I'm a Vancouver local and here's my definitive list of the 18 best restaurants in the city
Whether you're chasing the city's most popular spots or craving a flavour-forward neighbourhood gem, this tried-and-true list has you covered.
These aren't necessarily the trendiest restaurants in Vancouver (another list for another time), but they're the ones that have stood the test of time. So, whether you need a $13 ramen bowl to cry into, the perfect spot to impress your parents (on their dime), or a place that never lets you down, this is the list of Vancouver's 18 best restaurants (according to me).
St. Lawrence Restaurant
Price: 💸💸💸
Cuisine: French-Canadian
Address: 269 Powell St., Vancouver, BC.
Why You Need To Go: I love St. Lawrence. A lot of times Michelin stars are just expensive bragging rights, but this place is a reminder why sometimes there's a price tag attached to food and service that's actually perfect.
They do a four-course table d'hôte menu for $135 per person, and the chef decides what's coming based on the season and what's fresh. The dining room is intimate and whoever picked those moody blue interiors, I see you. Spared no expense for the design, and it paid off.
French food has a reputation for being heavy, but at St. Lawrence, everything is perfectly paced and portioned. At first, you'll think the courses are too small — but by the end of the night, as each dish quietly wrecks you in succession, you'll understand why we say "yes chef".
Final verdict: St. Lawrence makes me wish I paid attention in French class. Then again, I can always ask the server in perfect French: "Est-ce que je peux aller aux toilettes?"
SUYO
Price: 💸💸💸
Cuisine: Modern Peruvian
Address: 3475 Main St., Vancouver, BC.
Why You Need To Go: SUYO is the restaurant equivalent of your tall, hot friend, who's secretly a W.O.W dork and can somehow make sweatpants "fashion". The food at SUYO is elevated, refined, and gorgeous — but nothing about it feels forced or overly precious. The menu is so unique it justifies the price, but the execution is so effortless, it manages to stay disarming and inviting.
The cocktails go just as hard. They have a custom ice stamp, so every cubes read: "SUYO", that's sick?? (I am the opposite of a tough crowd).
The pisco sour is their thing and bar manager, Max Curzon-Price, is an award-winning cocktail specialist, so whatever you order will probably ruin you for life. I recommend going with a group so you can order one of everything. I'm not sure if it's meant to be "family style" or I just eat a lot, but that's neither here nor there.
The Mackenzie Room
Price: 💸💸💸
Cuisine: Canadian
Address: 415 Powell St., Vancouver, BC.
Why You Need To Go: This is another one that gets me going. Last time I went, I ordered the $80 "Riding Solo" tasting menu – A.K.A. a tasting menu for one (thank you to whoever decided solo diners deserve a whole section on the menu too!). Another niche take, but on the rare occurrences when I do go Michelin, I often go alone.
I think dining alone is one of the most romantic things you can do. Most of my favourite meals have been solo. Probably because you can concentrate on the food, or maybe because I just don't like sharing.
There's an à la carte menu too, with cheeky names like "Chicken of the Sea" and "Fiilet o Fiish". The joke is that it sounds like McDonald's, but it tastes like heaven. The Squid Ink Brioche has a chokehold on me.
Magari by Oca (formerly Oca Pastificio)
Price: 💸💸💸
Cuisine: Fresh Pasta
Address: 1260 Commercial Dr., Vancouver, BC.
Why You Need To Go: It's the pasta crown. We're all here for the signature, homemade pasta crown.
Le Crocodile
Price: 💸💸💸
Cuisine: French Fare
Address: 909 Burrard St., Vancouver BC.
Why You Need To Go: I went back to Le Crocodile recently and was genuinely delighted, it still delivers. It's stuffy in just the way I like – white tablecloths and quiet service.
I had the Veal (flawless). My dining partner had the Dover Sole, and they did some impressive tableside deboning. I can't explain it any better than that because I was eight Diet Cokes deep with a bucket of limes next to me, juicing them like it was my last night on earth.
Aside from the food and the free refills, I also love that Le Crocodile gives you complimentary bites in between courses that you didn't ask for. At one point, we were gifted these tiny savoury cubes (no idea what was in them), topped with paper-thin crocodile-shaped wafers. I was sold. What can I say? I love free sh*t.
Pro Tip: It's pronounced "Crock--o-deel", not "dial" (like on a rotary phone). Learn from my classless mistakes so you don't need to be corrected on the sly by the hostess like I was.
La Grotta Del Formaggio
Price: 💸
Cuisine: Italian Deli
Address: 1791 Commercial Dr., Vancouver, BC.
Why You Need To Go: It's Subway. But Italian. 46 years in Vancouver's Little Italy, and this family-run business still makes the best paninos in town.
Linh Café
Price: 💸💸
Cuisine: French-Vietnamese
Address: 1428 Granville St., Unit 130, Vancouver, BC.
Why You Need To Go: I did not want to go to Linh Café because a bunch of people told me it was good, and I wanted them to be wrong. I don't know why. This is my toxic trait. But, much like the Bob Dylan movie, after hating it from afar with absolutely no firsthand experience, I decided to go see it for myself. As predicted, the Bob Dylan movie was terrible — but Linh Café was not.
Turns out that my younger brother was once again right (devastating, I know). He got me in the door by saying lunch was on him (he makes a lot more money than I do — shame upon shame). Linh Café is not just great, but it's one of the best restaurants in Vancouver.
Traditional Vietnamese dishes with a French technique twist. Where else are you ordering escargot, pho, and duck confit at the same table?
Chinatown BBQ
Price: 💸
Cuisine: Cantonese BBQ
Address: 130 E. Pender St., Vancouver, BC
Why You Need To Go: I knew this was the spot when I realized there was no wonton soup, and I didn't recognize anything on the menu.
This is where you go when you want real-deal Cantonese BBQ: glistening BBQ Duck, Gai Lan with Oyster Sauce, pork galore beyond your wildest dreams — all served fast, hot, and no-frills. Plates start around $13 but hit like a feast. Or, if you're feeling rich and hungry, you could also spring for the $368 House Signature Mini Roasted Pig — just make sure to call 5 days in advance.
Bodega on Main
Price: 💸💸
Cuisine: Spanish Tapas
Address: 1014 Main St., Vancouver, BC
Why You Need To Go: You will never catch me at a place that offers tapas WITHOUT eight sticks of Chorizo in my purse. I love chorizo.
Throughout the pandemic, Bodega was my go-to takeout spot. I'd get the aforementioned Chorizo, Shishito Peppers, and Churros — because no one thinks about churros until they see them on a menu, and then they have to have them.
The Lunch Lady
Price: 💸💸
Cuisine: Vietnamese
Address: 1046 Commercial Dr., Vancouver, BC.
Why You Need To Go: The Lunch Lady is one of those places everyone thinks is their little secret until they show up at noon and realize the entire city had the same idea.
This beloved Vietnamese spot has cult-favourite status for a reason. The gluten-free Pho Ga is made in a 20-hour process.
I also love their trucker hats.
The Lunch Lady Menu
Juke Fried Chicken
Price: 💸
Cuisine: Southern-Inspired
Address: 182 Keefer St., Vancouver, BC.
Why You Need To Go: There was one summer many moons ago, when all I ate was Juke Fried Chicken, and believe it or not — I looked amazing. I'm not gluten-free (I simply refuse to be), but Juke's Fried Chicken is. And not in a way that you can taste the difference. Everyone knows gluten is yummy. So don't let this fact deter you!
If it's been deep-fried, and it's on the menu, I've had it. Personal faves: Classic Fried Chicken, Feature Ribs, Chilli Chicken Sando, Chicken n' Waffles, and every sauce.
Pro Tip: Don't miss The Chickadee Room next door, which is their cocktail bar that has a happy hour from 4 to 6 p.m., enjoy two free pieces of Juke's classic fried chicken with your first drink.
Harvest Community Foods
Price: 💸💸
Cuisine: Farm-to-bowl Noodle Soups and Local Grocer
Address: 243 Union St., Vancouver, BC.
Why You Need To Go: The #19 Ramen and the Maldon Salt Chocolate Chip Cookies they have at the counter. Plus, you can get a display-worthy bottle of olive oil you will never use, until one day you run out of the cheap stuff and you have nothing to fry your eggs with and you resentfully let it drip into the frying pan and into oblivion.
Maruhachi Ra-men (formerly Marutama)
Price: 💸
Cuisine: Japanese Ramen
Address: 780 Bidwell St., Vancouver, BC or 270 Robson St., Vancouver, BC (+5 more locations).
Why You Need To Go: This is my favourite ramen in North America, full stop.
Maruhahachi are the experts of the creamy chicken broth ramen. Perfection because it is still rich without being heavy —and now, whenever I'm in a different city craving ramen, chicken broth is all I'll look for.
They have several locations. I recommend the Robson location (by the library) for when you want to grab and go, and the cozier Bidwell location for when you've just started dating someone and you're deep in that phase of "all we do is eat together and cuddle". (Comes about 6 months before the "I looked at your following, who is she?!" phase).
Di Beppe
Price: 💸💸
Cuisine: Italian
Address: 8 W Cordova St., Vancouver, BC.
Why You Need To Go: I'm always here, so actually do not come. I have a coffee punch card that I take very seriously. I am always getting free coffee because I quite simply do not go anywhere else.
I'm Italian and I can say Di Beppe has the second-best espresso in town (the first is at my Nonno's). If you're popping over from the cafe side to the restaurant side, then my order is the chopped salad and an entire fennel sausage, onion, provolone & rosemary pizza to myself.
The Cacio e Pepe isn't bad (but I've noticed it gets worse around 3 p.m. and that in my professional opinion is because but it's been sitting out from lunch rush and the sauce has some emulsifiers in it). So if you're craving a plate, hop over to their sister restaurant Ask For Luigi.
Ask for Luigi
Price: 💸💸💸
Cuisine: Italian
Address: 305 Alexander St., Vancouver, BC
Why You Need To Go: At this point I cannot keep talking Ask For Luigi up. They have been shouted out sans sponsorship in every single food article I've written, including my biggest hit: 10 of the most overrated restaurants and where to eat instead.
A pasta, a negroni, and a piece of their signature Olive Oil Cake? Full send.
Via Tevere
Price: 💸💸
Cuisine: Neopolitan Pizza
Address: 1190 Victoria Dr., Vancouver, BC.
Why You Need To Go: I'm selling out a bit here. Before I made this list, I had to quadruple check with all my local foodies on whether or not they had any value adds, and everyone shouted out Via Tevere —even though I myself am an AJ's Brooklyn Pizza Joint deep dish kinda girl. 😂
The pizza is (pun incoming) fire...brick oven fire that is! (This is a formal request to my beautiful editor to let me keep my Dad jokes in). The great thing about pizza is, it's always good. You can literally get any pizza here and it will be great.
Sushi Hil
Price: 💸💸💸
Cuisine: Japanese
Address: 3330 Main St., Vancouver, BC
Why You Need To Go: Sushi culture in Vancouver is wild. Have you ever heard that saying that the best high-end Italian food is in New York, but the best humble Italian food is in Italy? It's kind of like that here with sushi.
Across the board we have some of the best everyday sushi in the world — fresh, affordable, and consistent. But when it comes to fine dining sushi, there are simply few players in the game.
High-end sushi requires ultra-premium fish and a level of quality is expensive to source and sustain.
Sushi Hil is where you go when you need a perfect piece of sashimi. No soy sauce, no wasabi, no rice. Nothing to hide behind, because it doesn't need it.
Kin Kao
Price: 💸💸
Cuisine: Modern Thai Comfort & Local Craft Beer
Address: 903 Commercial Dr., Vancouver, BC.
Why You Need To Go: Kin Kao is what happens when Thai foods gets a glow-up but keeps its great personality. This little spot earned itself a "Bib Gourmand" Michelin nod— which is basically Michelin's unofficial way of saying, all the taste but without the pricetag.
The Lemongrass Wings are tiny, golden miracles. The Pad Thai isn't just a throwaway safety order, it will truly ruin all other Pad Thais for you. Follow it up with the Pork Laab and some Mango Sticky Rice (never my favourite, but this one bangs), and you're good to go.
Okay, before you sound off, I know. I missed a lot. This is already longer than it was supposed to be, but I kept going — for you guys! Oddfish, Nightingale, Kissa Tanto — I'm sorry. I was just too strapped for time.
Final Verdict: If you liked this comment for a part 2, and keep me employed.
The views expressed in this Opinion article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the views of Narcity Media.
