City: Vancouver, BC
Population: 3 million
Local specialties: Seafood, locally made cheese, and fresh produce
We're continuing our series of food-lovers' guides by sticking around in the Northwest for the moment. Vancouver, BC! We just visited, and it is a truly remarkable city. It's located on a major seaport, between the Pacific and the incredible mountains of Canada. It has a mild, moist climate, and fresh fruit and vegetables are everywhere, as well as just-caught seafood. It is also very diverse, and Asian cooking of all kind is very popular. Here's your open spot to discuss Vancouver and the best markets, artisans, and shops for food-lovers and cooks in this beautiful, food-loving city.
As with all our other guides, this is just a kickoff to all the truly local suggestions and insight. We've only visited briefly, so here are links to just a few major spots.
Foods You Must Try
• Fresh seafood
• Local berries like gooseberries
• Locally made cheese
Farmers' Markets
• Vancouver Farmers' Markets - A guide to most of the major farmers' markets in Vancouver, BC.
Food Halls
• Granville Island Public Market - An entire island off the main downtown of Vancouver, filled with art galleries, a farmers market and many, many specialty food vendors. Don't drive — bike or walk (or take a water taxi) and sit out on the pier to eat a pastry for breakfast.
Best Grocery Stores
• What is the best place to shop for groceries in Vancouver?
Specialty Shops of Note
• Vij's Rangoli - Market for Indian to-go meals and cooking supplies like spices, a companion to the stunning (and famous) Vij's restaurant next door.
Independent Food Artisans
• Les Amis du Fromage - Suggested in this thread
• 49th Parallel Coffee Roasters - We brought back a truly incredible pound of coffee from this spot.
• Oyama Sausage - Local cheeses and sausages at the Granville Island Public Market
• Terra Breads - Also at Granville Island, as well as other locations. Delicious local pastries; apricot with rosemary was a favorite.
• Local Vancouverites: Tell us all about your favorite coffee roaster, jam-maker, fish seller, and other local food artisans.
About The Kitchn's Food-Lover's Guides
We focus mainly on home cooking here at The Kitchn, and we know that one huge source of inspiration is travel. We want to give you ideas for things to eat and places to visit even when you're away from your home kitchen. We want to inspire your inner chef and introduce you to the best spots for food-lovers in a dozen or so major cities.
These guides don't deal with restaurants; there are plenty of other resources for that. These are the spots for food-lovers and cooks: the markets, specialty cookshops, and best small-batch artisans. If you're traveling in one of these cities this summer, we hope these guides help you find something inspiring. And if you live here, maybe you'll find a new resource to inspire your daily cooking!
We need your help, too, with these guides. Each city's thread will have at least some recommendations, but of course they will be incomplete. So we need your insider help. Tell us where the best markets, food shops, jam-makers, brewers, butchers, independent groceries, bakery supply stores, and quirky, strange, out-of-the-way food experts are. What are your favorite places to shop, as a cook?
(Images: Flickr member keepitsurreal licensed for use under Creative Commons; Faith Durand)
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Comments (21)
Tosi Italian Imports down on Main Street (right around the corner from Chinatown). It looks like its derelict or closed from the outside, BUT if you buzz, you'll be let in. Mr. Tosi was the first to get "real" parmesan in vancouver, has his own tomatoes grown and canned, and was the first place I tasted really good mortadella.
fave grocery stores - Capers, Choices Market and Meihardt. Meinhardt has fabulous premade food and their meat is amazing! I always buy a pre-stuffed turkey breast from them for thanksgiving (there's only 2 of us). Also gourmet warehouse which is more of a large kitchen supply store with local frozen meat and pastries in their frozen section.
Mt. Pleasant Cheese on Cambie http://www.mountpleasantcheese.com/ have up to one hundred and fifty types of Canadian cheese and you can try most of them.
If you head to the fish dock only a thousand or so feet west of Granville Island on the sea wall, you can get that fresh caught fish, Organic Ocean http://www.organicocean.com/ has some of the best quality sustainable seafood available in the city. The scallops are fantastic, but I have to suggest the spot prawns, the season ended last week but they have them flash frozen, the best prawns I have ever had. You will not want to eat those gross black thai prawns after eating a pound of these babies.
If you head to china town for your produce you can get some fantastic produce at an amazing price, just check all sides of your fruit and don't buy those "towers" of cherries (anywhere) they are beautiful on the outside, not so much on the inside. I have seen more then one disappointed face when they find out most of the inside cherries are not edible.
There is an artisanal sake house on Granville Island that makes some really fine products, the name I forget, but it is on railspur alley. This place pretty much started my love of sake.
So nice to see a post about Vancouver! It is a foodie's paradise.
Some of my favourite spots include:
Bosa Foods - they opened a new warehouse store filled with well priced Italian and Mediterranean ingredients plus they have a deli where you can catch a panini and nice strong latte.
For Indian ingredients, I hit the little stores on Main Street that stock zillions of grains, legumes, and spices in bulk so you can scoop as much or as little as you need.
Famous Foods on Kingsway - great for the hard to find flours, grains etc.
Mink's Chocolate Café - when you are downtown and want to drink heaven in a cup: divine dark chocolate espresso. You can even get it spiked with chipotle or peppermint. If you are a tourist, you can pick up some unusual but delectable chocolate combinations to take back with you.
As for grocery stores, I love Urban Fare for their combination of necessities and hard to find ingredients. Kinda like Meinharts but on a larger scale. Whole Foods is great as well for gourmet products. For better prices, try the market on Bute and Davie that has produce, fresh foods and canned goods for a deep discount.
Bakeries - Kei's bakery is a fabulous Japanese bakery on Burrard and around 6th, I believe. I second Terra Breads - they are amazing! They make an artisinal fig and olive loaf that is to die for, not to mention their green olive one.
Tourist tip - if you are in need of some gifts to take home, see if Costco will let you in with your membership from another city. They have 3 packs of smoked salmon, plus maple syrup for reduced prices.
Meinhardt is one of the things I miss most since I moved away from Vancouver last year.
I second Choices Market and Urban Fare - about to move out of Yaletown and those are on my list of things I will miss :( And Granville Island Market is the only place I found sweet Hungarian yellow peppers since moving to Canada.
Personally I'm not a fan of Vij's Rangoli - last time I went, they only had half a dozen spices on offer, at grossly inflated prices. And their meals almost completely ignore vegetarians (hubby is one). Admittedly, he's been spoilt by good, cheap Indian food, hailing from northern England...
Rangoli is great for the meals, and for buying the spices as a souvenir, but if you want lots of great Indian spices for cheap, cheap, cheap, head up to Fruitcana on South Fraser, or to the Punjabi Market on South Main (very south...).
If you're not up to going that far, hit up the Gourmet Warehouse on East Hastings (and Clark). Well, any food-loving visitor to Vancouver should go there anyway. It's a gourmand's paradise. Also on East Hastings is Les Amis du Fromage's newest location, which also has a sweet little wine and cheese bar that is absolutley hopping after 5pm on Fridays. (By the way, it's totally cool to see that you read my previous comment about Les Amis du Fromage and included it in this guide! Thanks!)
And for fantastic fresh fruits and vegetables (plus fantastic meat/cheese/olive selections) at a third of the price of Granville Island, be sure to check out Santa Barbara Market on Commercial Drive.
Lonsdale Quay.. kind of Granville Islands bastard child, but I have fond memories from being taken there weekly as a child and this is definitely where my "foodie" behaviours stemmed from.
DC Duby Wild Sweets (www.dcduby.com) is simply amazing! I missed going there when I first visited Vancouver recently, but I ordered chocolate as soon as I got home and have been in love in since!
You can also find a great selection of local products at Edible BC, located in the Granville Market and online at http://www.edible-britishcolumbia.com/
A note about the Granville Island Public Market: It's not really a farmers' market, as many people believe it is. While there are some local non-food artisans and a few vendors who sell local seafood and specialty items, much of the produce is imported and sold at grossly inflated prices.
There are a few wonderful REAL farmers' markets in this city. The one at Trout Lake is really popular. There are three others - in Kitsilano, the West End, and Main Street. You can get more info about all of them at http://www.eatlocal.org/markets.html .
*Groans*
If I only had this post in my hands last week when I was visiting there. Oh well, I'll just have to visit again!
H-Mart http://www.hmart.com/
Korean and Asian Grocery store, 590 Robson St. Vancouver bc canada
Everything you need for asian cooking, good produce, we discovered the golden kiwi here, they often give samples of whatever is new and fresh. Not very local or artisinal, but a good resource. There is also a bakery and bubble tea counter.
La Casa Gelato!
1033 Venables Street
Where else could you choose from over 200 flavours at any given time? Nice outdoor courtyard to sit, super busy in the evenings.
The breadth of selection at La Casa Gelato is fun, but I think the (much smaller selection of) gelato at La Dolce Amore on Commercial Drive is much tastier. So creamy... it totally raised the bar for my expectations of gelato.
Thank you for this wonderful guide!
I am moving to Vancouver soon, so I will consult this often.
I remember liking Capers and thinking their food selection was lovely.
I second the motion for Dolce Amore on Commercial, and for Lonsdale Quay on the North Shore. As for coffee, I'm no connoisseur, but I love JJ Bean!
I would also add that there a lot of wonderful BC wines and a trip through the Okanagan Valley might be fun. Most restaurants in Vancouver have a nice selection and having a glass of ice wine with dessert is a must.
West Van place, but amazing sandwiches
Coco Loco.
Find an all you can sushi place near Denman Street -Awesome!
Oh, and the best coffee shops in Vancouver are, by far, on Commercial Drive (which used to be a heavily Italian community, and still has a solid base of Italian seniors keeping the coffee scene real). And the best coffee shop on Commercial Drive is Abruzzo. Hands down.
Best Vegetarian Restaurant:
Foundation (Main street @ 7th)
Cheap and delicious!
Coffee Shop/Roaster:
JJ Bean (Main Street, Yaletown, East Van, Granvilel Island...)
Sushi:
Toshi's (Main and 16th),
Honjin (Lonsdale @ 3rd on the North Shore, and in Yaletown)
PHO:
Pho Thai (Broadway, just east of Main Street)
Breakfast:
Sebs (Boradway, between Main Street & Fraser)
I second (or third?) Commercial Drive for coffee. And if anyone is in Vancouver during World Cup, Commercial Drive is the place to be. It's not as slick as downtown Vancouver, but that's exactly the point.