21 Things We Loved in 2021
I think we can all agree that 2021 was a rough year to be in the restaurant industry. As if a global pandemic weren’t enough to deal with, there were anti-vaxxers and antimaskers, a crushing labour shortage and frustrating supplychain issues. Still, chefs kept cooking their signature dishes, foragers kept showing up with bins of chanterelles and servers kept asking guests how their first few bites were. Most of all, our restaurant community showed us that what they’re really serving up is resilience.
Here, in no particular order, are 21 things we loved in Vancouver restaurants in 2021.
The Dutch baby at Maxine’s
We simply swooned for the Dutch baby on the brunch menu at Maxine’s Cafe & Bar, the latest restaurant from Wentworth Hospitality (the others are Homer St. Cafe and Tableau Bar Bistro). It’s a delightful marriage of pancake and Yorkshire pudding, cooked in a cast iron pan until puffed, then topped with fried egg, Gruyère and ham. Oh, baby.
maxinescafebar.com
Burger town
Whether you prefer your patties smashed thin with a crunchy crust or jaw-crackingly thick and oozing with juice, Vancouver is busting out with great burgers these days. Try them at Between 2 Buns, Hundy, Moderne Burger, Per Se Social Corner, Downlow, Fable Diner, Bells & Whistles and, of course, the OG burger joint, Pourhouse, where you can choose between the traditional burger topped with pork belly and the new smashburger. And check out all the top chefs flipping burgers: Quang Dang at D.I.C.E.D., Mark Perrier at GTO Burger (a roaming popup in search of a brick-and-mortar location), Alex Chen for Pigot’s Burger Club (available through delivery apps) and even David Hawksworth, whose stacked onion ring burger is legend.
Bringing home the Legends Haul
When the pandemic hit and restaurants shut their doors only to reopen two months later with limited seating and hours, Legends Haul was left with a warehouse full of top-quality meat, produce and other goodies. No problem. They simply pivoted and made all those top-quality ingredients available to retail customers through an e-commerce site. Then they helped out their restaurant pals by launching “Friends of Legends Haul,” a channel for selling, say, Nightingale pizzas, Chambar soups or Kissa Tanto pasta sauce. We can’t imagine how we ever cooked without them.
shop.legendshaul.com
Crispy-herb-topped potato chips at Bacaro
The Milanese-style Giovane Caffè at the Fairmont Pacific Rim never quite lived up to its promise — until the back half of it was transformed into a Venetian-style cicchetti bar called Bacaro. It’s a sleekly stylish space with a terrific Italian wine list and tempting small plates and some bigger ones, too. But what keeps us coming back are the housemade potato chips topped with crispy fried sage and rosemary. You really can’t have just one.
giovanebacaro.com
Tinned fish
If you’d told us a couple of years ago that we’d happily pay $30 or even $50 for a small can of fish, we’d have laughed and laughed. Yet here we are, ordering tinned squid, fancy tuna or mussels in escabeche at Como Taperia and barely blinking at the price. That’s because these are what the Spanish call “conservas,” top quality seafood harvested and preserved at its peak. That we have such a great selection of conservas can be credited to Antonio Romero Casado, the owner of ARC Iberico Imports, who’s bringing all of Spain’s finest culinary delicacies to Vancouver. A master ham carver, Casado has also opened a “jamoneria” in Steveston where you can enjoy tapas and a gin tonic before shopping for the ultra-luxe conservas by Güeyu Mar. Be sure to clear some space on your credit card first though.
arcimports.ca
Half-price wine on the JOEY Shipyards patio
You’d think the last thing North Vancouver needed was another chain restaurant — until JOEY Shipyards flung open its shiny glass doors onto a glamorous new space with stunning views of downtown Vancouver. The best place to enjoy the view is the pier-side downstairs patio, and the best time to go is Wednesday, when bottles of wine are half price. Jason Yamasaki, one of B.C.’s best sommeliers, is behind this stellar list, and you could do much worse than starting with, say, Blue Mountain brut, say, followed by a Laroche Chablis, and finishing with Painted Rock Syrah or Edge Cabernet Sauvignon — all at great prices, in a great space.
joeyrestaurants.com
The return of cocktail culture
Vancouver is home to some of the country’s best bartenders — including five of the eight Diageo World Class Canada winners — but right before the pandemic hit, the scene was looking a bit bleak. Ready-to-drink hard seltzers were flooding the market and we were done waiting for fussy cocktails tediously handcrafted by some dude in suspenders and an ironic ’stache. But when COVID hit and we were forced to make our own drinks, a newfound appreciation for the art of the cocktail was born. Now even pubs and chains are making proper cocktails, thanks to bar stars like Phil Tapping at The Gull, Robyn Gray at Queens Cross Pub and Jay Jones at JOEY Restaurants. Loosened restrictions around pre-batching drinks mean we get them in our hands more seamlessly. And we’re excited to see cool new bars like Chickadee Room and Laowai, the speakeasy at BLND TGER. The cocktail is back, and we’ll happily drink to that.
Cocktail tasting menu at Botanist
For the ultimate in over-the-top, whimsical, meticulously hand- crafted cocktails, look no further than the Fairmont Pacific Rim and the VIP table at the Botanist Bar. Head bartender Jeff Savage (who narrowly placed second globally in Diageo World Class 2019) has created a wildly avant-garde lineup of cocktails comple- mented by a six-course tasting menu from chef Hector Laguna. It’s simply one of the best cocktail experiences on the planet.
botanistrestauarant.com
Wine goes natural at Bar Gobo
Natural wine isn’t a new trend, but it hadn’t really caught on here before the pandemic. Then the much-loved Upstairs @ Campagnolo closed, setting bartender/sommelier/geologist Peter Van de Reep free to open Bar Gobo, Vancouver’s first natural wine bar. Enjoy the wildly vibrant, funky, savoury flavours of hard-to find labels like Ontario’s Pearl Morissette or Salt Spring Island’s Kutatás, along with chef Neil Hillbrandt’s menu — his umami-rich anchovy “toast” is perhaps the best bar snack in the city.
bargobo.com
Momos and more on the Spice Trail
It’s not like we didn’t know Surrey had great South Asian restaurants. It’s just that we couldn’t always find them, given that they tend to be tucked away in anonymous strip malls. But now Discover Surrey has launched its self-guided Culinary Spice Trail, and that has led us straight to the momos. These steamed Indo-Chinese dumplings originated in Nepal and Tibet — basically, the Himalayas — and have become popular throughout South Asia and now Surrey. We just can’t get enough.
discoversurreybc.com/spice-trail
- You can read our article about the Surrey Spice Trail here -
The grocery store/restaurant/takeout hybrid
With the pandemic keeping us close to home, a new-old model was born: the corner store that is also a place to grab a cup of coffee, essential groceries and a relaxed meal to dine in or take out for later — the quintessential neighbourhood hangout. There’s Caffé La Tana, Flourist, Le Marché St. George and the newest joint on the Mount Pleasant block, Oh Carolina, from the folks at Gooseneck Hospitality. Drop by for a sandwich and a visit with all your friends, new and old.
ohcarolina.ca
Dim sum all day
During B.C.’s fortunately brief restaurant shutdown, the entire city was hurled into a devastating shu mai and har gow withdrawal. Thank goodness, by the time things re-opened, all- day dim sum was a thing. Heritage Asian Eatery’s Broadway location, for instance, now offers a selection of dumplings ranging from classic pork to crispy wontons to soup-filled xiao long bao until 9 p.m. daily. Little Bird in Kits — the latest eatery from the Lee family of Flamingo Chinese Restaurant fame — also offers all the dumplings all day, as well as sticky rice, garlicky spareribs and crispy chicken wings. There’s also all-day dim sum at Jingle Bao, Street Auntie Aperitivo House and several others. And for those whose dumpling craving is endless, Dumpling in a Box can fill your freezer with dumps creative and traditional.
dumplinginabox.com
Patio culture is here to stay
When indoor dining was banned, restaurateurs quickly hammered together temporary patios out of plywood and hope — and unwittingly transformed “no-fun city” streets into vibrant social spaces. Now many of those patios are becoming permanent. Among our favourites: The Keefer Yard. Chinatown’s much-lauded Keefer Bar took over an empty lot next door, strung it with patio lights, covered it with a transparent roof and installed a mini-golf course. Swing by and enjoy cocktails, snacks and all sorts of social shenanigans.
thekeeferbar.com
Pasta perfection at Oca
It’s no surprise that so many chefs turned to making pasta this past year. Rolling pasta is, after all, a wonderfully meditative act, eating it is a blissfully comforting one, and we could all use more of both. But some chefs transformed simple sheets of dough into works of art. Among them: Greg Dilabio, formerly of La Quercia, who opened Oca Pastificio in Little Italy back in 2019. In this tiny, 22-seat room he offers five-course tasting menus, most of which comprise fresh pasta — think silky tagliatelle, baroquely curly rotolo or light-as-a-cloud gnocchi — handcrafted à la minute for an ever-changing menu.
ocapastificio.com
Fab fusion at Say Mercy!
Bless the team at The Mackenzie Room, who opened Say Mercy! in the Fraserhood just two months before the March 2020 shutdown, and bless the creative madness of chef Sean Reeve for coming up with the unholy fusion of Italian-Southern BBQ cuisine. That was a new concept even for Vancouverites raised on east-meets-west fusion cuisine. But it’s one that works surprisingly well, and the smoky, meaty, BBQ spaghetti Bolognese quickly became one of the year’s most talked about dishes.
saymercy.ca
Tour de France at St. Lawrence
Of all the frustrations faced by restaurateurs this year, perhaps the most annoying was that, despite everything they had gone through, customers were still not showing up for their reservations. But J-C Poirier, chef-owner of the classic-cuisine- driven Quebecois restaurant St. Lawrence, had a solution. He transformed the à la carte menu to a pre-paid, regional set menu that changes each month. Not only has he eliminated no-shows, he’s created an exciting tradition for diners who can’t wait to see what each month brings, whether it’s the sugar shack of January or the Burgundian feast of November.
stlawrencerestaurant.com
BLVD Provisions
Boulevard Kitchen & Oyster Bar is not the only restaurant to offer “provisions,” a combination of groceries, wine and ready- to-eat meals available to enjoy at home via pickup or delivery. But Alex Chen, executive chef–signature restaurants, has really committed to it — even now. Although his high-level, competition-busting, salt-crusted sea bream (complete with much-needed how-to video) isn’t always available, you can still enjoy heat-and-serve comfort food, premium proteins and cocktail kits, as well as some of the most extravagant holiday feasts in the city.
blvdprovisions.ca
Birria tacos at Alimentaria Mexicana
The birria tacos — corn tortillas filled with fragrantly spiced braised beef — are just one of the many, many things to love about this new Mexican restaurant in the old Edible Canada space on Granville Island. Owner Ernesto Gomez brought freshly made nixtamalized corn tortillas to Vancouver at Chancho Tortilleria, and he’s doing the same here, switching up the heirloom varieties every day and supporting indigenous families in rural Mexico while he does it. He’s also opened a market, is planning cooking classes, and serving up terrific Margaritas alongside a deceptively casual menu that is deep in both flavour and tradition.
alimentariamexicana.com
Haute vegan at The Acorn
Who knew vegetables could be this beautiful? Well, the team behind The Acorn, for one. The top restaurant on Big Seven Travel’s list of the World’s 50 Best Vegan Restaurants has just produced its first cookbook, Acorn: Vegetables Re-Imagined: Seasonal Recipes from Root to Stem, by owner Shira Blustein and Chef Brian Luptak (Appetite by Random House). Food that’s great and makes little impact on the planet — what could taste better?
theacornrestaurant.ca
Aw, shucks
We love fresh local oysters served raw on the half shell. In fact, we love them so much, and can eat so many at one sitting, it’s a little embarrassing. And expensive, too, given that happy hour buck-a-shuck has gone up to buck-and-half-a-shuck and often much more. So when we heard that Fanny Bay Oysters is not just serving them at its tide-to-table oyster bar in Yaletown, but has a mobile oyster bar that will come right to your door we immediately started sending hints for our next birthday. Ahem.
fannybayoysters.com
Cannelé comfort at La Bise
When times are tough, the city’s bakers know just what we need: something sweet and soothing. That could mean the pillow cakes at Buttermere, Froot Loop mochi donuts at Their There, apple hazelnut galettes at Flourist or peanut butter sandwich cookies at Beaucoup Bakery. But what we loved best this year was discovering traditional Bordelaise cannelés at La Bise Bakery, and being swept on a caramelly, vanilla-scented flavour journey to France.
labisebakery.com
