The views from Sushi SORA, a restaurant located on the 38th floor of the Mandarin Oriental in the heart of Tokyo, got us thinking last night. To be honest, it got us jealous, and not a little frustrated, too. Why?

It’s simple. Vancouver has a whopping 663 high-rise buildings, and yet not a single one of them plays elevating host to a worthwhile restaurant/bar.

If you want to be a stickler, we have Cloud 9 and Top of Vancouver, two revolving, shockingly over-priced tourist traps, but they don’t count. Both are dated embarrassments. I mean, wouldn’t it be nice to not have to suffer uninspired decor, half-assed $25 Cobb Salads, downright silly $43 “West Coast” Cioppinos (with imported Tiger Prawns, natch), and a preposterous “minimum charge” while drinking in the same incredible views? Oh and the Hotel Vancouver’s Roof doesn’t count either, for not only is it a temporary thing, it’s also not very good.

It really isn’t asking that much considering we are ranked 9th in the world for the number of high-rises we have, and we don’t care if it’s as fancy as Canoe in Toronto, as casual as Alma in Brooklyn, or as high up as the New York Bar in Tokyo’s Park Hyatt hotel (remember Lost In Translation?), just so long as it showed some passion for hospitality and a modicum of style. Pretty please?

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