Vancouver is in the midst of a culinary boom. New restaurants around the city, as well as newly installed chefs bringing fresh concepts to existing dining destinations, are adding excitement to the local food scene, where influences from the Pacific Rim and an ever-increasing number of local products are gracing menus.
Here’s a sampler of what’s delicious in Vancouver right now.
Downtown Supping and Sipping
Amanda Healey recently took over as executive chef at Botanist, the stylish main dining room at Forbes Travel Guide Five-Star Fairmont Pacific Rim Hotel. Fresh from several years in celebrated Australian restaurants, she’s embracing local ingredients on her new menu.
You might graze through starters like halibut from Haida Gwaii (an archipelago off British Columbia) sauced with lemon verbena, a salad of fresh beets with pickled cherries and local hazelnuts, or handmade pasta in a Parmesan velouté topped with truffles. The main dishes highlight regional products, too, from Vancouver Island sablefish and Salt Spring Island salmon to Cornish hens raised in the Fraser Valley.
Several other Forbes Travel Guide-Rated lodgings downtown also have notable dining developments. Under the direction of executive chef Mike Reid, Notch8 Restaurant & Bar at Four-Star Fairmont Hotel Vancouver has reenvisioned its menus to balance the property’s long history (it opened in 1939) with the bounty of Pacific Northwest ingredients. Look for inventions like scallops Grenobloise with cider-braised pork belly or bison cru served with sourdough and roasted grapes, alongside duck a l’orange, steak au poivre and other classics.
At Boulevard Kitchen & Oyster Bar, known for its fresh seafood preparations, executive chef Roger Ma regularly welcomes other top toques for creative collaborative dinners. Check the website of this popular dining room at Forbes Travel Guide Recommended Sutton Place Hotel for upcoming events.
And at Four-Star Rosewood Hotel Georgia, Reflections The Garden Terrace, secreted away on the hotel’s fourth floor, is now a year-round destination, thanks to a newly installed retractable roof that enables outdoor drinking and dining in comfort, whatever the weather.
Creative Cuisine in Chinatown
New restaurants are bringing vibrancy to the culinary scene in Chinatown, taking the neighborhood far beyond its traditional roots. Lima-born chef Ricardo Valverde has opened UCHU Cevicheria and Raw Bar, featuring Pacific Northwest seafood with Peruvian style.
Take a seat at the long bar for cocktails like the pisco sour or chef’s chilcano (a lime-flavored Peruvian libation), before traveling from classic ceviches to bluefin tuna tiradito with black quinoa to the signature torre del mar, a seafood tower that lets you sample some of the menu highlights.
At COFU Chinatown, chef/owner Akiko Gulkison is crafting an entirely plant-based omakase menu, reimagining the traditional Japanese “chef’s choice” concept for vegans. Her seasonal roster might include an unusual nigiri, from a roasted red pepper that mimics a rich red-orange salmon to a summery nigiri of fresh strawberries marinated in a white miso-balsamic sauce. The parade of plates continues with steamed soymilk custard, teriyaki-glazed vegetable skewers, garlicky soba tossed with morel mushrooms and much more.
Dining Around the City
An array of eateries outside the city center delivers some of Vancouver’s most varied dining. At Restaurant Kavita, chef Tushar Tondvalkar, who hails from Mumbai, has designed an Indian “ammakase,” a tasting menu that combines the word amma (“mother” in several Indian languages) with the Japanese concept of omakase.
Served at the chef’s counter facing the kitchen action, the menu always surprises and might incorporate ingredients such as housemade paneer crafted from local buffalo milk, dry-aged Fraser Valley duck or lamb chops paired with kale chutney.
While Published on Main has become a staple on Vancouver’s Main Street, the menu includes seasonal offerings that keep it feeling new. Choose from lighter bites, like Kentucky fried maitake (executive chef Gus Stieffenhofer-Brandson is an avid mushroom forager) or the Farm Vegetable Party celebrating whatever is fresh and local.
You can also opt for the lavish tasting menu that starts with an assortment of finely crafted snacks and continues throughout the evening with creative course after creative course. The bar team curates both wine pairings and spirit-free alternatives to accompany the tasting menu.
It’s worth the short trip to the Steveston waterfront in the suburb of Richmond for the region’s best Thai food. At Baan Lao Fine Thai Cuisine, executive chef/owner Nutcha Phanthoupheng draws on the Royal Thai cuisine she studied in her home country, adapting it into meticulously crafted, multi-course tasting menus. She also prepares a lavish Thai-themed afternoon tea, pairing small bites like a butterfly pea salad roll, water buffalo “money bag” (dumpling) and soft tofu with seaweed caviar, with teas from across Asia, selected by an on-staff tea sommelier.
If you’re looking for something more casual, head for Vancouver’s Time Out Market, which opened this year in the still-evolving Oakridge development, south of downtown. This lively food hall provides a sampler of Vancouver eateries, with upscale food stalls helmed by many of the metro area’s top chefs.
Highlights include Baan Lao chef Phanthoupheng’s MaKaam, serving innovative Thai dishes; Peacock, from chef Vikram Vij of the long-standing Vij’s Restaurant, featuring recipes from his most recent cookbook, My New Indian Kitchen; Pasta e Basta by Ask for Luigi, offering several fresh pasta dishes; and Barnacle by Bravo, where the contemporary seafood bistro brings a sea-centered menu to the market.
