Restaurant Awards 2026: The Best Omakase in Vancouver

Gold: Sushi Hyun

The new crop of omakase restaurants now dotting the city places this category firmly away from simply being part of Best Japanese. The experience of omakase is a deeply personal one: roughly translating to “you decide,” the diner entrusts the chef to handcraft and deliver several small bites curated specifically to them—and that distinct personalization was impossible for our editors and judges alike to ignore. With seatings so small that it might take months to get a reservation, you’re spoiled when you do because “the chef is literally touching just about every piece of food that you are consuming,” wrote one judge. So it’s fitting that downtown newcomer Sushi Hyun is taking home gold in this brand-new category, as chef Juhyun Lee prepared “some of the most refined, elegant yet deeply alive flavours” that one judge said they’d had all year. In fact, “startling delicious bites” were mentioned, including a creamy, luscious, three-hour slow baked tamago that capped the meal.

795 Jervis St.
@sushihyun_vancouver

Silver: Sumibiyaki Arashi

Similarly, judges felt the same about silver winner Sumibiyaki Arashi, a yakitori omakase experience in Mount Pleasant, for “not just cooking the best chicken skewers of your life, but through painstaking prep, refracting and redefining how you see what has become an everyday and industrial ingredient.”

363 E Broadway
sumibiyakiarashi.com

Bronze: Okeya Kyujiro

Bronze winner Okeya Kyujiro offered up the kind of effort “really unseen across any restaurant in any category,” said one judge; it was “mind-blowing food in an immersive setting that goes way beyond showmanship,” said another. It was a tightly packed top three in this new category: the city is lucky to have them to choose from (and debate over).

1038 Mainland St.
okeya.ca

Honourable Mentions

Tetsu
775 Denman St.
tetsusushibar.com

Masayoshi
4376 Fraser St.
masayoshi.ca

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