Don’t worry: The queues for this West End ramen favorite move fast, and it’s always worth the wait — especially if you’re a noodle fan. Each day this small ramen shop makes 500 4.4-ounce balls of noodles (you can watch the machine from the dining area), which rest for 24 hours before being cooked and slurped up. Hailing from Japan, Marutama favors a silky rich chicken broth over the heavier pork-based tonkotsu. Prepare to be enchanted — and don’t miss out on the egg. It’s consistently the best in the city.

It’s been a while since Vancouver had such a pretty place to see and be seen, and since opening in April 2017, Botanist at the Fairmont Pacific Rim has been consistently busy. The Champagne lounge bubbles over with excellent options, and the wine list features a raft of exclusive terroir-driven picks from B.C. and beyond. Definitely stop for cocktails at the Lab — where drinks come with theatrical drifts of dry ice and other high-concept presentations — before diving into the wildly photogenic food of chef Hector Laguna (formerly of Hawksworth), airy dishes with whisper-light but flavor-dense foams, made with locally sourced delights.

It would be easy to miss Bacaro, tucked away on the ground floor of the Fairmont Pacific Rim hotel behind Giovane café. But head to the back of the room and you’ll be rewarded with a thrilling menu of gloriously cheffy and surprisingly affordable aperitivo snacks. Drawing inspiration from Venice’s bacari and cicchetti bars, which serve wine and small plates, the restaurant offers several items for $4 and under, like anchovy and chive butter crostini or whipped salt cod and grilled polenta. There are also superb pastas (the flower-like sbocciare is both Instagrammable and unmissable), house-made and imported salumi, seafood, and a comprehensive vermouth menu, plus a spritz-heavy cocktail list. Plus it’s a stone’s throw from many of the city’s primo attractions and the waterfront, and open all day from 11:30 a.m.

Old-school white linens; fresh, local, and sustainable Ocean Wise ingredients; and top-notch friendly service go hand in hand with outstanding value at Joe’s. An unpretentious choice for lunch, dinner, or weekend brunch, the restaurant treats guests to fresh-shucked B.C. oysters, piled-high bowls of crispy fried calamari, and buttery, miso-marinated sablefish. Dining on a budget? The daily blue-plate lunch special clocks in at 13 Canadian dollars, and there are great dinner deals too. Join the locals for afternoon and evening happy-hour oysters and sliders on the suntrap rooftop patio.

Tucked away in a courtyard in the Cathedral Building downtown, ex-Top Chef contestant Felix Zhou’s cafe offers up the city’s fluffiest scrambled egg toast sandwiches on pillowy brioche. Try local torched wagyu striped with Kewpie mayo, the pork floss with crispy seaweed, or the butter udon with house-cured salmon and sous-vide egg. Zhou also offers a “traditional” menu of basic breakfast faves including bagels, parfaits, and BLTs, but why be traditional when you can dive into their wildly Instagrammable boxes of egg toast?

By day, the Birds and the Beets operates as a serviceable snack, coffee, and sandwich spot with a tight menu and notable ricotta toast. But by night, from Wednesday to Saturday, it transforms into Juice Bar, the city’s coolest spot for natty wine warriors to gather over unfined, unfiltered, wild-fermented wines from B.C. and beyond. Blessed with a superbly knowledgeable and friendly staff, the bar offers a small snack menu (try the aged manchego with lavender honey or the piled-high salmon rillette) to pair with their excitingly large wine selection. Bottles range from French skin-contact whites to Similkameen Valley amphora-aged reds, but if you don’t see anything you like among the options already open, the amiable staff is happy to pop the cork on something fresh.

Truly one of the best deals in the city, cocktail hour (daily from 4 to 6 p.m.) at Hawksworth’s bar is a chance to dip into the pricey experience of the restaurant at a fraction of usual prices. It’s first come, first served, so head there early to bag a seat under Damien Hurst’s “Big Love with Diamond Dust.” Negronis, martinis, Aperol spritzes, and other classic cocktails are available for $7, and a half dozen oysters or Hawksworth’s legendary KFC (Korean fried cauliflower) go for just $12. But the steal of a deal is the B&B: the Hawksworth classic burger (largely regarded as one of the best in Vancouver) with either a beer or an Old Fashioned for $22.

Since opening in summer 2017 under the experienced hand of chef J.C. Poirier, an alum of Montreal’s Toqué, St Lawrence in Japantown has been one of the city’s toughest reservations to score, and it’s only become more difficult since the restaurant received a Michelin star. Stepping through the velvet curtain into the small dining room, you leave behind Vancouver and its passion for clean, fresh, lean cuisine, and dive into a delicious butter-hosed world where old-school French technique meets Québecois cuisine. The music, wine list, and staff are (mostly) French, and the $125 tasting menu (now the only option) groans with decadent treats. You’ll need to prepay in order to secure a reservation, but even with the upfront outlay, add any possible delicious extras once you’re seated and hang the consequences. Just be sure to save room for the exquisite salted caramel rice pudding.

There are hotel restaurants and there are restaurants in hotels, and Boulevard is definitely the latter. Pedigreed chef Alex Chen and team’s inventive take on West Coast seafood brings diners into some excitingly experimental territory, but never strays far from harmony and balance. It’s a bright, beautiful room to enjoy crowd-pleasing seafood towers or steak frites, while the service, cocktails, and wine list are all on point. There’s also a great daily happy hour from 3 to 5 p.m. with cocktails on tap, oysters, and crispy chicken wings with fish sauce caramel and sambal chili.

Top Rope serves the gooiest, meatiest, cheesiest Jalisco-style quesabirria tacos in town, with a consomé that speaks of hours and hours of low and slow braising. Hunt down the food taco truck (or check Instagram for the latest location) for handmade corn tortillas, beef cooked to melting perfection, and Oaxaca cheese that’s stringy beyond belief. Pick up a pack of the spicy house-made candy to chew on while you wait for your order. Pro tip: Ask for the off-menu longboi (an extra-long taco), and always order your tacos with the cheese skirt. 

Pidgin seamlessly blends the bounty of the Pacific Northwest with French techniques and Asian influences. Although the place is perfect for bar snacks — the gochujang chicken wings are the best in the city — and genuinely thrilling for creative cocktails with ingredients such as toasted rice rum and gunpowder tea gomme, go with the prix fixe, which offers exceptional value with seven inventive mini courses 89 Canadian dollars (about $66) per person. Whisky and sake fans will love the selection, and the wine list offers global gems too.

Chambar alumna Tannis Ling combined forces with chef Joël Watanabe, who brings his Corsican-Japanese heritage to this popular Chinatown restaurant. It may look like a hipster take on a Chinese brasserie, but the sound of woks crashing in the kitchen speaks to its traditional techniques. Sharing plates are pleasingly well-sized and the cocktails thoughtfully crafted, and — because it’s Vancouver — all meat is local and ethically raised, hormone- and chemical-free. Don’t miss local legend Helen’s delicate hand-made potstickers and dumplings — she makes hundreds of perfect dumplings each day — and the appropriately named Kick Ass House-Fried Rice.

You’ll find some of the city’s very best pasta at this wildly tempting wine bar/cafe/grocery on Commercial Drive, in a neighborhood that’s enjoying something of a renaissance, partly thanks to a strong pandemic-era patio culture. There are a trio of menus to take you from brunch through aperitivo hour and dinner. The overstuffed muffuletta sandwich is a must-order, as is the superb agnolotti stuffed with chicken and pork in glossy, buttery roasting juices, topped with crispy sage. Italian wines, spritzes, and amari (try a flight) round out the full experience. Pick up house-made sauces, breads, sauces, and pastas to prepare at home from the grocery section, where you can also browse imported olive oils, bottled cocktails, amarena cherries, and other enticing pantry items.

Take part in a Vancouver tradition and join the queues outside this well-priced Vietnamese-Cambodian spot in Chinatown. The menu is enormous, so save yourself from the agonies of choice and order up the deep-fried crunchy chicken wings (with their amazing dipping sauce), the Instagram-ready platter of thit bò butter beef, and the beef lúc lắc with egg and rice. And yeah, okay, maybe some garlic squid too. 

Serving up excellent daily brunch, happy hour, and dinner menus, Maxine’s has been doing a roaring trade with locals since opening in 2021. The sister restaurant to Homer Street and Tableau has already established itself as part of the Westender dining canon, as the weekend queues attest. Crowds come for generously portioned smoked salmon rosti, a gloriously messy smash burger, and the on-point cocktail and wine list. Hang out on the sun-trap patio and watch the world race past on Burrard Street, or settle into a comfy booth and graze your way from day to night.

Acclaimed chef Andrea Carlson (Burdock & Co.) and Gabriella Meyer’s community-based eatery/grocery in Chinatown is one of the best spots in the city to slurp down noodles, including the sake chicken ramen, a bowl that will banish any hangover. You can also pick up pantry essentials, such as frozen packs of Carlson’s superb pork and burdock dumplings, heirloom apple and vanilla bean sauce that makes an ideal ice cream topping, and picnic-ready local cheeses, dips, spreads, and vegan puddings.

Chancho’s blink-and-you’ll-miss-it carnitas shop is the Mexican dining experience that will likely ruin you for any other tacos in town, thanks to their house-made tortillas and marvelous, melting pork sold by the pound. Have the campechano, a mix of shoulder, leg, and belly hand-chopped to order and spangled with shards of crisp skin. Orders come with pickled red cabbage, pinto beans, salsas, and those incredible tortillas, kissed with a whisper of char. Take your food away to the nearby Seawall for the perfect porky picnic, or stay to enjoy the blaring Mexican pop.

Raw from the sushi bar or cooked from the open kitchen, seafood is the star at this Yaletown institution. Widely acknowledged as one of Canada’s leaders in responsible seafood, chef Frank Pabst and team push the culinary envelope a little each February with their Unsung Heroes festival, which celebrates lesser-loved species, encouraging diners to broaden their palates and try more sustainable seafood such as poached periwinkles and red sea urchin trifle. Year-round, the service is superb, the wine list dizzyingly wonderful, and the British Columbian seafood towers a splurge meal you’ll adore.

Sure the aisles are packed with wide-eyed Instagrammers at this popular tourist destination, but there are some jewels to be found here to assemble a superb picnic for watching the boats and paddle boarders on False Creek. Take your pick from delights such as pickled headcheese, succulent mortadella, and punchy salami at the Oyama Sausage Co, then head to Terra Bread to pick up some focaccia or baguettes before stocking up on local Salt Spring Island cheeses at Benton Brothers and fresh doughnuts at Lee’s.

You could book three months out for a meal at Published on Main, which recently scored the No. 1 spot on the prestigious Canada’s 100 Best Restaurants list. Or you could head to casual sister wine bar Susu, where a quarter of the tables are reserved for walk-ins. The bar began as a pop-up, but looks set to permanently become one of the city’s low-key favorites. Chef Ash Kurt has created a playful menu with items like decadent duck liver parfait honey crullers, hash browns with “mc’chicken sauce,” and pitch-perfect smoked lamb belly, along with an ever-changing array of delicious low-intervention wines, amari, cocktails, and vermouth for the city’s cork dorks. The late-night weekend menu ensures a regular crowd of off-work hospitality staffers crowing over foie gras, chicken drumsticks, and natural wines.

Born in French Guiana and raised in a Chinese family, chef Remi Ho’s business began as a pop-up in 2019 and has blossomed through enthusiastic industry word-of-mouth to a sleekly stylish tiny Asian-French patisserie just a few steps from the bustle of Cambie Street. Make sure you arrive early or order online for pick-up to ensure you secure popular treats, such as the to-die-for, buttery, crispy salted egg yolk financier and the pillow-soft black sesame-stuffed mochi.

Industry veterans opened this much-anticipated, neighborhood tapas bar to rave reviews in late 2018, bagging the coveted No. 2 spot on Air Canada enRoute’s Best New Restaurant of the Year list in 2019, along with every local award going. It’s no wonder, given Cómo delivers a truly delicious experience including on-tap vermouth and bone-dry fino sherry, free tapas at the bar during happy hour with a drink purchase (4-5 p.m.), superb hard cheeses, and crisp patatas bravas striped with mayo and spicy tomato sauce. The room is loud and friendly, with efficient cheery service, and although you can make reservations for the rest of the room, the patio is open first come, first served. Enjoy a brief trip to Spain at the handsome bar before heading back out to Vancouver.

Andrea Carlson’s resume reads like a rundown of every restaurant that helped shape Vancouver’s fresh, local, and sustainable style: C, Raincity Grill, Sooke Harbour House, Bishop’s — she’s worked at them all. You’ll find a shining example of British Columbia-based casual fine dining in Burdock & Co’s locavore tasting menus, which pair perfectly with the tight, natural-leaning wine list. Seasonal favorites come and go on the five-course set menus, but look out for the fan-favorite buttermilk fried chicken among the optional additions, or go big with an order of sustainably sourced Northern Divine sturgeon caviar with tater tots and a shot of aquavit.

Chef Vikram Vij is a huge star, with a stint as an investor on the reality show for aspiring entrepreneurs Dragon’s Den and a national range of prepackaged gourmet frozen curries to his name. In partnership with chef Meeru Dhalwala, Vij has created a fine dining Indian restaurant where you can feast on ambrosial curries utilizing local ingredients and hand-ground spices, paired with B.C. wines and funky cocktails. Pre-pandemic, the queue for a table might have included luminaries such as ex-Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau or Harrison Ford, but now you can make a reservation and skip the wait. Don’t miss the lamb popsicles.

For years, if you wanted to eat at this stylish, locals’ Vietnamese spot on Main, you’d have to queue. In a pandemic pivot, Ahn and Chi began accepting reservations, bookable with a $10 charity donation that has now raised more than $126,000 for local causes (which should give you an idea just how popular they are). Everything on the menu is bursting with fresh flavors and perfectly balanced in terms of spice and heat. Portions are wildly generous, so order everything for the table. Must-orders include custardy bánh khot prawn cakes wrapped in crispy rice and the fun, finger-licking DIY platter of khay bánh hỏi lụi nướng. It’s worth considering takeout, which gives you access to the very good wine list at 50 percent off.

Chef Gus Stieffenhofer-Brandson and team are unstoppable juggernauts, scooping up every prize last year from a Michelin star in the city’s inaugural awards to the No. 1 spot in Canada’s 100 Best Restaurants. You’ll need to plan far in advance (reservations open 60 days ahead and sell out in a few hours) or eat at 5 p.m. to discover what alchemy is afoot here, but it would be churlish to leave Published off the list just because it’s challenging to get a seat. You can dive into the playfully experimental multi-course, ever-changing tasting menu, go a la carte, or try a snack at the bar. Just try not to fall in love with any menu items, as dishes switch up rapidly.

The sister restaurant to Acorn, which has won awards for its vegetarian and vegan fine dining, Arbor has neatly swooped in to cover another side of the market: vegetable-focused comfort food. Pretty much every item on the menu can be made gluten-free if it isn’t already, and there’s plenty for vegans to feast upon too. Check out the hidden patio garden at the back or drop by for a battered, Southern-fried artichoke sandwich with eggplant “bacon” for take-out. They’re open late every day and have a very cool wine list heavy on small B.C. producers.

Innovative chef Dave Gunawan’s CV includes many of Vancouver’s big hitters, such as the now-shuttered West and Wildebeest, and the critically acclaimed ultra-locavore Farmer’s Apprentice. This small cafe in the Fraserhood community seemed a puzzling fit at first, but it’s actually oh-so very Gunawan. Behold Ubuntu Canteen, with its in-house heirloom grain bakery and bread subscription program, the city’s best bone broth, and thoughtfully cheffy sandwiches, such as open-faced beef tongue sandwich with sauce gribiche and salad on grilled sourdough. Evening service (Wed-Sat) brings a chance for the team to flex with an ever-changing menu of superb local and seasonal ingredients.