Restaurant Porn is a regular column of daydreams presented as a means to introduce Vancouver diners and designers to concepts, looks, and fully-formed ideas that they might draw an inkling of inspiration from. We do our best to pair the foreign rooms with local addresses so as to let everyone in on the fantasy.

WHAT IT IS: Catch is a modern restaurant designed by international firm YoDezeen (no relation to the Catch restaurants in Richmond or Calgary). It looks to be a baller sort of joint. From what I’ve seen of the menu, it offers a deep assortment of freshly shucked oysters, 150 different sparkling wines, and more than 200 whites. Of the interior, I like the interplay of the old school mix of wood, leather and brick with the modern concrete pillars, lofty (industrial) ceilings, and plate glass frontage.

The flourishes of greenery (trees, more like it) and white light are nice touches, as are the chevron-patterned floor boards, which give it a Mayfair clubby feel. The whole thing screams money, as in its four months of construction cost a lot, but I also assume it’s the sort of place where expense accounts go to die. Vancouver has so few similarly positioned restaurants that I would always like to see more.

WHERE IT IS: 12 Volodymyrska Street, in the heart of the Ukrainian capital of Kiev, a city with a surprisingly (to me, at least) diverse and bustling food scene (especially on the high end) and a population comparable in size to that of Greater Vancouver (2.8 million). These sorts of places tend to do well within staggering distance of office towers and/or along strips the target market associates with luxury shopping. That isn’t the case here, as the address appears to be in a rather nondescript nether region.

WHERE WE WISH IT WAS: Since it reminds me of a cross between Chinatown’s Sai Woo and Yaletown’s Brix & Mortar, let’s put it somewhere between the two, like the old building on the southeast corner of Cambie and Robson.