Upscale used to be defined by white tablecloths and unflappable waitstaff, but in Vancouver times have changed—arguably for the better. It’s how an unpretentious take on down-home Québécois cuisine can take the category gold: St. Lawrence chef and principal J-C Poirier serves pork rinds in a maple syrup tin and somehow creates the perfect special-occasion restaurant in the process. Poirier’s food is honest, inventive and artful, unrepentantly rich and a love letter to his home province. This is what haute cuisine looks like in Vancouver in 2022.
Published on Main may be silver on our list, but they’re still riding high from being named the best room in the country on the “Canada’s 100 Best Restaurants” list. Both honours are well deserved: the chef’s tasting menu is always ambitious and surprising, with a laser-focus on market-fresh ingredients and whimsical treatments.
Our judges gave bronze this year to perennial upscale favourite Boulevard, still a master of hospitality, candle-lit elegance and jaw-dropping seafood towers. Honourable mentions go to local legends Blue Water Cafe (forever a seafood destination) and Hawksworth (and its unparalleled service).
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].
