Acquafarina  
Dining at this posh, Michelin-recommended restaurant is an experience, and you will want to dress up for it. Be dazzled by the copper bar and the starry ceiling lights, but most of all by the perfectly plated Italian dishes, such as the rotolo alla Norma, a gorgeous grilled eggplant with ricotta salata and saffron.

Bacaro  
Set on the street level of the Fairmont Pacific Rim, this Italian eatery takes its name and menu inspiration from Venice’s canal-side bars. On your way to Stanley Park or shopping, pop in for a tasty Aperol Spritz and cicchetti — small plates, such as chicken liver crostini, buffalo mozzarella and olives.

Bar Susu  
The menu has just switched from dinner to late-night at this casual sibling to Published on Main, and the mustachioed duo next to us is pounding shots of amaro followed by Parkside pilsners. Scenes like these co-exist alongside the occasionally sublime – a dish of grilled sablefish and pickled vegetables in a subtle tom kha broth dotted with bright green herb oil, for example – and capture the contradictory essence of this place: part soigné bistro, natural wine bar and frontier saloon. Go with whatever the staff happens to be pouring for the night and be ready for anything from the delicious to the delirious. Longlisted as part of Air Canada’s Best New Restaurants 2022.

Bravo  
Prepare for a seafood master class. After running an impressive offering of oysters, our server gestures to gleaming fish hanging tails up in a dry-aging cabinet, where flavour and texture deepen by the day. The main turf to Bravo’s surf are seasonal vegetables, like the Big Salad (yes, a Seinfeld reference), or burrata in kale gremolata and braised tomatoes. But we’re here for the surf. We go straight for the fan-favourite Tofino King Salmon, aged for at least seven days, laid in a mosaic over maple-ginger dressing. Longlisted as part of Air Canada’s Best New Restaurants 2024.

Como Taperia  
Pours of on-tap vermouth and sherry zip by at warp speed as servers strive to keep up with the thirsty crowd at this jumping Mount Pleasant watering hole. Salty, addictive, traditional small plates of Madrid and Barcelona range from canned conservas (razor clams served with imported potato chips and Catalan Espinaler hot sauce) to grilled octopus with crispy potatoes, aioli and smoked pimentón. Still thirsty? Wash it down with a Bereziartua Basque cider, poured from on high in the flamboyant manner of the region. Listed in the Top 10 of Air Canada’s Best New Restaurants 2019.

Delara  
The undertow of pungent, tangy and nutty flavours that permeate the menu at this home to modern Iranian cuisine starts with a Hop Plum Spritzer with a top note of acidic dried lime. It recedes and then rises with a starter of roasted cauliflower, spicy yogurt, hazelnut and sumac, and peaks in the chicken and barberry main. Iranian folk songs bounce off white walls while carved mashrabiya panels seem to let in a warm Kashan breeze. A boldly tattooed server batting baby-blue eyelids reminds us we are in Kitsilano and brings our meal full-circle with the gentle citrus and haunting floral note of the turmeric and orange cake. Longlisted as part of Air Canada’s Best New Restaurants 2022.

Dovetail  
The menu at this Yaletown hot spot is chockablock with crowd-pleasers, so we take our cues from our server. She’s a character and the busy terrace might as well be a stage. She starts us off with beef tataki in a butter soy sauce, finished with crispy shallots and leafy cilantro. We know we’re in good hands as she delivers roasted Brussels sprouts in black garlic aioli, festooned with garlands of grana padano. Radiatori stands in for noodles in the carbonara, partnered with a sous-vide egg to burst for a bit of drama. Lemon tiramisu closes the curtain. Longlisted as part of Air Canada’s Best New Restaurants 2024.

Elio Volpe  
Restaurant group Banda Volpi’s fourth opening is all sun-bleached glam. In this former mechanic’s shop, the ceiling soars above a winding horseshoe bar and open kitchen, with sandy-toned banquettes meandering in between. The Elio Sour is a glass of sunset: blurred layers of grapefruit and hibiscus cordial, Tanqueray, ​​Lambrusco float and a cloud of foam. Ourmain is just as vibrant. Striped bass, crisped skin intact, barely-soft veg – H​​akurei turnips, English peas and morels – aglow with citrus butter sauce. As the lights lower, a Sicilian mandarin sorbetto shines brighter than a Creamsicle on a hot night. Longlisted as part of Air Canada’s Best New Restaurants 2024.

Folke  
This plant-based food is so good it tastes like Mother Nature doing a death drop on RuPaul’s Drag Race. A salad featuring Hannah Brook Farm greens is revelatory—this what lettuce should taste like. Roasted chopped beets and hazelnuts are served like tartare along with puffy gnocco fritto for scooping. Garden-fresh carrots come tossed with warm panisse batons and a delicate elderflower vinaigrette, and grilled zucchini is set around a radiant yellow squash purée with chili crunch and lime. Turns out you can make friends with salad. Listed in the Top 10 of Air Canada’s Best New Restaurants 2023.

Gary’s  
The jumping off point for Gary’s, the first restaurant from industry vets Bailey Hayward and Mathew Bishop, was a friends-only supper club. Now menu-carrying members, we lean back in our chairs and spring for the crudo, gem salad, hen-of-the-woods and rabbit. All warrant membership, but the roasted leg, in a consommé with petit garlic sausages and early-summer vegetables, is our runaway favourite. Broad ribbons of lightly-fermented sauerkraut are languid in a transparent broth, with a clarity that belies its depth of flavour. Listed in the Top 10 of Air Canada’s Best New Restaurants 2024.

Keefer Bar  
In Vancouver’s up-and-coming Chinatown, local haunt the Keefer Bar is dark and daring. Drinks listed as “prescriptions” at this cocktail apothecary use ingredients like deer-antler bitters and red cardamom. Ask the bartender about the Fountain Cocktail, a curatively delicious and ever-changing daily concoction.

Lila  
This verdant haven on Main Street (complete with a not-so-secret garden out back) comes from long-time friends Meeru Dhalwala, head chef and co-founder of Vij’s, and Shira Blustein, founder of the Acorn. Vegetable-forward though not vegetarian, the menu delivers on its promise of sustainable, playfully modern Indian dishes: portobello mushrooms in onion curry with paneer, a thatch of grated beets tossed with creamy fenugreek chutney and walnuts, or mango custard stained with a not-too-sweet B.C. blueberry sauce – a fresh fruit pairing with an unexpected affinity. Longlisted as part of Air Canada’s Best New Restaurants 2024.

Matchstick  
Vancouverites revel in the Pacific Northwest trait of treating coffee like it was cold fusion. The myriad spots that employ beakers and atomically precise measurements in search of the perfect brew are endless, but the Matchstick mini-chain excels at making a great cup. It also bakes some of the city’s best housemade bread.

Rain or Shine Ice Cream  
With a weatherproof name, this ice cream shop has developed a coterie of year-round devotees who can’t get enough of their Salted Caramel, London Fog or Blueberry Balsamic. They also dutifully line up for waffle-cone “tacos” filled with two scoops of ice cream on Taco Tuesdays.

Suyo  
There are flames and excitement in the open kitchen as pisco cocktails and aji-spiked ceviches hit the table. Suyo means homeland in the Incan language of Quechua, and Ricardo Valverde brought favourite childhood flavours with him from Lima and gave them a modern spin. Skewers of grilled beef heart dressed in chimichurri and sided with fondant potatoes are the ultimate dine-in street food. Arroz con pato – tender duck with cilantro-and-beer rice – comes with a seared foie gras upgrade. Some shaved truffle on those yucas fritas? Longlisted as part of Air Canada’s Best New Restaurants 2023.