Miku Vancouver is the restaurant that introduced flame-seared aburi sushi to Canada — and over fifteen years later, it remains one of the most extraordinary dining experiences in the country. Located at Granville Square with sweeping views of Vancouver Harbour, this Michelin-recommended restaurant balances world-class food with a setting that is simply stunning. Executive Chef Kazuhiro Hayashi crafts menus around Ocean Wise-certified seafood and the finest Pacific Northwest ingredients, fusing Japanese tradition with French and Italian technique in ways that feel both surprising and inevitable. The signature salmon oishi sushi — wild sockeye with jalapeño, Miku house sauce, lightly flame-seared over binchotan charcoal — is one of the most beloved single bites of food in Vancouver. Named to OpenTable’s Top 100 Restaurants in Canada for 2025 and holding a Wine Spectator Award, Miku earns every honour it receives with consistency, hospitality, and cooking that inspires genuine emotion.

►︎ Love sushi? Don’t miss our full guide to the Top 10 Best Sushi Restaurants in Vancouver — The City’s Finest Sushi Spots Ranked

There is no restaurant in Vancouver more synonymous with exceptional seafood than Blue Water Cafe. Housed in a converted heritage brick warehouse on Hamilton Street in Yaletown, this iconic restaurant has been setting the standard for West Coast seafood dining since it opened in 2000. Executive Chef Frank Pabst is celebrated nationally for his philosophy of sustainability and seasonality — he focuses his menus on both well-known and lesser-known local ocean species, working with Ocean Wise to ensure every plate tells a responsible and delicious story. The raw bar is extraordinary, featuring spot prawns, oysters, and live seafood preparations that rank among the best in Western Canada. The dining room is warm and sophisticated, with wood-beamed ceilings and exposed brick creating the ideal atmosphere for a long, celebratory evening. Rated 4.6 on Tripadvisor from over 3,400 reviews and ranked among Vancouver’s very top restaurants by virtually every major publication, Blue Water Cafe earns its reputation night after night.

Hawksworth Restaurant has been one of Canada’s finest dining institutions since chef David Hawksworth who honed his craft at Michelin-starred establishments in Europe including Le Manoir Quat’ Saisons and The Square returned home and opened this acclaimed restaurant inside the historic Rosewood Hotel Georgia in 2011. Named to Canada’s 100 Best Restaurants, recognized by the Michelin Guide, Forbes World’s Best Restaurants, and LA LISTE, Hawksworth represents the absolute pinnacle of contemporary Canadian cuisine in a city already full of outstanding cooking. The three-room dining experience — the Art Deco Pearl Room, the casual Art Room, and the stylish cocktail bar — each offer a distinct atmosphere while sharing the same extraordinary kitchen. Chef Hawksworth and Executive Chef Sylvain Assie craft menus that celebrate Pacific Northwest ingredients through technically brilliant, flavour-driven cooking that manages to feel both luxurious and genuinely accessible.

Published on Main is the most acclaimed restaurant in Vancouver right now — a Michelin One Star, #9 on Canada’s 100 Best, and #28 on North America’s 50 Best Restaurants. Chef Gus Stieffenhofer-Brandson has created something genuinely rare: a restaurant rooted so deeply in the landscape of British Columbia that every dish tells the story of a specific season, a particular forest, a named farm. Foraged ingredients — nettles, spruce tips, chanterelles, elderflower — are central to menus that shift constantly with the seasons. The whitewashed heritage room on Main Street is intimate and warm. The elderflower symbol that graces the restaurant represents both Stieffenhofer-Brandson’s European heritage and his deep love for Canadian ingredients. Every visit is a unique experience because no two menus are ever identical — this is cooking with genuine soul, and it shows in the extraordinary acclaim Published on Main has earned from the world’s most demanding food critics.

No list of the best restaurants in Vancouver is complete without Phnom Penh. This beloved family-run Cambodian-Vietnamese institution in Chinatown has been serving some of the city’s most iconic and craveable food since 1985 — and the lineup of hungry diners that still forms outside its door before opening every week is the most honest food review there is. Recognized by the Michelin Guide’s Bib Gourmand (exceptional food at moderate prices), Phnom Penh represents everything that makes Vancouver’s dining scene extraordinary: an immigrant family bringing authentic flavors from Cambodia and Vietnam to a city that embraced them completely. The legendary deep-fried garlic chicken wings are often described as the best in Vancouver by everyone who tries them. The butter beef — thinly sliced rare beef with tangy pineapple and fish sauce — is one of the most original dishes in the city. And the bo luc lac (beef luc lac) with a fried egg is the dish regulars return for again and again. Prices are remarkably fair, portions are generous, and the food is simply extraordinary.

Maenam in Kitsilano has been setting the standard for contemporary Thai cuisine in Vancouver since 2009. Chef Angus An — who was named Vancouver Magazine’s Chef of the Year 2025 and leads Maenam alongside Fat Mao, Sen Pad Thai, and other acclaimed concepts — trained with some of Thailand’s most celebrated culinary masters before bringing that knowledge to Vancouver’s finest local ingredients. The result is Thai cuisine of extraordinary authenticity and refinement: bold aromatics, laser-focused flavors, and an unapologetic passion for the food’s cultural roots. Michelin-recommended and celebrated by Canada’s 100 Best and the World’s 50 Best, Maenam offers both a multi-course chef’s tasting menu (dinner service) and a la carte options at the bar. The intimate dining room is warm and contemporary, service is impeccable, and every dish — from the grilled Thai sausage and crispy rice salad to the fragrant panang curry — delivers flavors that are both deeply authentic and uniquely of this place and time.

AnnaLena is the kind of restaurant that food lovers plan trips to Vancouver specifically to visit. Named in honour of Chef Michael Robbins’ two grandmothers  a tribute to imagination, creativity, and family this Michelin One Star restaurant near Kitsilano Beach is one of the most personal and compelling dining experiences in the country. Ranked #10 on Canada’s Best 100 Restaurants 2025, AnnaLena offers a constantly evolving tasting menu driven by Robbins’ obsession with craft, flavour, and the extraordinary ingredients available in Pacific Northwest British Columbia. Every dish reflects genuine creativity without artifice — the cooking is precise, the flavours are vibrant, and the 65-seat dining room has the warm, intimate energy of a space where the chef genuinely loves what they’re doing and wants you to feel it. Service is seamless and knowledgeable, the cocktail program is exceptional, and the overall experience — from the first bite to the final dessert — is one you will return to.

Botanist at the Fairmont Pacific Rim is one of Vancouver’s most spectacular restaurant experiences — a stunning dining room inspired by the principles of botany and the Pacific Northwest, featuring four distinct spaces: the Cocktail Lab, the Garden, the Dining Room, and the TASCHEN Library. Chef Hector Laguna — who trained at Hawksworth and at prestigious kitchens in Miami, San Francisco, and Toronto — creates ingredient-forward Pacific Northwest cuisine with a creative confidence and technical precision that has earned Botanist a place in the World’s 50 Best and Michelin recognition. The six-course “We’ll Take It From Here” tasting menu is a journey through British Columbia’s landscape, with dishes like the celebrated black pepper salmon with smoked buttermilk delivering flavors that are both playful and profound. Kate Whiteman Siegel Campbell, Botanist’s pastry chef, was named Pastry Chef of the Year at the 2025 Vancouver Magazine Restaurant Awards — confirming the restaurant’s extraordinary depth of talent from kitchen to bar.

Tacofino Commissary on East Hastings is the restaurant that elevated the humble taco to cult status in British Columbia — and the Hastings-Sunrise Commissary, the original brick-and-mortar home of a brand that began as a beloved food truck in Tofino, remains the most atmospheric and soulful location in the group. Designed by acclaimed studio Omer Arbel with communal tables hewn from rescued timber, steel tubes, and a spectacular glass bulb ceiling populated with succulents and cacti, the Commissary is one of the most beautifully designed casual dining rooms in Vancouver. The food matches the setting: West Coast-inspired Mexican tacos made from scratch with quality, fresh ingredients — the tuna taco with seared yellowfin, pickled ginger, and seaweed is a culinary revelation; the lingcod tempura taco is a perfect expression of Pacific Northwest flavours. Near 4.8 stars from over 1,600 reviews, Tacofino represents what the best cool food in Vancouver looks like: unpretentious, creative, and obsessively good.

Elisa Restaurant in Yaletown was named Restaurant of the Year at the 36th Annual Vancouver Magazine Restaurant Awards in 2025 — the city’s most prestigious culinary recognition — and the honour is entirely deserved. This elegant, contemporary steakhouse has become one of Vancouver’s most sought-after dinner reservations, combining impeccably sourced prime beef and exceptional seafood with a dining room that is sophisticated without being stiff and a service team that makes every table feel like a special occasion. The kitchen’s approach to aged beef is serious and knowledgeable, the sides are creative and worth ordering in multiples, and the cocktail and wine program is genuinely outstanding. Elisa represents the very best of Yaletown’s upscale dining scene — a neighbourhood where great restaurants are abundant, but where Elisa has pulled definitively ahead of the pack to earn the most coveted award in Vancouver dining. Book in advance; this restaurant fills up weeks ahead.

“Used this guide for a foodie weekend in Vancouver and it was perfect. Miku for lunch on Saturday — the salmon oishi sushi is everything people say it is and the harbour view is stunning. Then Published on Main for dinner and I was absolutely blown away. This city’s food scene is world-class. Already planning my next trip.”

“Great list — Phnom Penh absolutely deserves its spot. I’ve lived in Vancouver for 15 years and I still go once a month. The butter beef and chicken wings are two of my top 5 dishes in the entire city. Also happy to see Tacofino on here — the tuna taco is a religious experience. Well done.”

“Came up from Seattle for a long weekend and used this guide. Hawksworth business lunch on Friday was incredible — three courses for $36 at a Michelin restaurant is unbelievable value. Then Maenam for dinner on Saturday. The chef’s tasting menu completely changed how I think about Thai food. Vancouver is criminally underrated as a food city.”