Vanmag Restaurant Awards 2024: Introducing Our Reader’s Choice Awards

We’re hungry for your opinion. For the first time, Vancouver magazine is proud to announce a Reader’s Choice division of our annual Restaurant Awards. In addition to our traditional cuisine-focused categories (which will still be judged by our expert panel),  we’ll be awarding over 30 Reader’s Choice awards. The restaurants will be nominated and voted on by you—yes, you reading this—and awards will be presented at our 2024 Vanmag Restaurant Awards ceremony on May 6, 2024.

This story gets deep into the Reader’s Choice awards, and includes a list of categories, instructions for how to vote and FAQs. If you want to skip right to voting, here’s where to do it.

Reader’s Choice Awards: The Categories

The 2024 Reader’s Choice Awards are divided into three areas of focus: dishes, types of dining and neighbourhoods/our favourite hotspots outside of Vancouver.

Dishes Categories

Best Burger
Best Dim Sum
Best Fried Chicken
Best Hot Pot
Best Pasta
Best Pizza
Best Ramen
Best Sandwich
Best Seafood
Best Steak
Best Sushi
Best Tacos

Dining Categories

Best Bar (or Wine Bar)
Best Brewery
Best Brunch
Best Coffee Shop
Best Food Truck
Best Vegan/Vegetarian Restaurant

Best of the Neighbourhoods/Outside Vancouver

We’ve listed lots of neighbourhoods below, but we’ll only be awarding the ‘hoods that get the most nominations and votes… so make sure to advocate hard for your favourite.

FEBRUARY 29 2024 UPDATE: Thank you for nominating! 12 neighbourhood categories have been selected for the 2024 Reader’s Choice Awards. To accommodate both write-in votes and restaurants that received lots of nominations (but in neighbourhoods that didn’t make the final cut), we’ve also added a Best Neighbourhood Wildcard category. That’s 13 categories in total. They are:

Best Chinatown
Best Commercial Drive
Best Downtown
Best Fraserhood
Best Gastown
Best Hastings-Sunrise
Best Kerrisdale
Best Kitsilano
Best Mount Pleasant
Best Olympic Village
Best West End
Best Yaletown
Best Neighbourhood Wildcard

These are the “outside Vancouver” categories.

Best Vancouver Island Restaurant
Best North Shore Restaurant
Best Okanagan Restaurant
Best Richmond Restaurant
Best Whistler Restaurant

Reader’s Choice Awards: How to Nominate and Vote

The nomination period has ended, and voting is now open for the Reader’s Choice division of the 2024 Vanmag Restaurant Awards. Votes can be online on this page.

Our online voting platform will ask you for your first and last name, postal code and email. You will need to enter this information only once. Once you hit “vote” on that first vote, we’ll send you an email to confirm that you’re not a bot. Hit the confirmation link and you’ll be officially logged in—from there, the rest of the nominations will be a breeze.

Reader’s Choice Awards: FAQs

Have a question? Maybe we’ve answered it.

How do I nominate a restaurant in Vanmag’s Reader’s Choice Restaurant Awards?

Nominations can be made online through our digital nomination tool—find the link here.

What if I spell a restaurant’s name wrong when I am nominating?

We’ve got both robots and humans on the case—rest assured, making a typo in your nomination won’t affect that restaurant’s chances of winning. All I ask is you try your best. —Alyssa, the human editor 

How do I vote for a restaurant in Vanmag’s Reader’s Choice Restaurant Awards?

Voting will be done through the same tool, and at the same web link, as nominations. Once voting opens, you can vote here.

Why do I have to enter my email and postal code when I am nominating?

We take your email to ensure that people aren’t voting multiple times. It’s not a perfect system, but it’s the best way to ensure that everyone has a fair shot. The postal code information will only be used internally—we’re curious about which Vancouver neighbourhoods are most engaged with the restaurant scene.

If I give you my email address, are you going to spam me with emails?

No! We’ll send you an email to let you know when voting is open. Other than that, you’ll only hear from us if you opt in to our newsletters (which you should, we’re very entertaining).

My neighbourhood isn’t listed. Why don’t you care about me?

Hey, we had to draw the line somewhere—there’s over 30 distinct neighbourhoods in the city, and the boundaries vary depending on who you ask. We listed as many of the hot dining ‘hoods as we could and also left a write-in spot, so if your favourite neighbourhood restaurant doesn’t fit into the listed categories, just write it in there.

What about the usual Restaurant Awards, like Best French, Best Chinese and Best New Restaurant?

We’re still doing our regular awards—you know, the ones that are judged by esteemed food writers, restaurant critics and industry leaders. The Reader’s Choice Awards will be presented in addition to our regular awards on May 6.

Psst—we’re also introducing an Editor’s Picks division, with categories like Best Date Night, Best Patio and Best Business Lunch spot. Stay tuned.

Still have a question we haven’t answered? Drop us a line at mail@vanmag.com.