15 Best Restaurants in Vancouver

How We Pick

Vancouver is one of the great eating cities of North America, and a fifteen-restaurant list has to work hard just to stay honest. Our criteria lean on what makes this city distinctive: the quality of its seafood, the depth of its Asian dining traditions, and a generation of chefs who treat the province’s farms and foragers as a pantry. We look for kitchens that are excellent at one thing rather than acceptable at many, for rooms where the service matches the ambition of the cooking, and for a sense of place — whether a room could exist anywhere or only here. Price is judged by value rather than altitude, since Vancouver does splurge and bargain tables equally well.

The Ranked List

The top of the list belongs to Published on Main, whose creative, produce-driven tasting menus have made it the city’s most talked-about reservation. St. Lawrence is its Francophone-Canadian counterpart — a Quebecois-French room with pâtés, game, and puddings that feels transported from another century, in the best way. Miku Vancouver brings aburi — flame-seared — sushi to the waterfront and remains the definitive introduction to the city’s Japanese food culture. Vij’s continues to prove that Indian cuisine in Vancouver means fine dining without fuss, with a no-reservation line that long ago became part of the ritual. Blue Water Cafe + Raw Bar is the seafood house against which others are measured, with a raw bar and a sustainability ethos. AnnaLena offers playful modern Canadian tasting menus, Burdock & Co anchors the Main Street scene with small plates and serious cocktails, and Kissa Tanto completes the top tier with its gorgeous Italian-Japanese mashup in Chinatown.

Dishes to Order

Order what the city does best. At Miku, the aburi salmon oshi sushi — pressed, seared, sauced — is the single dish most visitors remember. At St. Lawrence, the tourtière and whatever game appears that night carry the cooking of French Canada; at Published on Main, trust the vegetable courses, which is not advice most cities earn. Blue Water’s raw bar means sablefish and spot prawns when in season, and Vij’s lamb popsicles in curry define the room. Kissa Tanto’s menu rewards ordering broadly across both halves of its identity. In late spring and summer, anything with local spot prawns is the correct answer anywhere in town; in fall, salmon and mushrooms.

Practical Tips

Reserve ahead: the top rooms book out one to four weeks in advance, especially Thursday through Saturday. Vij’s famously does not take reservations for small parties, so arrive before opening or expect to wait with a drink. Tipping in Vancouver follows North American custom, roughly fifteen to twenty percent. Downtown and Yaletown concentrate the splurge rooms; Main Street, Mount Pleasant, and Commercial Drive hold the interesting mid-priced cooking; Richmond, a short drive or Canada Line ride south, is worth an entire separate trip for Chinese food of a quality the city center cannot match.

FAQ

What is the single best restaurant in Vancouver? For most visitors, Published on Main for a special occasion or Miku for the city’s defining sushi experience. Both take reservations; both justify their reputations.

Where should I eat Chinese food in Vancouver? Richmond, unequivocally — its concentration of Cantonese, Sichuan, and northern Chinese kitchens is among the best on the continent. If you stay downtown, Kissa Tanto and the izakayas of the West End cover Asian dining beautifully closer to hand.

Is Vancouver expensive for dining? It scales honestly. Tasting menus at the top rooms cost what they do anywhere in North America, but the mid-tier — pho, banh mi, izakaya, sushi counter lunches — is abundant, excellent, and cheap by comparison.

Do I need reservations everywhere? For the top ten, yes. For everywhere else, walk-ins usually work except weekend peaks. The no-reservation rooms are worth the wait; treat the line as part of the experience.

Any dish I should not leave without trying? Aburi sushi at Miku, spot prawns in season, and a cone of Japanese-style ice cream or a Nanaimo bar somewhere along the way. Seafood is the city’s language — order it wherever you land.