Vancouver eats where the Pacific meets Asia: sushi counters ranked among North America's best, Cantonese kitchens that rival Hong Kong, Ocean Wise seafood, and a craft beer district with 12 breweries inside 10 walkable blocks.
Fifty-plus food stalls under a 1930s industrial shed, open daily 09:00–18:00. Buy Dungeness crab and spot prawns at Longliner Seafoods, Oyama Sausage's 400 charcuterie types, and Lee's Donuts honey-dip. Free entry; snacks $4–15.
Chef Kwok Wa Fung's Cantonese dim sum on West Broadway, à la carte only, served 11:00–14:30. Order the crystal shrimp dumplings, black truffle siu mai and baked BBQ pork buns. Reservations essential at weekends; carts are not used here.
The Drive was Vancouver's Little Italy: sip espresso at Caffè La Tana or the 1975-founded Caffè Calabria, then buy pecorino and fresh pasta at Bosa Foods and cured meats at Santa Barbara Market. Most shops close by 18:00.
Vancouver has North America's densest izakaya cluster. Guu Original on Thurlow started it in 1993; nearby Kingyo does gomadare tuna and stone-bowl rice. Expect shouted greetings, small plates $8–18, and no reservations at the counter seats.
Vancouver's working dock at False Creek where licensed boats sell direct off the deck: spot prawns in the short May–June season, side-stripe shrimp, halibut and sablefish. Cash preferred, sales run mornings until the day's catch is gone.
The room that popularised aburi flame-seared sushi in Canada, on the Coal Harbour waterfront at 200 Granville. The salmon oshi pressed sushi with jalapeño and Miku sauce is the signature; lunch sets are the affordable way in.
Canada's largest historic Chinatown. The Chinese Tea Shop on Pender pours gongfu tastings of aged pu-erh and oolong; New Town Bakery has sold steamed apple pies and BBQ pork buns since 1980 for under $3 each.
Mount Pleasant's tasting-menu room, repeatedly ranked Canada's number-one restaurant, built on BC ingredients: fermented sunchoke, aged duck, sea urchin from the coast. Multi-course menus plus a natural-wine list weighted to BC and France.
Start at Beaucoup Bakery for kouign-amann and croissants, then Livia Sweets on Commercial for sourdough-based pastry, and Purebread's Kitsilano branch. Most sell out of laminated pastries before noon; coffee at 49th Parallel nearby.
Vancouver's street-food permit scheme puts trucks on Howe, Burrard and Robson at lunch. Tacofino's fish taco and Japadog's terimayo hot dog with seaweed are the two Vancouver originals; most items $7–14, cards accepted.
Twenty minutes on the Canada Line to Aberdeen station: Vancouver's real Chinese food capital, with over 800 Asian restaurants. Hand-pulled noodles, Shanghai xiao long bao at Dinesty, and Taiwanese beef noodle soup in the mall food courts.
East Vancouver's brewery district packs a dozen taprooms into a few blocks: Strange Fellows, Off The Rail, Superflux, Callister and Powell all pour flights. Tasting flights run $10–14; several share food trucks parked outside.