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May 15, 2023

Vancouver’s Dining Scene Makes a Case for World

ByAllison WilliamsJune 6, 2023 Veggies are almost too pretty to eat at Published

ByAllison WilliamsJune 6, 2023

Veggies are almost too pretty to eat at Published on Main.

Image: courtesy Sarah Anand/Visit Vancouver

The Published on Main dining room in Vancouver, BC, has all the usual hallmarks of a posh modern restaurant, from gray walls with marble panels to tasteful tchotchkes like an antique radio. But peeking out from one shelf is a tiny figurine that looks like the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man, his big eyes matched by big pillowy body rolls. The Michelin Man, tire mascot, is perfectly at home here.

Since the 1920s, the Michelin Guide has grown from a marketing product to encourage road trips (and therefore sell tires) to a worldwide arbiter of culinary quality. Today 41 destinations—Paris, New York, Rio de Janeiro, Guangzhou—have Michelin guides that list the best places to eat. The stars it hands out have come to represent a kind of culinary Academy Award. And as of fall 2022, Vancouver has a Michelin Guide.

Which is how the sleek Published on Main came to include the little figurine among its otherwise elegant decor. The restaurant opened its doors in December 2019, so even its continued existence through Covid should be considered an achievement; it's also topped Best of Canada lists across various publications. But this one Michelin star puts it in international company.

Vancouver's new court of Michelin winners represents the city and its dining scene. The eight one-star eateries (no place got multiples) serve sushi, Chinese, French, and Japanese-Italian fusion—appropriate for a city that's 52 percent non-white and surrounded by shipping barges arriving from around the globe. Very little is formal; even at Published on Main, where vegetables are painstakingly arranged with edible flowers and brightly colored sauces, jeans are acceptable dress code.

Today 41 destinations have Michelin guides that list the best places to eat. The stars it hands out have come to represent a kind of culinary Academy Award.

And right there in its name is another hallmark of today's Vancouver: Published on Main is located on the Mount Pleasant neighborhood's Main Street, blocks from two other winners. None of the star winners are located in the center of the city, near Stanley Park and the tourist hotels. Only in fringe neighborhoods can chefs afford to take the kinds of leaps that garner big awards.

At Published on Main, the diner's rewards are first visual, as if color palette were key to menu planning. But seasonality truly reigns, with wild fiddleheads or lily spears harvested in the Fraser Valley. And true to Vancouver's character, even this contemporary Canadian restaurant has hints of global cuisine, like the glistening Japanese milk buns that start the meal, paired with whipped butter with bee pollen.

Unlike some of its fellow star-holders, which have moved to tasting menus only, Published on Main also offers a la carte dining, its sharable plates ideal for trying a range of the standout vegetables and main proteins. The unstuffy DIY option makes dinner more casual, more affordable—and so very Canadian.

There is, however one Michelin-starred joint that still does things the old-fashioned way, with white marble on the tables and white gloves on the servers. Makes sense, given that iDen & Quanjude Beijing Duck House is so old-school that its roots date back to China's Qing dynasty.

Beijing's original Quanjude popularized roast duck, known globally as Peking duck, from its opening in 1864; the Vancouver outpost of the chain has reproductions of historic visitors to the Chinese restaurant, a framed George Bush Sr. sharing a wall with pics of Comrade Kim Jong-Il. Even at lunch, the Vancouver dining room seems to demand formal manners; once seated, it felt I could hear the voice of my long departed grandmother admonishing me to sit up straight and keep my elbows off the table.

iDen & QuanJu Beijing Duck House offers a more formal dining experience.

Image: courtesy Ken Huang/Visit Vancouver

No fewer than five hefty menus are available for perusal, but for newcomers it's unthinkable to order anything but the signature duck, carved tableside by a chef in a tall toque—as much performance as it is sustenance. On first presentation the duck is so golden that it might as well be made of polished resin, but pieces of the crispy skin are immediately shaved and served with brown sugar, a snack for the rest of the show.

Once carved, duck wraps are self-assembled in whisper-thin crepes with julienned scallion and cucumber; the meat's very mild flavor highlights a simple sweet bean sauce. Though this is one of the most prim dining spots in the city's newly named Michelin elite, it's the only one where diners are offered the duck carcass to take home with them after the meal should they want it for soup making.

What does a Michelin star mean to a restaurant that can trace its traditions back to Abraham Lincoln's era? The Michelin system has long been a secretive one, with the company revealing little about how their "inspectors" pick winners (they don't call them critics because they don't give negative reviews). A 2018 report from Eater noted that tourism organizations often provided financial support to launch a guide, calling into question whether Michelin granting recognition to a city was wholly due to objective culinary prowess.

However, the France-based company notes that Destination Vancouver provided only marketing and promotional support for the city's new guide. And as with the roughly 3,400 Michelin-starred restaurants across the globe, only the secretive inspectors know exactly how and why Vancouver's new elite eight were chosen.

Fable Kitchen brings a farmhouse vibe to Kitsilano.

Image: courtesy Jonathan Thompson/Visit Vancouver

For all the fanfare around those receiving a Michelin star, the city's first annual guide also came with 12 Bib Gourmand designations for excellence in affordable meals, and just plain recommendations for a few dozen others. Just south of downtown, where Kitsilano does Canada's best impersonation of a breezy beach town, two notables sit a few blocks apart.

Fable Kitchen, launched by a star of Top Chef Canada, recreates a homey farmhouse style, down to a chandelier made of pitchforks. Breakfast is hearty, with fatty bacon and sausage served alongside a black pepper jam with enough kick to wake anyone up. Hash brown cakes called röstis require two days of preparation before they are sufficiently dry and crisp.

Delara reworks traditional Persian dishes.

Image: courtesy Eva McMillan/Delara

Nearby Persian eatery Delara reimagines different traditions, with chef Bardia Ilbeiggi pulling from his childhood in Iran for dishes like koofteh. (However, he notes that while he puts plums in the middle of his meatballs like his mother did, he differs by removing the pit first.) His mom's chicken soup also makes the menu alongside delicately flavored fesenjoon stew. Rich homemade dips flavored with carrot, lentil, spinach, and pistachio are compulsively eatable with soft sourdough flatbread.

Not all Michelin recognition went to young, daring chefs or longtime institutions; some of Vancouver's established creatives made the list too. At Vij's, an Indian favorite that once got so busy the kitchen made snacks for people who waited hours on the street for a table, Vikram Vij himself prowls the dining room looking for places to pitch in. I ask for a recommendation—he immediately wants to know what I had for lunch to best advise—but admit I’ll likely end up with his famous lamb popsicles. The wine-marinated meat isn't always perfectly tender, but its fenugreek cream curry is so rich and delicious I’d eat rusted nails dipped in the stuff.

Vij's famous lamb popsicles recline in a creamy curry.

Image: courtesy Amanda Bates/Visit Vancouver

Michelin will do annual amendments to the guide, so more stars may be coming to Vancouver—possibly even two- or three-star awards like they have in New York City and Paris. The new shining stars will be most visible to foreign tourists who can put the city's dining scene in the context of global award-winners, even those of us from a humble city that Michelin has yet to visit. When it comes to recommendations, you can do worse than a chubby guy shaped like a pile of tires.