River Market at Westminster Quay

The River Market at Westminster Quay is the anchor of downtown New Westminster's waterfront — a two-level market and food hall that has existed in some form since the original Westminster Quay public market opened in 1987. After a period of decline in the early 2000s it was rebranded and revitalized as the River Market around 2010, and today it hosts roughly 30 independent food and retail vendors: Filipino, Mexican, Korean, Japanese, Middle Eastern, craft pizza, a cidery, a brewery, a pour-over coffee shop, a butcher, a cheesemonger, and Donald's Market, a mid-size BC-owned grocer that's a genuinely good source for local produce and groceries.

The food hall is the main draw for most visitors. Picnic tables and casual seating overlook the Fraser River and the Pattullo Bridge; the Quay's original nautical-industrial architecture (metal cladding, exposed beams, oversized clerestory windows) has aged well. Lunch for two in the food hall is typically $25–40. Weekend brunches fill up; weekday lunches are quieter. The Pier Park and the SkyTrain at Columbia station are both a 5-minute walk, which makes River Market a reasonable transit-accessible weekend brunch destination even without a car.

On the ground floor, the retail mix is more modest — a few gift shops, a hobby store, a small bookshop — but the Paddlewheeler SS Samson V ship-heritage display and the Westminster Quay public floating dock (summer water taxi to Surrey, Richmond, and downtown Vancouver seasonally) are genuinely unique to New Westminster.