (mccabe's) and were checking it out as a place to eat. guy leans out the window of the building across the street and yells "are you lost?" we get to talking, and by and by he tells us to try this buck's joint. good advice!
it's a stuffed-moose-head and taxidermified-fish kinda place. exposed brick interior, rustic wood seating, lotsa old brass and glass, wall lights covered with metal sculpturettes of evergreens and antlers... the menu is meat-and-seafood oriented. not rustic plain, but not fancy frou-frou either. solid fare. they serve local beer from mac and jack''s brewery -- you can't easily get these suds outside that area, and they're good!
the staff are way cool too. their chef burned my wife's oysters (even before they were plated) and the waitress comped the rest of her meal as an apology. (that was the last serve of local oysters they had in-house that night, which is why the regrets.)
eavesdropping on conversations from other tables, i could tell there were a lot of local folks on return visits, but they were kind to us canuckian strangers too.
so if you're cruising i-5, you could stop at some megachain jerkjoint like chili's. or you could stop at the real deal, buck's, for a real meal. i know where i'm going next time we're south of the border in amurrica.