The Most-Read Vanmag Stories of 2025

It’s a mad dash at the end of the year over here at Vanmag HQ, trying to get everything in order for 2026 before we break for the holidays and throwing together our annual best-of lists by the dozen, but we simply must take a moment to pause for one of our special little traditions: poring over the analytics to see just which 2025 stories topped the charts this past year. As usual, our savvy readers were keen to learn about hot new restaurants and peek into the spaces of intriguing Vancouverites—you’re a curious bunch, and we salute you. Read on to discover (or rediscover) our top 10 most popular stories of 2025.

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The Most Popular Vancouver Magazine Stories of 2025

10. Beloved Tofino Korean Spot Jeju Opens Vancouver Location

Fans of the Tofino hot spot have been thrilled about the opening of a Vancouver branch of Jeju. Our first look at the beautifully designed space and east-meets-west menu brought a taste of the resto to the readers.

9. Chef Ned Bell’s Burnaby Heights Pop-Up Is Sustainable, Local and Alcohol-Free

The mocktail movement continues in full force, backed by all-star chefs like Ned Bell and sober-curious wine nerds like Kurtis Kolt: their chef-driven pop-up event in Burnaby this past spring invited diners and drinkers to try alc-free wine pairings.

8. The Waitlist Generation: Why Vancouver Parents Are Competing for Spots in Everything from Day Camp to Swim Lessons

This story from writer Brittany Hopkins clearly struck a chord with parents around the city, digging into the root cause of Vancouver’s child-resource scarcity. If you, too, have found yourself furiously refreshing the swimming lesson sign-up page the minute registration opens, only to be relegated to the waitlist, this is your story.

7. Personal Space: Inside the Kitsilano Home of Pyrrha Founders Danielle and Wade Papin

We do a Personal Space tour in every issue of Vanmag—sometimes more, like in our annual Homes issue each September—but this peek inside the home of Pyrrha founders Danielle and Wade Papin was particularly popular. We get it: the jewellery desigenrs’ Kitsilano home is chockablock with art, vintage furniture and treasures. Who wouldn’t want to snoop around?

6. Call Me Back Is a New Speakeasy Hidden in a Phone Booth at Terminal City Club

Writer Sara Harowitz gave us the scoop on the city’s newest speakeasy with this story on a hidden back room at the Lion’s Club, found behind a phone booth. With this many people reading the story, it may not be much of a secret anymore… but the experience is a treat all the same.

5. Canada’s First Din Tai Fung: Does Vancouver’s New Spot Live Up to the Hype?

We know our readers are hungry, and the popularity of this review of this dumpling paradise only proves it. The Taiwanese chain opened up it’s first Canadian location this spring to much fanfare, and writer Xiao Qing Wan was on the frontlines to check it out (and scarf a few xiao long bao along the way).

4. The 2025 Power 50 List

Once again, our annual Power 50 list proves that it’s a power player in and of itself, making its way onto this readership ranking, as it does every year. Maybe it’s just the 50 folks who wound up on the list who are driving the traffic, but we doubt it—the honourees keep themselves pretty busy powering our city with ideas, action and ingenuity.

3. Where Do Silverfish Come From?

Okay, this story actually first appeared in a 2024 print edition of the magazine, but it has scuttled its way on to the top of the list for 2025 regardless, so here it is, at number three on the list. And who are we to tell you, the reader, when you should or shouldn’t read a story? Obviously, this was the mystery on every Vancouverite’s mind this year: how do those creepy crawlies get into our homes and apartments… and why do they want to stay? An enduring query, apparently. Good thing Know It All columnist (and editor-in-chief) Stacey McLachlan has the answers.

2. At Home with Vancouver Canuck J.T. Miller

We were internally a little bit annoyed when Canucks star J.T. Miller announced he was leaving the team mere days after this story went live, but apparently the hockey fans of the world didn’t care: they still wanted to look inside his North Vancouver home, lovingly decorated by Miller’s interior designer wife, Natalie. Reddit got rowdy. 

1. The 2025 Vancouver Magazine Restaurant Awards

The Restaurant Award master post was technically lower on the list in our analytics, but so many other Restaurant Award posts were in the top 10 that it just feels simpler to declare this whole package the One True Victor of 2025. Readers were clamouring for news about the best Chinese restaurants in Vancouver, the best new restaurants in Vancouver, the best casual restaurants in Vancouver, the best Korean restaurants in Vancouver… you get it. Our 2025 Readers’ Choice voting page also got a lot of attention last year, though that is obviously no longer active, now that the awards are done. But if democracy continues to be interesting to you, good news: our 2026 Readers’ Choice poll is already open for business.