The Best Places to Eat and Drink in Vancouver

1. Chinese Restaurant Awards #22 · Elite 30 Canada

1. Chinese Restaurant Awards #11 · Elite 30 Canada

1. Chinese Restaurant Awards #25 · Elite 30 Canada

Wood planks, plush banquettes, and dim warm lighting give this Kitsilano Indian restaurant a polish that earns a Michelin Bib Gourmand without anyone needing to say so. The menu moves between South Indian classics and bolder, more inventive plates, and the kitchen handles both with the same seriousness. The kind of neighborhood spot where you order more than you planned and feel only mildly guilty about it.

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand

1. Chinese Restaurant Awards #21 · Elite 30 Canada

The floors, walls, and tables are built partly from recycled chopsticks, which tells you immediately that this is not your grandmother's dim sum parlour. Little Bird is a casual dim sum spot in Kitsilano where the conceit is pairing classic Cantonese bites with B.C. craft beer, and it holds a Michelin Bib Gourmand for the trouble. The dumplings cover the range from ha gow to sweet corn and shrimp, and the beer list is taken as seriously as the steamer baskets.

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand

1. Chinese Restaurant Awards #19 · Elite 30 Canada

1. James Beard Awards 2026 · Semifinalist · Outstanding Restaurateur · Elizabeth Blau - Blau + Associates
2. Vancouver Magazine 2024 · Honourable Mention · Restaurant Awards: Best Steakhouses

Torafuku anchors itself around an open kitchen in a concrete-heavy room that's going for industrial and mostly gets there. The cooking pulls from Korea, Japan, and Taiwan, then drifts toward Europe at dinner in ways that sound odd and land well, duck rillette sitting comfortably alongside tuna tataki. Lunch is rice bowls and quick turns; evenings run longer and stranger. A Michelin Selected Restaurant, it draws a crowd happy to share the communal table with strangers.

1. Air Canada 2016 · Finalist · Best New Restaurants
2. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
3. Vancouver Magazine 2025 · Honourable Mention · Restaurant Awards: Best Informal Contemporary

1. Chinese Restaurant Awards Top 50 Honourees · Elite 30 Canada

1. Chinese Restaurant Awards Top 50 Honourees · Elite 30 Canada

1. Chinese Restaurant Awards Top 50 Honourees · Elite 30 Canada

1. Vancouver Magazine 2024 · Restaurant Awards: Bartender and Sommelier of the Year
2. Eater The 38 Best Restaurants in Vancouver
3. Vancouver Magazine 2024 · Silver Medal · Restaurant Awards: Best Casual Italian

1. Chinese Restaurant Awards Top 50 Honourees · Elite 30 Canada

1. Chinese Restaurant Awards Top 50 Honourees · Elite 30 Canada

1. Chinese Restaurant Awards Top 50 Honourees · Elite 30 Canada

1. Sprudge The Sprudge Guide To Coffee Shops In Vancouver, BC
2. Golden Owl Awards Runner Up · Best Pizza Experience

1. Chinese Restaurant Awards Top 50 Honourees · Elite 30 Canada

1. Chinese Restaurant Awards Top 50 Honourees · Elite 30 Canada

1. Chinese Restaurant Awards Top 50 Honourees · Elite 30 Canada

1. Difford's Guide 3.5 stars · Difford's Guide
2. Golden Owl Awards Runner Up · Best Cocktail Experience
3. Spirited Awards 2026 · Regional Top 10 Honoree · Best New International Cocktail Bar – Canada

1. Chinese Restaurant Awards Top 50 Honourees · Elite 30 Canada

1. Chinese Restaurant Awards Top 50 Honourees · Elite 30 Canada

1. Chinese Restaurant Awards #27 · Elite 30 Canada

1. AAA Three Diamonds
2. Vancouver Magazine 2025 · Honourable Mention · Restaurant Awards: Best Steakhouses

1. Eater The 38 Best Restaurants in Vancouver
2. Vancouver Magazine 2025 · Bronze Medal · Restaurant Awards: Best Latin American

1. Eater The 38 Best Restaurants in Vancouver
2. Vancouver Magazine 2025 · Honourable Mention · Restaurant Awards: Best Chain
3. Vancouver Magazine 2024 · Honourable Mention · Restaurant Awards: Best Chain

1. Spirited Awards 2026 · Regional Top 10 Honoree · Best New International Cocktail Bar – Canada

1. Spirited Awards 2025 · Regional Top 10 Honoree · Best International Bar Team – Canada

1. Spirited Awards 2026 · Regional Top 10 Honoree · Best New International Cocktail Bar – Canada

1. Eater The 38 Best Restaurants in Vancouver
2. Golden Owl Awards Winner · Best Craft Distillery Experience

1. AAA Three Diamonds

The line outside on weekend mornings is its own kind of landmark, and the smell of Belgian waffles from the kitchen doesn't help anyone's patience. Café Medina is a brunch spot with a Mediterranean lean, the sort of place where regulars shuffle to the counter without looking at the menu. Egg dishes carry the morning, and the orzo paella with chorizo and a fried egg on top has a way of ending the debate over what to order.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
2. Golden Owl Awards Runner Up · Best Brunch Experience

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

The wood-burning ovens looming above the dining room are a clue to this upscale Italian restaurant's origin story: it was meant to be a pizzeria. The pivot to fine dining came later, and the room never quite forgot its roots, which suits everyone fine. Friendly servers keep things from getting stiff, the kitchen leans into simple preparations done well, and the enclosed patio splits the difference between a proper night out and a relaxed one.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
2. Vancouver Magazine 2024 · Honourable Mention · Restaurant Awards: Best Upscale Italian

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurants

The cooking comes out of a kitchenette tucked behind the bar, which tells you everything about Bar Gobo's priorities. It's a natural wine bar on Union Street where the pours run exclusively from small, hip producers and the room is about as fussy as its namesake root vegetable. A short prix fixe rotates with the seasons, and the flavors land with more clarity than the setting would suggest. No attitude from the staff, despite the very correct wine list.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

Tucked onto a terrace inside the Shangri-La Hotel, this elegant Northern Italian restaurant draws from the Friuli region, where the cooking carries a Germanic and Slavic undertow you don't expect. Freshly made pastas lead the way, including regional shapes rarely seen on this side of the Atlantic. The menu keeps things seasonal and unfussy, and at dinner you can hand the whole decision over to the kitchen, which suits anyone who finds menus exhausting.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

Tucked onto the second floor of a shopping mall on Marine Drive, this sprawling Cantonese banquet hall is the kind of place locals fill on weekends without needing to tell anyone about it. Dim sum runs through the afternoon, with dumplings packed with shrimp that actually justify the wait. Dinner pivots to a broader seafood menu, lobster and abalone among them. The room fits large groups comfortably, which is the whole point.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

Crystal bead chandeliers and a floor-to-ceiling cherry blossom mural set the scene, though families and groups make sure the room never takes itself too seriously. This is a big, boisterous Cantonese dining hall in East Vancouver, selected by the Michelin Guide, where dim sum is the main event. Diners tick off choices from a photo menu, and everything arrives from the kitchen freshly made and steaming.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

Octopus figurines colonize every surface of this cozy, been-around-forever sushi shop on Cornwall, which either charms you immediately or makes you wonder if you've wandered into a marine biology gift store. Luckily the fish is the real draw: supremely fresh nigiri that rotates with the seasons, maki that wanders happily off-script, and specials worth paying attention to. Reservations are famously hard to come by, which tells you something about the neighborhood's loyalty.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

A corner spot on Homer Street that slides easily between a quick tapa and a full pasta dinner depending on what you're after. The Italian menu wanders pleasantly, from generously portioned hummus with warm flatbread to lobster and crab ravioli in a chipotle coconut milk reduction, which sounds like a fever dream but turns up on tables constantly. Slide into a side booth and plan to spend longer than you meant to.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

Floor-to-ceiling windows frame the inner harbour at this polished downtown steakhouse, where the nautical decor leans into the setting without going full sailor. It draws a spendy waterfront crowd, but the kitchen is doing careful work beneath the glamour: the Louie salad with lump crab is a genuine reason to order it, and the fish and chips comes out lighter than you'd expect. A Michelin Selected Restaurant.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

A counter with room for barely twenty, where the chef works through a dozen-plus nigiri at a pace that suggests he has never once second-guessed himself. This is omakase sushi on Robson Street, priced closer to a nice dinner out than a flight across the Pacific. The fish is fresh, the pours run from sake to Japanese whisky, and the whole thing moves with a quiet confidence that makes the room feel smaller and more deliberate than it actually is.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

Six seats at the bar and two small tables make the math on reservations here pretty unforgiving. Sushi Jin is a quiet omakase counter that a lot of Vancouver hasn't found yet, which is either a shame or a favor depending on how you feel about crowds. The chef works in a traditional Japanese register with a personal edge, and the nigiri runs from delicate hirame to fatty otoro topped with Hokkaido uni. The Michelin Guide has it listed.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
2. Vancouver Magazine 2024 · Honourable Mention · Restaurant Awards: Best Upscale Japanese

1. Golden Owl Awards Winner · Best Patio Experience
2. Vancouver Magazine 2026 · Editors’ Choice · Restaurant Awards: Best Patios

The charcuterie board here skips the cured meats entirely and goes full Pacific Northwest seafood instead, which tells you most of what you need to know. Wildlight is a premium-casual restaurant anchored in the leləm̓ Village development, with a bright, wood-and-natural-materials room that pairs with Chef Warren Chow's sourcing-forward kitchen. The Michelin Guide has it listed, and the menu earns the attention.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

1. Vancouver Magazine 2025 · Gold Medal · Restaurant Awards: Best Casual
2. Vancouver Magazine 2026 · Silver Medal · Restaurant Awards: Best Casual
3. Vancouver Magazine 2024 · Bronze Medal · Restaurant Awards: Best Casual

1. Vancouver Magazine 2026 · Restaurant Awards: Premier Crew · Nick Bertoia
2. Vancouver Magazine 2026 · Editors’ Choice · Restaurant Awards: Best Private Rooms

1. Sprudge The Sprudge Guide To Coffee Shops In Vancouver, BC

Preservation jars line the shelves as decor, which tells you something: this Michelin-starred fine dining room on Main Street ferments, forages, and pickles its way through the seasons before a single plate reaches the table. Chef Gus Stieffenhofer-Brandson weaves Manitoba roots and Nordic technique into a deeply West Coast menu, and the bar crowd ordering à la carte gets the same serious treatment as the tasting menu pilgrims. North America's 50 Best lists it at number seventeen.

1. The 50 #17 · North America's 50 Best Restaurants
2. AAA Three Diamonds
3. Michelin Guide 1 Star

Duck confit on pancakes is the kind of move that sounds like a dare until you're halfway through and quietly reconsidering your whole morning. Argo is a neighbourhood diner on Ontario Street where the soups taste like someone actually waited, the fried chicken and waffles show up with conviction, and the servers have the easy warmth of people who've seen you in this booth before. Vancouver Magazine gave it a Gold Medal for Best Casual, which tracks.

1. Vancouver Magazine 2026 · Gold Medal · Restaurant Awards: Best Casual

The nham ngeaw, a tomato broth tangled with pork ribs, vermicelli, and dried red cotton tree flowers, is the kind of bowl that makes you question why you ever eat anything else. Fat Mao is a noodle shop in Chinatown serving Thai-style soups in a no-fuss room where the food does all the work. Chef Angus An keeps the menu tight and the broths deeply considered, which is a polite way of saying this place is far more serious than its vibe lets on.

1. Vancouver Magazine 2025 · Gold Medal · Restaurant Awards: Best Casual
2. Vancouver Magazine 2026 · Silver Medal · Restaurant Awards: Best Casual

1. James Beard Awards 2026 · Semifinalist · Outstanding Restaurateur · Elizabeth Blau - Blau + Associates

1. Vancouver Magazine 2026 · Restaurant Awards: Premier Crew · Amanda Hanlon

1. Vancouver Magazine 2026 · Restaurant Awards: Premier Crew · Nick Bertoia
2. Vancouver Magazine 2024 · Honourable Mention · Restaurant Awards: Best French

1. James Beard Awards 2026 · Semifinalist · Best New Bar

1. The Pinnacle Guide 1 Pin

1. Vancouver Magazine 2026 · Restaurant Awards: Hall of Fame

The fridges here run deep with natural, low-intervention, and unfiltered wines from B.C. and further afield, and the staff will pop a cork in your direction before you've even settled in. Bar Tartare is a wine bar tucked inside the Birds and the Beets cafe on Alexander, with a short food menu anchored by the tartare the name promises. Guest chefs rotate through on nights, so the kitchen is never quite the same twice.

1. Vancouver Magazine 2026 · Editors’ Choice · Restaurant Awards: Best Wine Bars
2. Eater The 38 Best Restaurants in Vancouver

1. Vancouver Magazine 2026 · Editors’ Choice · Restaurant Awards: Best Wine Bars

A floor-to-ceiling latte art mural greets you at this homey coffee shop near Emily Carr, where students and profs tend to stake out a corner and stay awhile. The loft upstairs has a long counter built for exactly that. Single-origin beans, espresso with a chocolate-leaning sweetness, and a chocolate chip cookie that earns its reputation round out the picture.

1. Sprudge The Sprudge Guide To Coffee Shops In Vancouver, BC

1. Vancouver Magazine 2026 · Editors’ Choice · Restaurant Awards: Best Bakeries

The coffee shop that bloomed from an architecture firm's rose-petal vision sits beside Emily Carr University, which tells you something about the crowd. Inside, birch plywood and a fabric fin installation dropping from the ceiling give it the feel of a gallery that also pulls excellent espresso. Beans are sourced from farms the team has visited in person, and pour-overs and lattes are brought to your table. The paved plaza out front fills up fast on sunny days.

1. Sprudge The Sprudge Guide To Coffee Shops In Vancouver, BC

The building itself stops people mid-pedal: a wood-based rose-petal structure designed by Perkins & Will, sitting next to Emily Carr University in False Creek Flats. This coffee shop roasts beans sourced from farms across Central America, South America, and India, with pour-overs and lattes brought to your table. On sunny days, the brick plaza fills with art students who clearly have better taste in coffee shops than the rest of us.

1. Sprudge The Sprudge Guide To Coffee Shops In Vancouver, BC

The wood-and-rose-petal structure here bloomed from the minds at Perkins & Will, which tells you something about the coffee shop before you've ordered anything. This is a specialty cafe that takes its sourcing seriously, roasting beans from farms the team has visited across Central and South America and India. Pour-overs and lattes arrive at the table. Croissants from Dope Bakehouse change with the season. On sunny days, the brick plaza fills up fast.

1. Sprudge The Sprudge Guide To Coffee Shops In Vancouver, BC

1. Sprudge The Sprudge Guide To Coffee Shops In Vancouver, BC

1. Sprudge The Sprudge Guide To Coffee Shops In Vancouver, BC

1. Vancouver Magazine 2026 · Bronze Medal · Restaurant Awards: Best Casual

Baristas here share tasting notes from their own in-house brewing, not whatever the bag says, before your cup even arrives. This sleek coffee shop sits below grade in Arthur Erickson's Waterfall Building, just outside Granville Island, with concrete floors, light-wood benches, and a single pop of royal blue holding the room together. The featured beans rotate through roasters from Edmonton to Amsterdam, and the Tokyo loose-leaf teas are worth your attention too.

1. Sprudge The Sprudge Guide To Coffee Shops In Vancouver, BC

Copper pendant lights hang over the coffee bar, and the roastery sits right behind it, so you watch the whole operation while you order. Pallet is a bright, roomy coffee shop with high ceilings, exposed trusses, and enough varied seating that you can actually stay a while. The pastry case runs to things like raspberry lemon loaf. A long black with single-origin espresso is the move if you can't decide.

1. Sprudge The Sprudge Guide To Coffee Shops In Vancouver, BC

Spun copper pendants hang above the coffee bar at this Railtown roastery cafe, with a 60-kilogram Joper roaster from Portugal visible behind it. Pallet has several Vancouver locations, but this one is the source, and the bright, plant-lined room draws a neighborhood mix of loft dwellers and laptop workers in equal measure. The single-origin long black is the move, and the raspberry lemon loaf makes a solid case for staying longer than planned.

1. Sprudge The Sprudge Guide To Coffee Shops In Vancouver, BC

Copper pendant lights hang above the bar, and behind it sits a Portuguese roaster the size of a small car. Pallet is a bright, airy coffee shop on Kingsway, part of a roaster group with several Vancouver outposts. The beans lean Ethiopian and Colombian, a long black with single-origin espresso is the move, and fresh pastries cover the basics. The open industrial room with high wood-truss ceilings fills easily with laptop workers and actual conversations alike.

1. Sprudge The Sprudge Guide To Coffee Shops In Vancouver, BC

Spun copper pendant lights hang above the coffee bar, and behind it sits the roastery with its Portuguese-built drum roaster, which does a lot to explain the smell when you walk in. This is a bright, airy coffee shop with high ceilings, exposed wood trusses, and enough varied seating that you can have a real conversation or quietly work through your afternoon. Fresh pastries round things out when you need something to eat.

1. Sprudge The Sprudge Guide To Coffee Shops In Vancouver, BC

Spun copper pendant lights hang above the coffee bar, and behind it sits the roastery with a Joper roaster imported from Portugal. This bright, airy coffee shop on Oak Street is one of several Pallet locations around Vancouver, each with its own personality. The high ceilings, exposed wood trusses, and a wall of plants set a mood that's industrial but welcoming. Fresh pastries round out the single-origin espresso program nicely.

1. Sprudge The Sprudge Guide To Coffee Shops In Vancouver, BC

Copper pendant lights hang above the espresso bar, and behind it sits a roaster big enough to make a point. Pallet is a coffee shop with several Vancouver locations; this one on Melville draws the laptop crowd and the lingerers alike into a high-ceilinged industrial room softened by trailing plants and blown-glass lights. Single-origin long blacks are the move, and the raspberry lemon loaf holds its own.

1. Sprudge The Sprudge Guide To Coffee Shops In Vancouver, BC

1. Sprudge The Sprudge Guide To Coffee Shops In Vancouver, BC

The entrance is half-hidden behind a concrete and rusted metal cylinder on a busy stretch of East Hastings, which keeps the right people curious and everyone else moving. Inside, this coffee shop goes full cave: moss walls, dark wood, angular mirrors doing their best stalactite impression. Four small in-house roasters mean tight batches and serious room to experiment, and the staff will ask your flavor preferences before they recommend anything.

1. Sprudge The Sprudge Guide To Coffee Shops In Vancouver, BC

The entrance is buried inside a concrete-and-rust cylinder on a busy street, which sets the tone: this coffee shop rewards the curious. Inside, moss-covered walls and mirror angles that suggest stalactites make it feel like a very good cave. The team roasts in small batches on four compact roasters behind the bar and tailors drink recommendations to your flavor preferences, so let them lead. Waffle donuts rotate through glazes like pistachio spice.

1. Sprudge The Sprudge Guide To Coffee Shops In Vancouver, BC

1. AAA Approved

The pain au chocolat in the glass case is close enough to the queue that resisting it becomes someone else's problem. This Yaletown coffee shop splits its identity evenly between serious cafe and in-house bakery, with pour-overs from Canadian roasters and bread baked on the premises. Wood beams, marble tables, and brass-rod geometry on the walls give it a look that earns its following of counter-sitters who never quite leave.

1. Sprudge The Sprudge Guide To Coffee Shops In Vancouver, BC

1. Sprudge The Sprudge Guide To Coffee Shops In Vancouver, BC

1. Sprudge The Sprudge Guide To Coffee Shops In Vancouver, BC

1. AAA Approved

1. AAA Approved

The sign above the door reads "Non-conforming since 1992," which sets expectations correctly for this dark, low-key coffee bar on Commercial Drive. Regulars settle in at the community table or claim a two-top for an hour of work, while foot traffic drifts over from Grandview Park across the street. The beans come from Milano Coffee, roasted to the original Conca d'Oro blend. The art on the walls depicts the neighborhood; so does the room itself.

1. Sprudge The Sprudge Guide To Coffee Shops In Vancouver, BC

1. The Infatuation The Best Restaurants In Vancouver

1. Vancouver Magazine 2025 · Gold Medal · Restaurant Awards: Best Vietnamese
2. Vancouver Magazine 2026 · Gold Medal · Restaurant Awards: Best Vietnamese
3. Vancouver Magazine 2024 · Gold Medal · Restaurant Awards: Best Vietnamese

The rice field crab hot pot arrives with a broth so layered it borders on suspicious, built from noodles imported from the chef's hometown in northern Vietnam. This is a bustling, no-frills Vietnamese restaurant on Kingsway where the room runs loud and the food runs bold. Vancouver Magazine gave it the gold for Best Vietnamese, and the kitchen has since expanded to two more locations without the original losing any of its momentum.

1. Vancouver Magazine 2024 · Gold Medal · Restaurant Awards: Best Vietnamese
2. Vancouver Magazine 2026 · Gold Medal · Restaurant Awards: Best Vietnamese
3. Vancouver Magazine 2025 · Gold Medal · Restaurant Awards: Best Vietnamese

1. Vancouver Magazine 2025 · Gold Medal · Restaurant Awards: Best Vietnamese
2. Vancouver Magazine 2024 · Gold Medal · Restaurant Awards: Best Vietnamese
3. Vancouver Magazine 2026 · Gold Medal · Restaurant Awards: Best Vietnamese

Low-intervention wines and sake anchor the menu at this Hastings-Sunrise wine bar, where small plates shift with the seasons and the bottle shop keeps locals dropping by even when they're not staying for dinner. The patio fills up in summer, the room pulls everyone back in come fall, and next door the team runs a shop selling homewares and beef fat from their sibling restaurant, which is exactly the kind of neighborhood ecosystem this stretch of East Hastings deserves.

1. Eater The 38 Best Restaurants in Vancouver

1. Eater The 38 Best Restaurants in Vancouver

1. The Infatuation The Best Restaurants In Vancouver

A covered public market on the waterfront where the gap between tourist trap and excellent picnic is navigable if you know where to look. Oyama Sausage Co does mortadella and cured meats worth the detour; Terra Bread handles the carbs; Benton Brothers has the Salt Spring Island cheese. Grab Lee's doughnuts, find a bench on False Creek, and watch the paddleboarders while pretending you had a plan all along.

1. Eater The 38 Best Restaurants in Vancouver

1. Eater The 38 Best Restaurants in Vancouver

A hot dog topped with teriyaki sauce, Japanese mayo, and a strip of seaweed is either a very good idea or a very weird one, and Japadog has spent years proving it's the former. The original Burrard and Smithe cart is the one to visit, though the small chain has since grown to multiple trucks and storefronts across the city. Anthony Bourdain stopped by for the No Reservations Vancouver episode and left a convert.

1. Eater The 38 Best Restaurants in Vancouver

1. Eater The 38 Best Restaurants in Vancouver

1. Eater The 38 Best Restaurants in Vancouver