From Seafood to Steak – Vancouver’s 5 Best Restaurants

Set in a heritage brick-and-beam building in historic Gastown, L’Abattoir serves elevated French-influenced West Coast cuisine alongside an award-winning wine list and an inventive cocktail program. The site once held Vancouver’s first jail in the city’s old meat-packing district, and the room blends classic French tile with warm wood and industrial accents. The kitchen has been Michelin Recommended every year since the Vancouver guide launched in 2022, offering both an à la carte menu and a seasonal Chef’s Tasting Menu.

• Address: 217 Carrall St, Vancouver, BC V6B 2J1
• Phone: +1 604-568-1701
• Interesting fact: “Abattoir” is French for “slaughterhouse”, a nod to the building’s past as Vancouver’s first jail at the heart of the old meat-packing district.

Tucked into Vancouver’s Mount Pleasant, Published on Main is one of the city’s most celebrated fine-dining rooms, serving foraging-forward modern Canadian cuisine led by Chef Gus Stieffenhofer-Brandson. The menu is built around the seasons and British Columbia’s landscape, with an emphasis on local, sustainable, and preserved ingredients, paired with a thoughtful, largely Canadian wine and cocktail program. The dining room is warm and lively rather than stuffy, the kind of room that makes a tasting menu feel relaxed. It holds one Michelin star and was ranked No. 17 on North America’s 50 Best Restaurants 2026.

• Address: 3593 Main St, Vancouver, BC V5V 3N4
• Phone: +1 604-423-4840
• Interesting fact: In 2022, Published on Main became the first British Columbia restaurant to top Canada’s 100 Best Restaurants, and it earned a Michelin star in Vancouver’s very first Michelin Guide that same year.

Widely regarded as Vancouver’s definitive seafood destination, Blue Water Cafe occupies a handsome brick-and-beam heritage warehouse in the heart of Yaletown. Under longtime Executive Chef Frank Pabst, the kitchen turns out West Coast plates built on certified-sustainable Ocean Wise seafood, while its “East meets West” Raw Bar serves Japanese-inspired sushi and freshly shucked oysters. Expect showstopping seafood towers, an extensive award-winning wine list, and a polished but lively dining room overlooking the open kitchen.

• Address: 1095 Hamilton St, Vancouver, BC V6B 5T4
• Phone: +1 604-688-8078
• Interesting fact: Blue Water Cafe has been a perennial “Best Seafood” winner at the Vancouver Magazine Restaurant Awards, and its raw bar sources oysters flown in from points all along British Columbia’s coast.

A Yaletown institution for more than a decade, The Parlour pairs stone-baked, bubbly-crusted pizzas with an inventive menu of comfort dishes, craft cocktails, craft beer, and quality wine. Ingredients are sustainably sourced from Canadian farms, and the kitchen is known for its weekend brunch pizzas as much as its dinner pies. The room is stylish but laid-back – a lively, social spot that fits the neighbourhood’s after-work energy.

• Address: 1011 Hamilton St, Vancouver, BC V6B 5T4
• Phone: +1 604-568-3322
• Interesting fact: The Parlour got its start in Vancouver’s Yaletown and has since expanded east, opening a second location on King Street West in downtown Toronto.