Blessed with a moderate climate which ensures access to fresh, local agricultural products, fish and seafood, it’s no surprise that some of North America’s finest restaurants are in Vancouver. Of the new restaurants that opened in the past year, these are the standouts.
Cacao in Vancouver’s attractive Kitsilano area, has a lovely neighbourhood feel to it from its modest decor and cosy interiors to the friendly staff. But there’s nothing modest about the menu that features innovative and experimental dishes. The restaurant is a joint venture between Mexican celebrity TV chef and cookbook author Marcela Ramirez and Chef Jefferson Alvarez who both wanted to create a creative menu blending Latin flavors with local ingredients from British Columbia like bison and seafood. Upstairs at Cacao, Latin American inspired drinks are served at a trendy cocktail bar which has no doubt already become a local favorite.
Cooking in one of the world’s biggest foodie areas, the Basque country in Northern Spain, home of more than 40 Michelin starred restaurants was great training for Jefferson Alvarez. He worked in some of the world’s best kitchens including Arzak in Spain, Morimoto in Philadelphia and Canoe in Toronto before settling in Vancouver and becoming one of the city’s most highly praised chefs.
We had a simple but delicious tasting menu starting with Arepas & chorizo spiced mushrooms, followed by tomatoes full of flavor being still in season, accompanied by home made mozzarella. A coconut and banana squash soup and pan seared bransino on top of green plantain and pippin rojo were standout dishes. I noticed the menu also features ceviche which no doubt would make a second visit more than worthwhile. Dessert was an inventive combination of nitro hibiscus, condensed milk and chili sugar – a sweet ending to our lovely meal.
Cacao, 1898 West 1st Avenue, Vancouver V6J 1G5 Tel: 604-731-5370
Located in a heritage building in downtown Vancouver’s Coal Harbour, Nightingale is the new sibling to one of Vancouver’s top restaurants, Hawksworth, run by Chef David Hawksworth. The restaurant, designed by Studio Munge, seats 180 diners over two floors and features high ceilings and light birch walls. The menu emphasises BC’s seasonal produce and is made up of easily shared comfort food and we chose well. Pacific halibut ceviche with avocado and crispy quinoa was fresh and citrusy. A simple heirloom tomato dish was made more complex by adding roasted eggplant and pistachio salsa verde. Crispy fried chicken with preserved lemon yogurt worked well as did the red and green chorizo with grilled patron peppers. For dessert we shared a peanut butter and jelly ice cream sandwich which I was slightly concerned might be too sweet and sickly. I couldn’t have been more wrong; it was pure bliss and maybe my favorite dish in a meal with many highlights.
Lunchtime in the large dining room was buzzing and evening drinks at the bar would be even more lively. I’m not a beer drinker but those who are will want to try Nighting-Ale, a craft beer specially developed for the restaurant by the local brewery, Main Street Brewing Company.
Nightingale, 1017 West Hastings, Vancouver V6E 0C4 Tel: 604-695-9500
The Botanist located in the Fairmont Hotel on the waterfront is a big, bright airy room, a lovely setting for Sunday brunch. Designed by award-winning agencies Ste Marie Design and Glasfurd & Walker, the bright, slick space features a cocktail bar and lab, an outdoor terrace garden (filled with 50 different types of plants, including rare fruit bushes), the dining room where we ate and a Champagne lounge.
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The Chef, Hector Laguna, cooked in Miami, San Francisco and Toronto before settling in Vancouver as Senior Sous Chef at another beloved establishment, Hawksworth. Now he’s running the show at Botanist and making a fine job of it if my choice of Crab Benedict with avocado was any indication of his skills. That went down a treat while my dining companion seemed pretty satisfied with his Waygu burger. We shared an equally satisfying creamy plate of burrata topped with various melon chunks.
Hector’s menu is accompanied by Wine Director Jill Spoor’s wine program that supports sustainable, organic and biodynamic farming and winemaking practices. As I was there for brunch I didn’t indulge in the wine or the cocktails devised in what is described as Vancouver’s first “cocktail lab” but I plan to return to try a “Treebeard” cocktail, with gin flavored with Douglas Fir pine needles or a “Candy Cap Magic” made with mushroom rye, moss and spiced maple.
The Botanist, 1038 Canada Place, Vancouver, V6C 0B9 Tel: 604-695-5500
For anyone looking for a vegan restaurant that stands out from the city’s fairly crowded market, Heirloom’s vegan feast menu of mushroom pate, romain lettuce with lovage emulsion, roasted curry cauliflower with lentils (my favorite) and a stone fruit pudding hit the spot and would make a pleasant addition to any Vancouver foodie tour.
Heirloom, 1509 West 12th Avenue, Vancouver, V6H 3J2 Tel: 604-733-2231
