Restaurant Porn

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 daydream.

Restaurant Porn

The West Coast Needs More Restaurants That Focus on Mantou Buns…

In the latest edition of Restaurant Porn, we look across the pond to London's 'Bao' and wish there were more like it on the West Coast.

Restaurant Porn

We Want to Drink at This Art Deco Gin Library That Contains Over a Thousand Bottles

This Art Deco-inspired lobby bar can be found in Singapore on the ground floor of the iconic, 24-storey Parkview Square building.

Restaurant Porn

This Elegant, Stalin Era-Inspired Restaurant in Moscow Isn’t Very Oppressive

Take a stroll along Moscow's apparatchik-heavy Krasnopresnenskaya Naberezhnaya street and you'll find this beautiful weirdo...

Restaurant Porn

Get Comfortable in This Decadently Designed, High End Supper Club

What is strikingly beautiful, ridiculously far away, fuelled by booze and boasting room for 225 supper clubbers? Alice & Fifth. 

Restaurant Porn

Dig This Stylish Vietnamese Eatery in Brooklyn’s Greenpoint Neighbourhood

Di An Di, which means "Let's go eat!", is a two-zoned space that is bright and modern without surrendering traditional flavour.

Restaurant Porn

Dining Room Once Hidden From the Nazis Marries Art Nouveau With Red Meat

Protective walls hid the long lost magnificence of the murals from the outbreak of the Second World War to the 1980s.

Restaurant Porn / Downtown

This Art Deco Railway-Themed Ice Cream Shop Would Suit Vancouver’s Oldest Stations

Either within a few steps of the Pacific Central Station or inside the voluminous 1914 Waterfront Station would be appropriate...

Restaurant Porn / Railtown Japantown

The Spanish Restaurant Where Japan Meets Brasil

Spanish design firm Masquespacio created this beautifully colourful and tropical Japanese-meets-Brasilian sushi spot in Valencia.

Restaurant Porn

This Modern Dim Sum Spot For Chinatown, Please

Our latest Restaurant Porn column has us covetous of Hong Kong's gorgeous John Anthony Cantonese Grill & Dim Sum.

Restaurant Porn / Downtown

This Cafe Dedicated Entirely to Tiramisu, Please

Located in what used to be the French Concession in Shanghai, this stunning tiramisu cafe would feel right at home in Vancouver.

Restaurant Porn / West Side

Wanting Something This Uniquely Beautiful for Food and Drink at Spanish Banks

South Korea's Jeju Island is a long way from Vancouver's West Side, but we think its Simsim Cafe would be a great fit hereabouts.

Restaurant Porn / Commercial Drive

Vancouver Needs This Lasagna Restaurant

Having six different lasagnas on the menu is a clever way to ensure the affections of every sane person currently walking the earth.

Restaurant Porn / Downtown

Stealing This Sexy Seafood Spot in Kiev for the Edge of Yaletown

In the latest edition of Restaurant Porn, we hit Kiev and take a look inside Catch, a restaurant that wouldn't look out of place in our midst.

Restaurant Porn / False Creek

Omar’s Place in London Would Suit Chinatown’s Newly Built ‘Brixton Flats’

If a restaurant design rhymes, then London's Omar's Place fits the same stanza as Chinatown's Kissa Tanto and Yaletown's Fayuca...

Restaurant Porn / False Creek

We Want This Beautiful Restaurant in Helsinki for Northeast False Creek

The fine but casual, two-storey 'Roster' in Finland would fit right into Vancouver's soon-to-be newest neighbourhood.

Restaurant Porn / Chinatown

Imagining this Steakhouse on Chinatown’s Edge

The old Wild Rice address has been home to three restaurants in three years, which makes imagining a fourth rather easy.

Restaurant Porn / Gastown

This Spanish Restaurant for Blood Alley, Please

Spanish architectural firm Lucas y Hernández-Gil created this stunner for Seville, but we'd much rather have it in Gastown.

Restaurant Porn / Downtown

Trading ‘The Keg’ on Alberni Street for Mexico City’s ‘Piedra Sal’

The good looking "Piedra Sal" occupies a second-storey corner location in Paseo de la Reforma. We'd much rather have it here in Vancouver.

Restaurant Porn / Downtown

We Want This Beautiful Seafood Restaurant for the Foot of Beatty Street

The basement of the iconic Sun Tower is currently occupied by a fancy gym, but let's pretend for a second that it wasn't...

Restaurant Porn / West Side

This Wes Anderson-Inspired ‘Budapest Cafe’ for Kerrisdale, Please

It has that mix of old money eccentricity and oblivious ridiculousness characterized in The Royal Tenenbaums and The Fantastic Mr. Fox

Restaurant Porn / Hastings Sunrise

This Tiny Basement Bar in Mayfair for an Underground Address in Hastings-Sunrise

North Audley Cantine is a gorgeous, windowless basement bar that appears to be sprung from the colourful mind of local artist Andy Dixon.

Restaurant Porn / Fraserhood

Imagining This Modern Mexican-Themed Stunner of a Restaurant at Fraser & Broadway

The gorgeous, heavily detailed ATX Cocina can be found in downtown Austin, Texas, but we'd prefer it a little closer to home...

Restaurant Porn / Commercial Drive

This Gorgeous Manhattan Ramen Eatery Needs an Address on Commercial Drive

We get caught up imagining this slick, stylish, sexy tonkatsu spot in New York City being relocated to the heart of Commercial Drive.

Restaurant Porn / Railtown Japantown

Why Doesn’t Vancouver Have a Fish & Chips Joint That’s This Good Looking?

Everyone has expectations of what a good food and chips shop should be, but what if those expectations were messed with a little?

Restaurant Porn / Railtown Japantown

Why this Abandoned 19th Century Mansion-Turned-Restaurant Would Suit Railtown

Valuing architectural history can sometimes mean incorporating ruins into new constructions, like this modern eatery in Mexico.

Restaurant Porn / Downtown

Eduard’s Whisky Bar in Stuttgart Should Brighten the False Creek Seawall

With its stadium seating, fishbowl frontage and copper accents, this is an aesthetic rethink of the whisky bar we could use.

Restaurant Porn / Railtown Japantown

Imagining this Bright London Eatery as a Cool ‘Room with a View’ in the Heart of Railtown

The scarcity of anything similar in Vancouver is why this gorgeous eatery in London loudly pinged our radar...

Restaurant Porn / Victoria

Victoria Could Use This Slick London Spin On A 30s Taipei Social Club

"We are perhaps getting close to a saturation point with restaurant interiors that feature dark wood, rounded corners and pink upholstery..."