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 / Texas

A Hidden Wine Bar in Texas

The Hill Country Wine Cave is a stunner of a private (it should really be public) project recently built outside San Antonio.  

Restaurant Porn / China

This Modern Coffee Shop Has Most of Its Inside Outside and We’re Fine With That

This Shanghai hideaway appears to challenge the accepted function of the neighbourhood coffee shop as a relaxed hangout.

Restaurant Porn

Soak Up the Terracotta Vibe of This Valencian Cafe

Spain's Be Green Salad Company is all about its simple, bare bones terracotta hues and zigzag of built-in table plinths.

Restaurant Porn / China

Cafe Inspired by Sun Setting on Faraway Monolith

The 323 sqft, barista-owned cafe brightens an otherwise drab corner in Hong Kong's Sai Ying Pun district.

Restaurant Porn / China

This Beautifully Retro-Futuristic Restaurant Was Specifically Designed For Scientists

The restaurant at Shanghai's ATLATL Innovation Cluster has space for 200 researchers in need of sustenance.

Restaurant Porn / Czech Republic

Take a Look Inside Gran Fierro, the New Argentinean-Themed Restaurant in Prague

The new spot is actually a second-iteration/resurrection of a 2015 project of the same name by local restaurateur Juan Cruz Pacin.

Restaurant Porn / Montreal

Check Out the Modern Meets Old School Design of This New Cafe in Montreal

Located on the corner of Saint-Urbain and Saint-Antoine, the new location of Melk Cafe is reminiscent of the classroom.

Restaurant Porn / China

Socially Distanced Hotpot Dining in a Eucalyptus Forest

Located in a dreamy eucalyptus forest, the wall-less restaurant weaves its way through the tall white trunks next to a lotus pond.

Restaurant Porn / Hong Kong

We Want to Stuff Our Faces With Nostalgic Treats at Hong Kong’s ‘Eat Darling Eat’

This futuristic spot focuses on the fancification of nostalgic childhood faves like pineapple buns, tong sui and egg tarts.

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...