Vancouver Magazine
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These winning restaurants serve up contemporary fare in fresh, modern environments.
The Michelin-starred AnnaLena reigns supreme here with gold: chef Mike Robbins and team offer a menu that dazzles with notable dishes like dry-aged duck breast with scallop agnolotti. Our judges praised the cohesive menu (enriched by the optional A5 wagyu), with each dish narrating a story of B.C.’s culinary marvels. The ambiance perfectly mirrors Robbins’s precision and cool style, described as “smartly sophisticated with touches of street art.” After winning last year’s Restaurant of the Year (and Chef of the Year), Robbins and team keep the bar they’ve set sky high.
1809 W 1st Ave. annalena.ca
L’Abattoir secures silver, with our 2024 Chef of the Year Lee Cooper at the helm. Judges highlighted the glazed lingcod “accompanied by a mushroom that almost defied description in its deliciousness” along with the “astounding” crepinette-style scallop-wrapped pork sausage as culinary triumphs, showcasing Cooper’s skillful melding of French techniques with Asian ones.
217 Carrall St. labattoir.ca
Bronze goes to another Michelin-starred favourite, Published on Main, where chef Gus Stieffenhofer-Brandson delivers originality and whimsical flavours. One judge even called it one of his “favourite contemporary restaurants in the city.” The $29 venison tartare was hailed as “in the running for perfect Western Canadian dish,” emblematic of Stieffenhofer-Brandson’s talent for trendsetting without pretension.
3593 Main St. publishedonmain.com
Honourable mentions Botanist and Kissa Tanto round out the category with their own distinctive flairs. Botanist chef Hector Laguna produces “jaw-droppingly good dishes,” like the beef tartare and roasted maitake with onion jus, while Kissa Tanto (under chef Joel Watanabe) wields a confident new Italian-Japanese culinary vocabulary, with one judge saying: “The tajarin with butter, roasted mushrooms and miso-cured yolk is hard to beat.”
Botanist, 1083 Canada Pl., botanistrestaurant.com Kissa Tanto, 263 E Pender St., kissatanto.com
