New Restaurant of the Year 2015

Best New Restaurant winner of Vancouver Magazine’s 26th Annual Restaurant Awards

• Gold: Ask for Luigi
• Silver: Cinara
• Bronze: Chambar
• Honourable Mentions: My Shanti, Café Medina

 Our judges—and the masses—have been emphatic in their praise of Ask for Luigi (Gold), the Little Restaurant That Could. Despite a low profile, strong word of mouth resulted in flocks from near and far for this diminutive, unpretentious trattoria’s house-made pastas, accessible wines (served in tumblers rather than stemware), and antipasti such as anchovy-topped eggs and stellar meatballs. “I’ve never had a dish there I wouldn’t order again,” one judge enthuses, echoing many of his colleagues. (See also Restaurant of the Year, Best Casual, and Best Italian Casual.)A very different interpretation of Italian cuisine, at Silver winner Cinara, also made an impressive debut. Chef/owners Lucais Syme and Gill Book have worked in many of the city’s top pasta-forward kitchens, but here their concise, frequently changing menu of “modern European cuisine” favours proteins whose fuss-free presentations belie “their underlying intelligence, precise technique, and explorations of ingredients not generally found elsewhere.” Although not new, Belgian-themed Chambar took Bronze for reinventing itself just enough in its 10th year: a new, larger location and an expanded menu, but the same standards of excellence in food and service that have made it a perennial darling. Honourable Mentions: My Shanti, Café Medina