Vancouver Restaurants You Should Know About, Even If They Haven’t Opened Yet

There’s one thing that we can count on more than rain at the moment, and that’s new restaurants. To wit, Kitsilano landed Supermarine this week, and The Mackenzie Room opens tonight on the Downtown Eastside. There’s plenty more where they came from. Here are five that have cracked our highly selective Anticipated Openings list for your ranking consideration…

Kissa Tanto | 263 East Pender St. | Chinatown | This is the new project from Bao Bei’s Tannis Ling and chefs Joël Watanabe and sous chef Alain Chow. They’re aiming for an irreverent 75 seat hideaway serving an idiosyncratic amalgam of Japanese and Italian cuisines. | Learn More

Juniper | 185 Keefer St. | Chinatown | We can’t wait for this 100 seater, slated for the new development across the alley from Bao Bei. Chef Lee Parsons is putting together the food program, which will see small batch, maker-connected PNW ingredients simply expressed, both in the kitchen and behind the bar. | Learn More

Torafuku | 958 Main St. | Main/Strathcona | The first brick and mortar restaurant from Chef Clement Chan and Steve Kuan, partners in the popular Le Tigre food truck. Serving up personal takes on high-flavour street foods, it’ll sport 48 seats (and probably a queue) | Learn More

Savio Volpe | 615 Kingsway | Fraserhood | L’Abattoir owner Paul Grunberg, designer Craig Stanghetta, and former CinCin executive chef Mark Perrier are joining forces to create this refined but folksy Italian 75 seater. That’s a hell of a lot of talent squeezed into just 2,500 sqft. Awesomeness is expected. | Learn More

Fat Mao | 217 East Georgia St. | Chinatown | This tiny concrete and glass jewel box is coming to us from chef Angus An, who brought Thai to the next level at Kitsilano’s Maenam. The plan is for a simple, 24 seat noodle bar. Think six dishes and six sides plus a selection of bottled craft beer. Yes, please! | Learn More

VANCOUVER’S TOP 25 RESTAURANTS

Reverence, Respect, and Realization: What The Acorn Taught Me

At 21 years old, I'm still just a kid and relatively new to working in restaurants, but I grew up umbilically tied to the hospitality industry. My father was a food writer, and my mother is a photographer. Their careers meant that most of my early years were spent in kitchens and dining rooms instead of on playgrounds and soccer fields; consequently, I learned my table manners before I could count past one hundred.