Restaurant Awards 2026, Editors’ Choice: The Best Wine Bars in Vancouver

These two wine bars deserved special acknowledgement as part of the Vancouver Magazine 2026 Restaurant Awards.

For the 2026 Vancouver Magazine Restaurant Awards, we continued our new tradition of Editors’ Choices: picks from our editorial team which highlight the rooms in the city that serve a specific purpose, in addition to having great food and service. 

Dear Gus. Photo by Studio Santiago

Editors’ Choice: Best Wine Bars

Dear Gus, 2040 Quebec St., deargus.com
Bar Tartare, 54 Alexander St., bartartareyvr.ca

There are plenty of great spots to grab a glass of wine around here (see Vancouver International Wine Fest’s rundown of the best wine lists in the city on page 58), but seeking out a wine bar, specifically, delivers a different experience: one of lingering and discovering something surprising. And in the case of Dear Gus and Bar Tartare, some of the city’s best small plates, too. The bottles at both are freshly curated daily and poured by-the-glass for optimum experimentation: at Mount Pleasant’s Gus, quaffing herbaceous Greek dafni or mineral-y reds sourced from the Canary Islands in the intimate, European-chic tasting room while throwing back oysters; in Gastown, industry cool-kids fill up Bar Tartare’s sidewalk patio for sharable snacks from the week’s rotating chef, sipping whatever natural rosé pairs best with their vibe. 

 

Bar Tartare

 

Find more of the best Vancouver restaurants on our list of 2026 Vancouver Magazine Restaurant Award winners.

Vancouver Magazine

Vancouver Magazine

The editorial team at Vancouver magazine is obsessed with tracking down great food and good times in our favourite city on earth. Email us pitches at [email protected].