Our Vancouver fans start us in Chinatown with their most recommended spot to eat - the local legend Phnom Penh. A Cambodian and Vietnamese restaurant run for three generations by the same family - the Huynhs, who came to Vancouver from Phnom Penh and opened the restaurant in 1985. It has a Michelin Bib Gourmand designation and regularly appears on best of Vancouver lists. The menu runs deep - rice noodles, soups, grilled meats - but the stars are the deep-fried chicken wings, the butter beef and the beef luc lac. Our fans mentioned the wings. A lot. Check out one of Vancouver’s true local gems.

Fans Recommend: Chicken wings. Butter beef. Garlic Shrimp

The place where the California Roll was born. Our friends in Vancouver would not let us miss legendary Chef Tojo’s spot, which has been rolling some of Canada’s best sushi in this spot since 1988. In the 70s, noticing Canadians wouldn't eat raw fish or seaweed, Tojo flipped his rolls inside out, hid both and called it the California roll. A legend was born that has continued for almost 50 years. The Japanese Ministry of Agriculture named Tojo a Goodwill Ambassador for Japanese Cuisine in 2016. Anthony Bourdain featured it on an episode of No Reservations. The sushi roots run deep in Vancouver, and Tojo’s is one of the main reasons why.

Fans Recommend: Omakase.

And our Vancouver fans take us right from elite sushi to elite Japanese hot dogs. What started as maybe the only ever Japanese hotdog food cart, Japadog has become a Vancouver staple after 20 years in the city. The Tamuras moved from Japan to Vancouver in 2005, entered the city lottery for a street cart location and started selling hot dogs with Japanese toppings - teriyaki, Japanese mayo, shredded nori, bonito flakes. It worked, the city loved it and they’ve expanded to multiple locations. The Terimayo is the dog to get - kurobuta pork sausage, teriyaki, Japanese mayo, seaweed. The original cart is still downtown at the corner of Burrard and Smithe, the storefront is only a few blocks away.

Fans Recommend: The Terimayo.

Vancouver can also do some legit fried chicken. And the chicken spot our fans rec’d the most was DownLow Chicken Shack, the fried chicken sandwich gawds of the city. Their spicy fried chicken was something the owners served at their previous restaurant, but it was so popular it ended up being their reason to start their own place. They opened The DL in 2018 as Vancouver's first Nashville hot chicken spot, a small counter-service sandwich concept that also does by-the-piece, wings, waffles and sides. The OG is their star sando - Nashville dusted chicken, pickled onions, cole slaw, pickles and DL sauce. Our local fans are obsessed.

Fans Recommend: The OG Sando. The Thighwich

A city staple that’s been called “easily among the finest Indian restaurants in the world” by the New York Times, our Vancouver friends made sure to hype up Vij’s. The restaurant’s namesake is Owner and Chef Vikram Vij, who opened a little 16-seat hole-in-the-wall in 1994 with his parents’ homemade curry and has built it into one of Vancouver’s best restaurants. It’s modern Indian that stays true to those homemade flavors, the menu goes deep and everything comes out looking as good as it tastes. The lamb popsicles - wine-marinated lamb chops in fenugreek cream curry - are their signature and the dish our fans mentioned the most.

Fans Recommend: The lamb popsicles.

The Vancouver culinary world tour continues with a local spot doing some of the best modern Chinese in the city - Bao Bei. Owner Tannis Ling grew up in Vancouver being called "bao bei" (precious) by her mother, in 2010 she took that name and opened a brasserie in a former Chinatown tofu shop. Within a year the place had swept Vancouver Magazine's restaurant awards and jumped right into the middle of the city’s food scene. The menu is a take on Chinese small plates - steamed dumplings made by hand, beef tartare, Sichuan fried chicken, mantou buns with wagyu short rib. They do a “kick-ass house fried rice” Oyakodon style - combo’ing chicken and eggs. They also do an impressive drink menu with original cocktails, beer, sake and a great wine list. An A+ night of Vancouver eating and drinking.

Fans Recommend: Dumplings.

A neighborhood, casual-yet-fine dining spot built around West Coast cuisine and local ingredients is next up - The Mackenzie Room. Started by four friends in 2015 without any help or investment, this small dining room in Railtown has become one of the city’s true hidden gems - and it’s been Michelin recognized every year since 2022. The menu is a seasonal blackboard that changes constantly, sourced from Pacific Northwest ingredients: local produce, BC seafood, foraged finds. The format is designed for sharing - whether single or in a group, the kitchen-selected tasting menus are the way to go…and/or get some of the sea urchin pâté with squid ink brioche. As they'll tell you: “Come hungry, come curious. The kitchen takes care of the rest.”

Fans Recommend: The tasting menus.

And now your seafood shack. Right on the water at False Creek Fishermen's Wharf, a 10-minute walk from Granville Island, the shipping container with some of the best seafood in the city - Go Fish Ocean Emporium. The fish comes directly from the fisherman a few steps away - the menu is written on a chalkboard and changes with what's been caught. The fish and chips are the draw, but the tacones - their version of a fish taco - are also a must-get. Outdoor seating only, there will be a line, but you won’t get anything fresher in the whole city. An under-the-radar spot that locals swear by.

Fans Recommend: Fish and chips. The salmon tacones.

Canada is responsible for one of the great all-time food combinations - the mashup of french fries topped with fresh cheese curds and smothered in hot gravy…aka poutine. There are many places to get this transcendent Canadian dish in the great city of Vancouver, but the one that makes our starting lineup this summer is Belgian Fries. A spot that’s been on Commercial Drive since 1998, poutine is what they do best here - thick potatoes, hand-cut and peeled every morning, blanched and then double-fried to order the Belgian way, crispy outside and fluffy inside. That’s the foundation for their 18 different types of poutine, from Classic to Montreal Smoked Beef to Butter Chicken. With Belgium coming to Vancouver to play this summer, the fans had to get Belgian Fries on the list.

Fans Recommend: Any of their poutines.

A small, Italian-inspired pasta restaurant in Railtown is our fans’ next Vancouver diamond in the rough - Ask For Luigi. Opened in 2013 in a converted house, it’s 32 seats, family-style service and fresh, handmade pasta. In its first few years it rolled up all kinds of Vancouver Magazine Restaurant Awards including Restaurant of the Year. It’s been Michelin recommended since the guide came to the city. They do lunch, dinner, and weekend brunch plus coffee, wine and in the traditional Italian style, grappa. One of Vancouver’s great local restaurants.

Fans Recommend: Any of their pastas. Luigi’s meatballs.

Our Vancouverites end their Starting XI with the “world famous Vietnamese street food” of Lunch Lady. The origin story is one-of-a-kind: in 2009, Anthony Bourdain filmed an episode of No Reservations in Ho Chi Minh City and ate at a nameless street stall run by a woman known only as the Lunch Lady. A Vancouver native saw that, went to Vietnam, fell in love with the food and the chef and got her blessing to open a restaurant across the world in 2020. Now, the rest of the city has fallen in love in the same way. The daily rotating lunch soups are modelled after the original, the rest of the menu marries local Pacific Northwest ingredients with authentic Vietnamese flavors. A little taste of Vietnam in Vancouver.

Fans Recommend: Any noodle dish. The rotating soups.

The oldest bar in Vancouver that serves “the cheapest beer in town”, The Cambie tops the list of places our fans love to gather at and imbibe. On the same corner in Gastown since 1897, this place has long ago reached legendary status - the building has gone through countless iterations, housing a drug store, a tobacco shop, a cartage company, a jeweller and shoe shine stand…and a top-tier dive bar. If you want history and character in your hole-in-the-wall, this is the place. VICE named it the #1 place to get wasted on the cheap in 2012. The current iteration stays true to that title: beer pong on Wednesdays, karaoke on Thursdays and happy hour every single day until 9pm. They even have a hostel upstairs. A Vancouver legend.

Fans Recommend: Happy hour every day.

Vancouver has been a brewery town since since the 1800s. They opened Canada’s first licensed microbrewery in 1984. They currently have over 70 beermakers in the city and a central hub called Brewery Creek in Mount Pleasant. Of those myriad options of craft deliciousness, the under-the-radar one our fans wanted to recommend? Faculty Brewing. Started by a husband-and-wife food scientist-and-architect duo in 2016, they took an old bike shop and turned it into a brewery. They take time to educate their beer-drinking audience, publishing every recipe and rotating the taps weekly to get new stuff in the mix all the time. They sit at the southern end of Brewery Creek, where you can hop to Brassneck, Main Street Brewing, 33 Acres and R&B in a single afternoon on foot. Start here. Have a day.

Fans Recommend: Shower Beer

We asked our fans what their favorite dive bars were, they raised us their favorite speakeasies. The first is the Chinatown bronze bazaar inside a fake horse betting shop that’s been called one of the most alluring hidden bars in the world by the New York Times…Bagheera. Walk into Happy Valley Turf Club on Main Street, go up to the counter and say you want to place a bet on King Louie. A door opens and you get transported into one of the most extraordinary bars in Canada - 60 seats, a 45-foot hand-painted jungle mural, a barback embedded with over 1,000 coins and bangles sourced from places in Delhi and Jaipur and cocktails named after Rudyard Kipling stories. Open Tuesday to Sunday from 5pm to “late”. One of the coolest spots in the city.

Fans Recommend: Man's Red Flower

Speakeasy rec number two is about a mile (1.6km) down the road on Main Street, between two storefronts in an inconspicuous accounting office. Head in, go to the left of the single desk, open the door and find yourself in Key Party - a 70s style lounge with wine-red walls, velvet drapes and a renaissance-inspired mural behind the bar. The cocktails are as good as you’d expect at a 70s speakeasy - classic and originals including the Pearl Necklace, the Flamer and the Virgin's Prayer. The food is better than you’d expect - small plates, shareables and dessert. As they say, “eat, drink and have a chaotic good time.”

Fans Recommend: Find the door.

We keep going down Main Street from speakeasies to a tiki bar with our fans’ next exotic watering hole - The Shameful Tiki Room. Built in 2013 as Western Canada’s first authentic tiki bar, this spot has become one of the centerpieces of one of Vancouver’s coolest streets. No reservations. No flat screens. Fifty seats, bamboo canopy, puffer fish lights, custom tiki carvings and all the rum-based cocktails you could want. The Mystery Bowl arrives to the sound of a gong. They’ll light stuff on fire at your table. There may not be a better vibe in all of Vancouver. Your exotic paradise away from paradise.

Fans Recommend: The Mystery Bowl.

We had to throw in an extra on our Vancouverites’ Drink list as they wouldn’t let us miss the one-of-a-kind, world-class tea spot O5 Rare Tea Bar. Started by a chemical engineer in love with rare tea from China, O5 is a single-origin tea bar - no blends, no additives, every tea sourced directly from small farms. They “travel the world building strong bonds with farmers and sourcing rare tea from remote villages”. Sit at the long counter on a backless stool and a tea bartender will walk you through it. If you’re into tea, or new experiences, or just consuming something of amazing quality and care, this is one of the cooler spots to stop while you’re in Vancouver.

Fans Recommend: Take your time.

The longest running Irish pub in the city is unsurprisingly also an awesome place to watch soccer - our fans love The Blarney Stone in Gastown. It’s been around since 1972, it’s been voted best Irish pub in Vancouver and may have the best Irish-inspired food in the city. In addition to all that, it locks in for big games - the centerpiece is a 240-inch main projector screen, which is one of multiple projectors arranged around the big, modern pub layout. Your classic footy pub built to watch (and drink and eat).

A big diner restaurant bar at the base of the historic Kingston Hotel downtown is one of our local friends’ favorite places to gather for the games. Fable Diner & Bar is a spot that can play all three positions at a high level - it’s a restaurant with farm-to-table elevated bar food, it’s an elite bar with local craft brews on tap and it’s one of the most recommended soccer bars in the city. Two Vancouver Whitecaps supporters clubs call it home, and it’s one of the main departure points for fans to walk to the matches - the stadium’s a 10-15 minute walk away. A great place to pregame OR stay for the game.

The other downtown spot that doubles as a great place to pregame and a great place to watch - Devil’s Elbow. The Ale & Smoke prefixes are legit - this is a bourbon and beer bar and also a BBQ restaurant. As our fans pointed out, part of the pregame appeal is the meal you can get with it. The other is the location - it’s steps from the SkyTrain and directly across from the stadium. If you’re taking the train to the game, hop off at the Stadium-Chinatown Station, hang at Devil’s Elbow, then walk to the game. Same thing in reverse after.

Fans Recommend: The brisket sandwich.

An English pub in Chinatown is up next - The London is another Vancouver fan favorite. Housed in a historic building constructed in 1903, it’s a modern British Public House but with the exposed brick arches and floor-to-ceiling heritage windows of some unique, old-school Vancouver architecture. That creates a great space and a great vibe, which is why it’s known for being a go-to late night spot. And a go-to game-watching spot. They’re already prepping for this summer - and if you’re there to watch the Canada games, they’ve got passes on presale to reserve seats. This will be a soccer party all summer.

A sports bar that is also a beer hall and a restaurant, Bells & Whistles is a lot of things our local fans love. A rotating tap list that goes 20 deep with local brews, a menu that goes from burgers to fried chicken to soft-serve ice cream and a game-watching setup with two projectors in a huge, wide-open space. There’s not really much more you need. They do big games really well and are prepped and ready to go this summer. Another great option to kill a whole matchday in Vancouver.

Fans Recommend: The Burger.

The most recommended place in our entire Vancouver survey is the city’s first, biggest and most beloved urban park. Stanley Park is 1,000 acres (400 hectares) of old-growth rainforest on a peninsula jutting into Burrard Inlet, encircled entirely by the Seawall - 9 kilometres of ocean-facing path where you can walk, run, cycle, or skate while looking at an unbelievable view of the city skyline and the snow-capped North Shore Mountains. Inside the park: two beaches, a rose garden, totem poles, an aquarium, a teahouse, a pitch-and-putt, a miniature railway, a brewery and 27km of forest trails. It’s been named one of the best city parks on Earth. One local fan called it “the best place in the world in the summer”. A perfect place to explore the beauty of Vancouver.

Fans Recommend: Spend a whole day there. Watch the sunset at Third Beach.

We asked our Vancouver fans which neighborhood they suggest spending some time in while you’re here, and the overwhelming answer?  Commercial Drive. The 3.4km stretch in East Vancouver that has been the city's Italian and Portuguese quarter for almost a century and has beautifully resisted the gentrified inevitabilities of a growing city. The Drive is cafes, vintage stores, indie grocers, boutiques, record shops, community gardens and plenty of places to eat and drink - a few of which we’ve already listed. Our fans called it “the last working class neighborhood in Vancouver”, “the center of culture in the city” and “the best food scene of any neighborhood”. It’s been named one of the coolest streets in the world and it will be in full bloom this summer.

Fans Recommend: The Italian cafes for games, especially Caffe Soccavo

Vancouver’s oldest independent record store. Opened in 1981, Neptoon Records has been serving the city’s music scene for over 40 years and is one of our local fans’ favorite shops. Still run by the original founder and his son, you’ll know it when you see the bright green building on Main Street. Tom Waits has been in. Glenn Danzig comes in looking for 8-tracks. The Raconteurs played an in-store show. And you may recognize it from local Vancouver legend Nardwuar’s 2019 interview with Tyler the Creator, his most-viewed ever on YouTube.

Fans Recommend: The vinyl

On Vancouver's "Book Row" in downtown, tucked into the ground floor of a Victorian-era hotel built in 1908, is The Paper Hound Bookshop - one of the city's most beloved independent book stores and the one our fans rec’d the most. Opened in 2013, they do new, used and rare books, a collection they refer to as "the classic, curious, odd, beautiful, visually arresting, scholarly, bizarre, and whimsical." Exactly as a great independent bookshop should. Go to Book Row and look for the Whippet.

Once a rusting industrial island, Granville Island is another one of the great public spaces of Vancouver our fans wouldn’t let us miss. 14 hectares (or 35 acres) of artists' studios, theatres, galleries, restaurants, a brewery, a marina and the famous Public Market: 50+ independent vendors selling fresh seafood, local produce, artisan cheese, handmade charcuterie and baked goods to over 10 million visitors a year. The corrugated tin buildings and old industrial cranes are still there - just painted bright colors now. Get there the right way: on the tiny False Creek Ferry from downtown. Five minutes across the water. Immaculate views.