Not long after 2022 got underway, I took a look at what the year ahead could hold in terms of new restaurants launching in Vancouver. The list represented quite the smorgasbord of concepts, cuisines, and price points.
Miraculously, all but four managed to get their doors open this year (it happens; in the wake of supply chain issues, slow-moving bureaucratic processes, and staffing struggles, getting a restaurant up and running in Vancouver is no small feat).
Similarly, I had my eye on a few more places as the year drew closer to its close. Many of these spots are still pending, but some have been welcoming guests.
Of course, not every restaurant that opens in Vancouver is doing something singular; I wanted to spotlight a handful of restaurants and cafes that opened this year in Vancouver that are doing something to stand out from the pack. You know, something of note.
Here's a look at some of the most noteworthy restaurant openings in the city of Vancouver this year.
Menya Itto
It's a bold move to come to Vancouver's "Ramen Row" and every ramen joint needs to arrive armed with some sort of distinct offering.
Menya Itto is an immediate standout, thanks to their focus on tsukemen, the "dipping" style of ramen where your cold noodles arrive in a separate bowl from the broth, and you take those chewy, slippery, snappy strands for a gratifying dunk at your own pace. There's a reason they go by the nickname "The King of Tsukemen."
The tsukemen broth at Menya Itto is also a standout - as are some of their other broth offerings - thanks to its thicker consistency and rich, nuanced, multi-layer flavours with a fish-forward bite.
Menya Itto offers other kinds of ramen, as well, where the noodles come in the broth and ready for slurping, like their Yuzu Shio or Yuzu Shoyu, where the clear broth is kicked up with bright citrus notes and zest. For a rich option, their Noko Gyokai Ramen is made with a creamy chicken broth and is topped with scallop oil. All of these non-tsukemen options come with house-made thin noodles, which slurp beautifully.
Riley's Fish & Steak
What makes Riley's so delightful is that it makes sense to someone like me as much as it has all the bells and whistles a Gen Z TikTok influencer wants. It's buzzy. It's got some over-the-top dishes on the menu you'll want to pull your camera out for. It's pretty, with heaps of greenery draped everywhere.
The menu is based on the chop house format (you choose what kind of "chop" of meat you want and build your meal around it) except Riley's leans in hard to the fact that we're a seafood city and puts fish "chops" on the menu. To that end, you can order up a steak of beef (tenderloin to tomahawk) or halibut or salmon as your main.
They've put "fish" in the moniker first because seafood does take front and centre at Riley's, with the raw bar literally at the front of the restaurant and the menu loaded with ocean-sourced options. The food here is really, really good, and many come with showy plating or tableside presentations.
Glowbal really put their all into this one. It is an ambitious project, in a prime location, and comes on the heels of the restaurant group shutting down operations at its casual Telus Garden concept Nosh.
Riley's will take your money; you can mind your bottom line and spend carefully (try Happy Hour) or you can blow your wad. Choose your own adventure.
Wild Thing
The Wild Thing crew is made up of longtime hospitality and arts scene pros, including Ezra Kish (The Boxcar, The Ellis Building), Erin Rideout (former GM of The American), Todd Graham (HandTaste Ferments), Kody Abrams (Greenhorn Cafe) and Rayne Williams (East Van Roasters). This is their second venture in Vancouver, following closely on the heels of their Wild Thing Snack Bar on Powell.
The cozy diner space that was until earlier this year the popular Wallflower Diner has a minimalist rec room vibe and the menu provides plenty of options for all sorts of guests - the plant-based eater, the omnivore, the comfort food seeker or the adventurous palate.
At brunch that means a run of Bennys with a killer good Hollandaise sauce, a tofu omelette that deploys housemade kimchi, a solid beef burger with melty cheese and a juicy slice of bacon-style pork belly, and sweet treats like beignets.
Though I've only tried the brunch, the evening menu runs the gamut from duck meatballs to a white bean dip with sourdough, croquettes with a flavour profile based on what's fresh and in season, to things like a vegan fried rice or their signature burger. Wild Thing also has a 3 to 5 p.m. snack selection and a late night eats menu, too.
Bar Susu and Novella
What a year for the team behind critical darling Published On Main. Not only did they secure more accolades, but they opened not one but two more concepts: Bar Susu and Novella.
Bar Susu is their buzzy natural wine bar with creative share plates that moved into the old Whip space just off Main Street in Mount Pleasant. This is a fun spot for sharing dishes and bottles; you'll find things on the menu like Chicken Liver Rosettes, sable fish in a tomato butter sauce, and Duck Liver Parfait (on a honey cruller donut).
Also in Mount Pleasant, Novella is a modern coffee shop with room for all kinds of guests: laptop workers, casual loungers, meal-seekers. So far they've just debuted the daytime plated and pastry fare (with coffee program) but will soon add evening service and a little grocery zone.
When it comes to plated food, Novella is turning out stunning dishes like a perfect golden-yellow French omelette, fluffy yogurt with sea buckthorn and hemp seeds, and fresh vibrant veggies like a salad of beets in a tahini dressing.
There are a couple of standouts, like their savoury steel-cut oats with poached egg and mushrooms, a hash with crispy and light potatoes, farmer's sausage, and a Japanese twist with seaweed, tobiko, and spicy Kewpie mayo, and their unreal "Turbo" breakfast sandwich - an absolute banger of hashbrown, sausage, egg, cheese, a grainy mustard sauce, all piled on a buttery bun. Could this be the best breakfast sandwich in Vancouver? It's most assuredly a contender.
Daisy Garden
On April 21, 2015, an accidental fire at 142 E Pender St in Vancouver's Chinatown brought a 36-year-old business to a halt. The blaze destroyed Daisy Garden Kitchen, a family-run restaurant that opened in 1979 and took great pride in "serving the communities in and around Chinatown."
Compounding certain frustration was that at the time of the fire, the restaurant had only been operating for a few months after an extensive interior renovation.
Undeterred, Daisy Garden set out to rebuild, and, even in the face of a global pandemic, has managed to get the doors open again to serve customers yet again.
Daisy Garden has been reborn, and, according to local fans in the food community, the restaurant has really upped its game.
The new Daisy Garden offers familiar dishes like its beloved Chinese BBQ dishes, along with noodles served in soup and congee. A three-course lunch special is available for $18.50.
Suyo
The concept of 'home' is a large part of Suyo's story. The restaurant, which is the work of Ricardo Valverde (Chef), James Reynolds (General Manager), Max Curzon-Price (Bar Manager), and Felix Ng (Director of Operations), takes its name from a South American Indigenous word that means “homeland."
Valverde's dishes offer an approachable insight into contemporary Peruvian cuisine. The starter section of the menu is anchored around the ceviche bar, with several iterations of the seafood dish. Other ceviche options include the Nikkei, which showcases Peruvian cuisine's Japanese influences, while diners can also kick off the meal by tucking into plates of big, fluffy yucca fries.
A ravioli dish features a silken pasta pocket holding tender shreds of chicken and crunchy bits of cashew and a sauce you'll want to keep dragging morsels through. he Ensalada Rusa, which translates to Russian Salad, Valverde re-imagining in a deconstructed format, with orbs of roasted beet, tender roasted baby carrots, and a smoky aioli made with rutabaga. Guests can also order up a whole fish for the table, but carnivores take note, the Lomo Saltado is not to miss.
Over at the bar, Curzon-Price has created an exciting cocktail menu deeply drawn from Peruvian flavours and culture. Of course, they're doing classic Pisco Sours, but you can also sip your way across the varied terrain of Peru through several drink options.
Mount Pleasant Vintage & Provisions
What kind of restaurant would make sense to go into a heritage home that's been restored and worked into the design of a contemporary new Vancouver multi-use building in Mount Pleasant?
The answer is one as atypical as the location itself.
Independent restaurant and bar Mount Pleasant Vintage & Provisions opened this summer. The heritage house is the 1901-built Coulter House, which has had many occupants over the decades, chiefly operating as the "6th Avenue Grocery" into the late 1970s. The restaurant is the project of Vancouver restaurant vet Cameron Bogue, whose sense of humour is evident with the faux official sign reading "This is not a cult" hung at the front door.
Mount Pleasant Vintage & Provisions has been picture-perfect social media content fodder, thanks to elements like old-school tin lunchboxes used for serving, 70s rec-room vibes, and all sorts of eye-catching colourful and over-the-top decor. They have a lively cocktail program and cook many of their dishes on an open flame.
Archer
The culinary team at Archer features Chef Clement Chan, Chef de Cuisine Sandy Chen and Executive Pastry Chef Kiko Nakata. Chan, may be best known for being the original Le Tigre food truck co-founder; the boundary-pushing mobile concept led him to co-found the award-winning Torafuku.
Archer's menu, which "aims to celebrate the coasts and waters of the Pacific Northwest, highlights the bounty of the region’s talented farmers, fisherfolk, and producers, as well as the diverse cultures and flavours of Canada," according to the restaurant PR. What that translates to in terms of food: Binchotan Octopus with fingerling potatoes; Salmon Crudo with local steelhead and a Castelvetrano olive crouton; Crab Gnocchi with uni bisque; five-spice duck breast; and smoked local oysters.
Archer's dishes are designed to be eaten family style; the menu encourages mix-and-matching dishes to be enjoyed by the whole table.
When it comes to dessert, it sounds like diners are in store for a few show-stoppers that Nakata has crafted, including something called the "Flaming Cheesecake," which comes to the table with a chocolate dome and a flaming shot of Grand Marnier.
Jollibee
Yes, this is the Filipino fast food restaurant. And its opening - of two locations in the city, with more on the way - is worth noting. First, the chain has been teasing Vancouver with expansion plans for years. Like a decade. To finally have it happen seems nothing short of a miracle - especially after lengthy construction delays at its first location on Granville in downtown.
Second, these are the kinds of splashy openings that attract crowds. The kind of crowds who camp out ahead of opening day, or who are willing to wait hours in line to get a taste.
And lastly, for many, this is a much-needed taste of home, and for others, a first taste of something that is so significant to so many people around the world.
Beloved for its spaghetti, crispy chicken, burgers, and peach mango pies, Jollibee is all about American-style fast-food fused with Filipino flavours and influences.
Jollibee, nicknamed the "McDonald's of the Philippines" dates back to 1978, however, its first Canadian location didn't launch until 2016, which was in Winnipeg. There are over 1,200 Jollibee franchises worldwide.
Folke
Folke opened its doors in early June at 2585 Broadway, and made waves for two key reasons: They only serve vegetarian and vegan fare and they chose to eliminate tipping.
The Kits restaurant is the first-time venture for chef-owner Colin Uyeda and pastry chef-owner Pricilla Deo. The longtime friends chose the name to reflect their shared desire to bring people together through food and offer a sense of community and connection.
On Uyeda and Deo's locally- and seasonally-driven menu are dishes meant to showcase the abundant foods grown in regional soil. The selection of small plates changes based on availability and inspiration, and you might find items like dumplings made with leek and chard with a mushroom xo sauce or a sunflower risotto with kosho (a citrus chili paste) and spruce.
Milk Bar
The brand's entry into Vancouver was announced in mid-September when signage went up at its new local home at the Pacific Centre in the heart of downtown.
Milk Bar's store-within-a-store is located on level one of Nordstrom at the Granville and Georgia entrance; doors opened mid-November
The "cult-favourite" treat company has its full menu available in Vancouver. In addition to Milk Bar Vancouver's grab-and-go offerings, the shop will also offer cookie deals, cookie tins, and merch.
This is now the only Milk Bar location in Canada. Milk Bar began in 2008 as a bakery off-shoot selling the "happy accidents" created by pastry chef Christina Tosi under the wing of David Chang's Momofuku in New York City, but has since separated off into its own entity, expanding its reach to include shipping across the U.S., bakeshops in several cities, and products at major retailers (like Target in the U.S.).
Tosi's treats are a mix of eclectic and familiar, with simple presentation and deeply nostalgic flavours. Don't miss the cereal milk soft serve or cookies with playful ingredient combos.
To Live For Bakery & Cafe
It's been a long journey from omnivore to passionate vegan - as well as from food blogger to cafe owner - for Vancouver's Erin Ireland. This year, she opened a brick-and-mortar location for her popular line of vegan baking, To Live For.
The East Van cafe was an immediate draw from day one, and patrons seem to be loving what's on offer. The menu includes an array of baked goods, from breads and croissants to of course the brand's signature loaves. There's also soft serve, sausage rolls, breakfast sandwiches, and tons of rotating specialty pastries, and they are all entirely plant-based.
Yasma
Yasma went from being a take-out and delivery "ghost kitchen" operation to a brick-and-mortar operation in Coal Harbour this year.
Here, the menu takes diners through a range of hot and cold small plates that give a taste of the bounty of big flavours of Lebanon and Syria. And absolutely, you should try as much food as possible at a spot like Yasma, where the chefs have been known to spend years perfecting techniques to get a dish just right, aging labneh (a thick, strained yogurt) for use in one unusual - and delicious - dish, or mastering the ultra-fine mincing needed to make kibbeh niyah - a meatball made of raw lamb with bulgur and spices.
Yasma also boasts a luxuriously simple hummus, made with just chickpeas, lemon juice, and salt that's drizzled with olive oil and served with a basket of their house-made bread, piping hot and puffed up. The bread will prove hard to resist for lapping up hummus or other dips and sauces - trust me. Those dips and sauces include an addictive smoky red pepper muhammara or the eggplant babba ganouch that comes pomegranate-studded with a juicy lamb chop. And speaking of juicy, Yasma's shish tawouk is tender, succulent chunks of marinated chicken cooked over their charcoal grill and served with house-made toum, a pungent, silken garlic sauce.
Darkside
This spot is where dishes a lot of folks with Asian heritage will find dishes they grew up with but rarely see on restaurant menus. It's the second venture from Chef Kevin Lin and his partner, Steph Wan, who also operate the popular Kerrisdale restaurant Land & Sea.
Things are little cheekier here, more playful, with a drinks-heavy late-night vibe, and plenty of alluring snacks. Look for tacos with fried dace (little salty fish), cola-braised chicken wings, and "Double Happiness" poutine with Korean BBQ beef, kimchi, Cheez Whiz, and cheese curds.
Darkside just got off the ground and will surely be one to watch in the new year.
