Charcoal Kebabs at Ozikizler Turkish Restaurant

A dim, jazz-soaked 1960s Tokyo cafe in Chinatown, where tajarin with uni is just how dinner starts.

The plant-filled Main Street room that makes a first date feel like it's going well before a word is spoken.

Downtown's chocolaterie-patisserie on Alberni: thick drinking chocolate, a macaron case that looks like jewellery, and cheap enough to be completely spontaneous.

The Fraser St bistro that locals call FauxBo, guard jealously, and can't stop recommending despite the notoriously tough reservation.

The Vietnamese street food that made Anthony Bourdain misty on television now has a permanent home on The Drive.

Butter chicken poutine, paneer tacos and spiced cocktails in Surrey's slickest Indian lounge, open until 3am.

New West's Ethiopian-Eritrean spot where dinner is a shared platter you eat by hand and ends with a traditional coffee ceremony.

Ethiopian stews by hand, a live Friday band, and the kind of injera-sharing that requires getting very comfortable very quickly.

The sunny tiled downtown room with legendary Belgian waffles, a lavender dark chocolate situation, and a line that is genuinely worth it.

Vancouver Foodie Tours runs a two hour progressive meal through the market: cheese, charcuterie, candied salmon, chocolate truffles and a honey-dip donut finish.

A Michelin-name Italian on Kingsway where spit-roasted meats, seasonal handmade pasta and wine do more romantic work than you ever had to.

Where Pondicherry's centuries-old French-Indian love affair lands in Hastings-Sunrise, with a coconut tequila chaser.

Robson St Korean with tabletop grills, banchan aplenty, and the universal icebreaker of shouting 'is that done yet?'

A decades-long West Broadway fixture serving Kashmiri and Mughlai recipes nobody else in the city is cooking.