Nook Opens New Location in Coal Harbour

We can’t say for certain if it was the Restaurant Award for Best Chain 2025 that emboldened Nook to open its fifth location this summer, but we’ll look on with pride anyways. It’s always a beautiful thing to see a homegrown spot succeed and grow, whether or not our accolades helped along the way.  

The new Coal Harbour location is big and beautiful, and already buzzing despite only being officially opened for a few weeks in The Stack on Melville Street. And while it’s got the same excellent house-made pastas and pizzas that we know and love from its other locations, there’s a distinct downtown vibe at play here—a little glossier than the cozy Kits and Denman locations, and certainly bigger, with 107 seats inside and an additional 30-plus on the heated patio. 

Is that polish the effect of acclaimed new culinary operations leader Lee Cooper (our 2024 Chef of the Year), formerly of L’Abattoir, or the influence of a new-ish ownership group helmed by Richard Jaffray, formerly head honcho at Cactus Club? Or just the result of being in a shiny new space with soaring ceilings and big windows looking onto the bustling financial district street outside? Time to slide into one of the red-leather booths for a bit while you consider it all.

The menu features some experiments and surprises that aren’t available at the other rooms (yet?), and even borrows a few faves from other brands in the restaurant group (like Radish’s hamachi crudo).

Think: the smoky Stuzzico dip, made of fire-roasted eggplants and sweet peppers; the zippy El Popo margarita; an umami-packed cashew kale salad; wood-fired spinach and roast garlic pizza topped with generous dollops of ricotta; a perfectly tender Tuscan-style ribeye with candy-sweet cherry tomatoes from Stoney Paradise farms; a scrape-the-bowl-with-a-spoon-good pistachio and white chocolate crema parfait; and more artfully executed fare (and generous pours of wine) that will have you forgetting what the question you came here to ponder was in the first place. 

READ MORE: Vancouver’s Best Italian Restaurants

As Nook’s newest room, it may be part of an established tradition of excellent fine-casual Italian dining, but there’s really only one way to describe the excellent meal you’re going to have here: off the chain. 

Nook Coal Harbour 
Open now 
1155 Melville St.