A QR-first restaurant POS for Victoria, from the Island Health permit to the patio.

A Victoria restaurant answers to the City, Island Health and the province. Waitery puts your menu on each guest's phone through a table QR code; guests order and pay there, and the ticket reaches your kitchen. It costs $14 CAD per location per month, and setup is free.

Four dates a Victoria operator plans around.

The City's order of steps, with the licence last.

The City's Business Hub lists six steps for a new restaurant. Before you sign a lease, check zoning in VicMap and confirm the space's legal use, which follows the B.C. Building Code. Then come liquor, Island Health and building permits. Liquor goes to the province's Liquor and Cannabis Regulation Branch, after an occupant load review with the Victoria Fire Department.

Extensive changes will likely take four to six months in permits. The rough guide is one washroom for every 25 seats, one of them barrier-free. In a heritage-designated building, meet a heritage planner first.

The business licence comes last: about 10 business days with every document in, and a yearly fee that depends on whether you serve liquor. Then you book the fire inspection. Licences run January 16 to January 15; renewal invoices arrive in November, due January 15.

Source: City of Victoria, Starting a Business

Source: City of Victoria, Business Licensing

Source: City of Victoria, Liquor Serving Establishments

The operating permit, and why your menu is part of it.

A restaurant needs a health operating permit from Island Health before it opens. Apply to the Environmental Public Health office (201–771 Vernon Ave, 250-519-3401) with:

• an application form, and floor plans approved before construction;
• your menu, a food safety plan and a sanitation plan;
• the operator's FOODSAFE Level 1 certificate.

A pre-opening inspection follows. The permit fee is yearly, and permits don't transfer to a new owner.

Island Health asks you to consult its officers when menu items change. A new dish takes a minute to add in the owner panel, so call first. It has separate guides for raw oysters and house-made dairy. Its officers do more than 7,000 inspections a year, and the reports are online.

Source: Island Health, Food Safety

Source: Island Health, Victoria office

Two five-year certificates, and who has to be on shift.

B.C.'s Food Premises Regulation says the operator must hold FOODSAFE or an equivalent, and that when the operator is away, at least one employee in the restaurant must hold it too. Check the closing shift.

If you serve alcohol, licensees, managers and servers generally need Serving It Right, B.C.'s mandatory course. It takes up to four hours, the exam is $40 plus GST, and the certificate lasts five years.

Keep both expiry dates with the schedule. Waitery's Time Clock & Labor add-on ($19 a month) keeps hours next to sales, but certificate dates are yours to track.

Source: B.C. Laws, Food Premises Regulation

Source: B.C., Serving It Right

Victoria patios: simple or complex, seasonal or annual.

Patios on City sidewalks, plazas and streets fall under the Patio Regulation Bylaw. Two choices shape the rest:

• Seasonal (April 1 to September 30) or annual (year round).
• Simple: tables on a sidewalk or plaza, taken in every night. Complex: a built structure that stays, often in a curbside lane in place of parking.

Start with a site meeting with City staff, then apply and pay the $100 fee. Install, pass inspection, pay the licence fee and put up the decal. Renewal is $75 for a seasonal licence or a $50 inspection fee for an annual one. You need $5 million in liability insurance naming the City.

The licence fee is per square foot, by fee area. Through 2026, a simple seasonal patio costs $0.98 to $2.03 per square foot. The bylaw's 2027 table is about double: in Area 1, a complex annual patio goes from $5.78 to $11.55. Larger patios are possible on Government Street from Wharf to Yates and Broad Street from Broughton to Fort. Liquor on the patio needs separate provincial approval.

With a QR code on each patio table, guests order as soon as they sit down.

Source: City of Victoria, Outdoor Patios

Source: City of Victoria, Outdoor Patio Information Guide (PDF)

Source: City of Victoria, Patio Regulation Bylaw (PDF)

Victoria's single-use bylaw reaches your online ordering.

Under the City's Single-Use Items Reduction Bylaw, utensils, stir sticks, condiments and straws have gone out only on request since December 5, 2024, delivery and app orders included. Since March 5, 2026, dine-in uses reusable products only.

The City says businesses may need to update their online and mobile point-of-sale systems so customers can ask. In Waitery, add a “Utensils” modifier to takeout items; the choice shows on the kitchen ticket. Corporations face fines of $100 to $10,000.

Source: City of Victoria, Single-use Items

B.C. tax and wage, in brief.

Our Vancouver page covers B.C. tax on a bill: 5% GST, meals free of PST, 10% PST on liquor. One more: soda carries 7% PST, and so does any drink from a soda gun, juice included.

The minimum wage is $18.25 an hour from June 1, 2026, and liquor servers get the same rate.

Source: B.C., PST for restaurants

Source: CRA, sales tax rates by province

Source: B.C., Minimum wage

What to ask before choosing a POS system in Victoria.

Based in Mississauga, shipping to Victoria.

Waitery is based in Mississauga, Ontario, and there is no Victoria office. On the mainland too? See the Vancouver restaurant POS page or the Kelowna page, or start with the full restaurant POS overview.

Victoria restaurant POS questions.

Sources

Official pages, checked October 31, 2026. Confirm on the source before acting.

• City of Victoria, Business Licensing
• City of Victoria, Starting a Business
• City of Victoria, Liquor Serving Establishments
• City of Victoria, Outdoor Patios
• City of Victoria, Outdoor Patio Information Guide (PDF)
• City of Victoria, Patio Regulation Bylaw (PDF)
• City of Victoria, Single-use Items
• Island Health, Food Safety
• Island Health, Victoria office
• B.C. Laws, Food Premises Regulation
• B.C., Serving It Right
• B.C., PST for restaurants
• CRA, sales tax rates by province
• B.C., Minimum wage