Omakase at Octopus' Garden

Seventeen seats, one sitting, Edo-style nigiri piece by piece, and your phone face-down all night. Michelin-recommended and books out fast.

The Broadway institution where chef Hidekazu Tojo, credited with inventing the California Roll, runs a legendary seasonal omakase counter.

Twelve seats. Chef Satoshi Makise. Edomae nigiri shaped right in front of you, delivered with the quiet instruction to eat now.

A 38-seat binchotan counter where the chef hands the roll straight across, still warm, and the nori is still crackling.

All-you-can-eat yakiniku where you grill prime beef together on a two-hour clock, and 13,000 reviewers agree it was worth the lineup.

Flame-kissed aburi sushi by Burrard Inlet, where the salmon oshi arrives, gets photographed, and makes the table go silent.

West Broadway's papier-mache-and-neon sushi institution since 1983, with 50-plus rolls that have never once cared about tradition.

Michelin-listed Main Street kitchen where Peru meets Tokyo and Canton: alpaca tartare, arroz con pato, and a pisco bar that hums until close.

A calm Newport Village sushi room with soft jazz and private curtained tables you can pull closed and slip your shoes off at.

Named for chef Tushar Tondvalkar's mother and the Marathi word for poetry, Kavita's Ammakase tasting earns both meanings course by course.

Michelin-starred Kitsilano fine dining with vintage toys on the shelves, steps from the beach, and zero sense of its own importance.

Iron Chef champion Alex Chen's glamorous Burrard Street seafood room, Michelin-recommended and seriously polished.

Sumu grand opened in August in the old Sala Thai space, 130 seats of blackened steel and hand blown glass flowers, with binchotan yakitori mostly under $4 a skewer.

Fukuoka-style tonkotsu you customize on a little order sheet, plus a queue that counts as your best first-date warmup.