(Buckle up - this is a long one… I’ve been working on it for the last 4 evenings!)
My sister and I were in Vancouver for 5 days recently, first time for both of us. We hadn’t really planned anything besides a few museums, a one-day drive to Squamish to do a very mild hike to the Lynn Canyon suspension bridge and Twin Fall waterfalls, as well as the unplanned visit to the even more beautiful Shannon Falls up the road, and one reservation for a pre-celebration of my sister’s birthday, at Miku.
Many friends had touted Vij’s (famed Chef Vikram Vij’s restaurant) and I easily found a table for our first night. We were staying at The Burrard but walked over to the Georgia Bar in the Rosewood Hotel Georgia for a pre-dinner cocktail.
Mr. Hospitality was for a few days my favorite drink in Vancouver. Basil Hayden bourbon, maple, cardamom, Amaretto, cacao bitters, with the requisite truffle on the side. Subtle, nutty, delicious.
On to Vij’s.
First up, we were served a snack of vegetable pakora with a date and tamarind chutney.
Crispy, light, each color had a nice vegetal or chili flavor.
Cocktails arrived:
My sister ordered the Cambie Whiskey Sour - which she found much too tart, no nuance at all. I had the GURU Old Fashioned which i found muted, and after the Mr. Hospitality, paled in comparison.
Next, Vij’s favorite “snack”:
Exquisitely fried chicken with chili oil gets a table-side pour-over of luscious butter chicken sauce. Outstanding, with a little heat (a little too much for my sister but she still loved it), the chicken was crunchy, juicy and so well-spiced and flavorful. I’d never not get this dish.
Buttery chapati had a very nice, chewy texture.
Smashed potatoes with water buffalo butter and fried curry leaves. Good but a little underseasoned for me. Fine when paired with the other dishes, however.
I had a glass of Vij’s featured wine, the ‘Petite Cuvee’ Bourdeaux Blend, a BC red. Really lovely with the food.
Second stand-out of the meal was the shahi (tomato) paneer
So creamy! The paneer was very tender.
Some cuminy basmati to accompany.
And for me, this vied with the chicken for best dish: Lamb popsicles.
With scalloped spinach potatoes and garlic fenugreek curry. I understand this dish is a constant on the menu, and with good reason. Tender, juicy, and although grilled to more of a medium-well, totally delicious. Even the potatoes underneath were stellar - also creamy, reminded me of a juicy tortilla de patata in texture.
We were way too full for dessert (in fact, some of the paneer and lamb came back to the hotel with us for excellent late-night snackage), but we were gifted pineapple kesari - not too sweet, so a nice ending to the meal.
Vij himself is an ever-so-charming host - he chats with every table, serves food, and shines his brilliant blue eyes and big smile on everyone. He came over a few times to our table, commiserating with us over the state of affairs in the US, telling us his favorite restaurants in San Francisco (Hayes Grill and Boulevard), and generally just being incredibly warm and convivial.
I’d be a regular if I lived here.
Afterward, one of our servers told us about his favorite craft cocktail bar in the area - June, a restaurant whose bar was voted one of the best bars in North America last year. We got seated immediately and our very young and friendly bartender served us some very good cocktails:
I know I had the Noisette Manhattan, and my sister got the Blue Fizz, but beyond that, memory fails me. But they were indeed interesting, very tasty, and crafty cocktails.
Second day, we had a snacky lunch at the Vancouver Art Gallery cafe. After walking through the wonderful exhibits for an hour and a half, we’d just popped into the pretty, airy cafeteria for a diet-coke-pick-me-up, but immediately espied and ordered the beef carpaccio and cup of seafood chowder - both a delight and we felt much better after last night’s excesses, and finished up the museum.
After, we walked about a bit and googled “oysters near me” and turned up Fanny Bay Oyster Bar - a place with happy hour from 2-5 p.m. - perfect timing.
The oysters (West Coast) oddly lacked any salinity (a friend on FB posited that they may have been rinsed - of all things!), but they were cold and firm and hit the spot. The truffled frites were excellent - hot, crispy, and very salty in the best possible way.
After a rest at the hotel, we had dinner reservations at Miku. We splurged on the Kaiseki Waterfront 6-course menu for each of us, which thoroughly wowed.
The amuses were a stellar scallop and oyster:
both excellent, fresh, creamy, wonderful.
Sashimi course:
Maguro flown in that morning from Japan, hamachi, and a scallop.
All perfect - the maguro was more flavorful than any we’d ever had States-side.
Lobster ceviche:
Tobiko, salsa verde, crisp - a whole host of flavors and textures - very crunchy, with tender bites of sweet lobster.
Next, miso sablefish (Nobu style)…
with kabocha squash dashi, a yuzu miso reduction, and couscous and dill, of all things - turned out to be a great flavor combination with the buttery fish. Sable is one of our favorites and we found it on many menus here.
Maybe the best course was the nigiri:
Aburi preparation on a few of the pieces - lightly seared. My favorite may have been the scallop but all were incredibly rich and fresh. One of the pieces in the back was actually beef. Fantastic!
Dessert was as described on the menu above…
A very nice, light-ish last bite. Love matcha ice cream.
We also had some really great cocktails here before the meal, as well as a glass each of bubbly with. A beautiful dinner with gorgeous views of the Burrard Inlet.
We had cocktails afterward at The Botanist in the nearby Fairmont Pacific Rim Hotel.
And a final-final back at the Georgia Bar for another Mr. Hospitality. There we chatted with a local couple and got some recommendations for the rest of the week, closing out the bar.
Third day. We don’t usually eat breakfast on vacation, but decided to split a pretty hearty one before our day of nature/mild hiking. We’d stumbled upon Yolks, nearish our hotel.
Shared a salmon bennie and a side of bacon. Homemade, herby tots were great, as were the gorgeous yolks on the eggs.
We spent the better part of the morning/early afternoon in Squamish, climbing 200 steps and oohing and aahing at waterfalls, then stopped for our usual snacky late lunch, at Autostrada in Brittania Village. To start, a beautiful white anchovy fennel toast…
and of course, happy hour oysters, and rings:
After driving back up north again for a few miles and ogling the spectacular Shannon Falls, we headed back to the city to return the rental car. Dinner was at a place I literally learned about on FB Reels - the name is what first caught my eye… “Is That French?”
Tucked in a little alleyway in Gas Town, no signage but a question mark on the glass door, this little French bistro gave us a great dinner and a fun server who gave us more drink and dinner tips.
We started out with savory caneles:
With Brie emulsion and jamon XO (beautiful job on the pastry!)
Next, baked oysters with uni Hollandaise…
So good! just on the very VERGE of being a little too salty, but missing it by a hair. This was my sister’s favorite dish.
next course, foie gras.
RIMMED WITH CULTURED BUTTER, with marcona almonds and sour cherry preserves. It had been a really long time since we’d had foie (living in CA), and this dish made us both very happy. BECAUSE FOIE RIMMED WITH BUTTER!
next, lamb tartare:
on a Montreal everything bagel, with merguez emulsion and bottarga - so many textures and flavors that did not compete against each other. Fabulous.
and finally, gnocchi in a creamy spot prawn sauce
good, but probably our least favorite - sister did not love the texture of the gnocchi and I think I was just too full by then. The sauce was very rich.
Afterwards, on a tip from fabulous server Nick, (I’d read about it too, and it’s a sister bar to June), we headed over to The Keefer Bar in Chinatown, one of the 50 Best Bars of 2026 (no. 7!), and the best in Canada. There was a small line outside, but we got in pretty quickly.
We were at a stand-up table for a few minutes before they moved us to a table in the back (I’d much rather have sat at the actual bar, but like quite a few bars we ran into in Vancouver, you needed a reservation.)
Don’t ask me. Something with a sesame cracker for me, something fruity for my sister.
Truth be told, I really didn’t love the drinks here. They weren’t that appealing to me on the menu, and the two I had were neither very nuanced nor fabulously tasty. They were kind of muddled to me. Maybe we just ordered wrong. It happens.
Day 4, we went to Granville Market first thing, and after scoping everything out, settled on a Lobster Man lobster roll (Connecticut style), and bought a couple of pieces of Quebecois and BC cheeses from a cheesemonger, and a mini baguette to share.
The cheeses were a Mont Jacob and a La Belle Vallée - both cow’s milk, delicious. The baguette was meh. The lobster roll was divine!
and we had a show!
two beautiful geese tending about 20 babies as they grazed. Sofa King Cute!
I also had a buttertart from the Market (my first ever - delicious!) and we snacked on a couple of macarons. We also picked up some spice blends from a vendor there for the woman watching our dogs and my sister’s dog boarding biz while we were on this trip. (I would gladly have brought back more food items but I sadly only brought a backpack and it was stuffed to the gills.)
Next, we spent a couple hours at the Vancouver Museum, where we encountered this vending machine:
Very amusing; reminded me of Japan, and I’m assuming it’s for the museum employees.
Afterwards, we walked to a Japanese place in the Kitsilano neighborhood…
Nice little “snack” at Ocean Goose, where the quality of everything was good and fresh.
Then, walking through the neighborhood, we suddenly espied Zakkushi on Main, yet another Japanese place recommended by a friend (although he’d recommended a different location.) Our first bang-bang meal ensued…
Yakitori, done right, on a binchotan grill! We liked it so much we decided to back for dinner the next night.
Next, I’d scoped out The Shameful Tiki Bar in the same area as my sister loooooves tiki bars, and though they require reservations, we were hoping to get in right when they opened. We arrived and were the second party there, only behind one dude who told us his story.
The dude, that I stupidly failed to get a pic of, is a 40-something professor (Ph.D in education) from Kansas City, MS, has a 14-year-old daughter he dotes on, a dog named Luna-ditto, and a super interesting hobby - he travels at least once a year to tiki bars all over the country! He’d flown from MS to Seattle two days before, drove up to Vancouver, waited for Shameful Tiki to open, had one drink with us, then got back in this car to drive back to Seattle where he hit another tiki bar and then flew home the next day. Amazing. We had an enjoyable time hearing of his exploits and sipping our drinks - Hurricane for my sister, Mai Tai for me, both well-balanced and not-too-sweet.
Continuing our day of extreme excess, after a hotel rest stop, we headed to Bao Bei in Chinatown, recommended by the local couple we’d met at The George Bar. I was dying to have some Chinese this trip, and especially in the Richmond area, but most of the places we were recommended were a 30-40 minute car drive away. So we decided to stay in the area, and were not disappointed.
Started out with charred Napa cabbage with a sesame dressing. Really good. (Oh and of course we had cocktails, but aren’t you sick of me posting cocktails??)
Next, shrimp, scallop and chive dumplings - so freaking tasty! delicate and so flavorful.
King Pea tips with garlic and shaoxing - Fabulous, and went well with the steamed rice we ordered that almost didn’t come in time, but when it did, it was a huge bowl (never fear, of course we finished the whole thing.)
A special that night - wonderful cuminy lamb and beef dumplings.
omg so full by this time, and this dish was very rich. Pork belly in a Vietnamese cilantro sauce, thrice-cooked potatoes, pickled cucumbers, mint, pickled ginger and ramps. Really delicious, really too much. Yes, we finished it.
Our last day, we spent the morning at the Museum of Anthropology - wonderful, wonderful place. Loved everything, especially the totem poles of course, though we did feel quite overwhelmed at the incredible amount of other items on exhibit. Thousands of indigenous artifacts, from all over the world. A must-see.
Afterwards, we hit a place recommended by our bartender at Bao Bei - Harbour Oyster & Bar. Yes, I know we’re exceedingly boring with our oyster fetish. But you can’t beat happy hour prices, PLUS the strong US dollar in Canada.
Fried oysters - which i thought were going to be too bready, but were not - they were a delight. Nice and juicy inside.
Mini shrimp po’ boys were buttery and equally good.
Then a random stop for yet another bang-bang:
truffled frites (yes, again - again-happy hour prices!)
and ahi tuna with a healthy sprinkling of togarashi.
yes there were cocktails, and yes, we hit The George Bar once again for Mr. Hospitality… and then off to our hotel for a nap.
That evening, our last, we headed to the Japanese place my friend had recommended, this time in the West End - Zakkushi. But FIRST, MOAR COCKTAILS, this time at Noah’s Cafe…
A lovely, tiny bar tucked into the corner of a tiny restaurant, serving Japanese food. The name was odd to me, but our bartender explained it was the owner’s son’s name. Owner is Chinese but Japan-raised, and travels to Tokyo often to get ingredients and ideas to bring back to Vancouver, and is contemplating opening a restaurant in Tokyo!
My sister’s Japanese Greyhound with Smoke Bubble…
The smoke released a fruity aroma. Sure it’s gimmicky but hey, we’re on vacation!
Mine was a decidedly funky pickled daikon martini, which I loved.
From there, we walked a few blocks to watch a spectacular sunset at English Bay Beach:
And our final dinner, yet more yakitori at Zakkushi on Denman:
All really good, and that last was WAGYU - TO DIE FOR.
We definitely got our Japan cravings fulfilled on this trip.
Last morning, we had read about this place and several bartenders had recommended it - Cafe Medina. Again, we don’t usually eat bfast on vacay, but we were headed for a loong travel day, as our airline inexplicably changed our direct return flight from Vancouver to SFO - with a change of planes in ALBERTA first! and that flight ended up being delayed, such that we got home almost at midnight (we left Vancouver at 3:40 pm.)
but i digress.
Poêlée de Champignons pour moi… 2 Sunny Eggs, Cremini & Blue Oyster Mushrooms, King Oyster Mushrooms, Roasted Potatoes, Mushroom Demi Glace, Chèvre, Arugula, Grilled Focaccia. Believe it or not, I could not finish.
Side of fat-ass bacon with balsamic we shared:
my sister’s Saumon Fumé, with Grilled Focaccia, Smoked Wild Salmon Cream Cheese, Avocado, Onion Jam, Arugula, Sweety Drop Peppers - which peppers she absolutely LOVED, and as soon as she got home ordered some (and seeds to grow them)!
As usual, my wordiness knows no bounds, and appreciate any of you who have made it this far.
Vancouver is a beautiful city that we really enjoyed, and I’m sure we’ll be back some day.
