Best Gastown / Chinatown 2015

Best Gastown / Chinatown Restaurant winners of Vancouver Magazine’s 26th Annual Restaurant Awards

• Gold: Bao Bei Chinese Brasserie
• Silver: L’Abattoir
• Bronze: Wildebeest
• Honourable Mentions: Nicli Antica Pizzeria, Bestie

 Bao Bei Chinese Brasserie (Gold) kicked off Chinatown’s entrepreneurial renaissance half a decade ago, and our judges still consider it the neighbourhood’s top dining destination—a singular establishment where “true Chinese cooking meets with modern notions of organic and sustainably sourced ingredients.” Witty cocktails (Ba Ba’s Root Beer mixes pisco with the soda-fountain favourite) in the lounge make waiting for a table a pleasure. Chef Lee Cooper’s endlessly inventive cooking and Shaun Layton’s unflappable cool behind the wood are why L’Abattoir (Silver) is Gastown’s most refined hangout. Dining solo at the bar is not only acceptable, it’s coveted. (Note: Layton has since left L’Abattoir.) Wildebeest (Bronze) continues to put its best hoof forward with a meat-focused menu whose simplicity belies its ingenuity. This is not light eating, for the most part, but it doesn’t pretend to be otherwise. Order another microbrew and worry about the consequences tomorrow. Honourable Mentions: Nicli Antica Pizzeria, Bestie