The closure of dine-in services in B.C. under provincial health orders may have upended many a plan for dining out on Easter weekend.

But there’s no need to mope about as numerous food and drink establishments are offering Easter meal kits or dinner options for takeout or pickup, as well as patio dining.

Fingers crossed—with good weather, maybe even an outdoor picnic might be possible?

Since the daytime offers more of a chance of eating outside, here’s a quick look at a handful of takeout, pickup, and patio options for brunch and lunch to consider for something different on the long weekend that veer from the traditional Easter fare.

In addition, Glowbal is still offering its Easter Sunday Brunch we previously mentioned—on its heated and covered patio—in our roundup of spring food fun for kids. 

Italian style  On the more traditional side of things, Trattoria’s three locations (1850 West 4th Avenue in Kitsilano, 757 Main Street in West Vancouver, 102–4501 Kingsway in Burnaby) will offer an Easter Weekend Brunch Platter ($25) that serves two people, for patio dining or takeout. All the classic elements are in there, enhanced with Italian touches: smoked salmon eggs Benedict, cinnamon maple French toast with candied walnuts, with bacon, meatballs, forno bread, mista salad, and Trattoria breakfast potatoes. 

Benedictine specials  Two sibling restaurants are keeping their patios open on Easter weekend, and are offering brunch specials. From Friday to Sunday (April 2 to 4), the Sandbar (1535 Johnston Street) on Granville Island is offering the savoury Lobster Benedict ($29), featuring poached free range eggs on a housemade buttermilk biscuit, avocado, Atlantic Lobster meat, housemade hollandaise, and fresh dill. Meanwhile, Cardero’s (1583 Coal Harbour Quay) will be busy preparing the Seussian-inspired Green Eggs and Ham Benny ($18)—with poached free-range eggs, prosciutto, and arugula pesto on grilled focaccia, with roast tomatoes and hash browns—to be featured on Sunday and Monday (April 4 and 5). Information about these restaurants is available at the Sequoia Company of Restaurants.

Peruvian patios  The patios at Ancora’s two locations (1600 Howe Street overlooking False Creek, and 1351 Bellevue Avenue in West Vancouver’s Ambleside) also will remain open and each are offering their own special menus for two-course lunches ($44 per person) with a choice of dishes from Japanese-Peruvian Nikkei cuisine, such as Forbidden Rice Seafood Paella with Peruvian corn and sablefish croquettes; Crab Causa, with quail egg, huancaina sauce, and crispy yam; or Papa a la Huancaína Salad with romaine hearts and soft-boiled egg.

Eastern Easter  Although Easter may have Western origins, this is Vancouver so there are always Asian alternatives. On that note, Yaletown’s Minami (1118 Mainland Street) is offering an Easter Weekend Premium Zen brunch ($49) for takeout from April 2 to 5, which assembles a delectable array of the restaurant’s most popular appetizers, sushi, and aburi sushi. To polish it all off, there’s coconut mango mousse for dessert.

Sum it up  What would a weekend be without dim sum? Heritage Asian Eatery (382 West Broadway and 1108 West Pender Street) is cooking up an Easter Dim Sum Package ($69) that serves two to three people. Available from April 2 to 4, this collection of dim summing delights includes prawn dumplings, truffle siu mai, wings, eggplant, chive prawn cake, radish cake, lotus leaf sticky rice, and black sesame balls.

Hawker whopper  Over at Potluck Hawker Eatery (3424 Cambie Street), the fine folks there are once again cooking up a storm for their crab feasts ($225) on April 3 and 4. This whopper of a Southeast Asian chowdown includes one whole salted egg yolk Dungeness crab, black pepper chicken wings, green papaya salad, Potluck chilli dip, char kway teow, and uni and smoked sablefish fried rice (with Thai iced tea or Superflux beer).