Vancouver is one of the great food cities of North America, and the strength is the diversity. The city has the largest Chinese community in Canada outside Toronto, plus substantial Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, South Asian, Iranian and Filipino populations. The result is genuinely excellent versions of each cuisine, often well outside any tourist district.
For Chinese food, the dim sum and Cantonese seafood in Richmond is widely considered the best in North America — Sun Sui Wah and Kirin are well-known names, but the strip-mall outposts of Alexandra Road repay exploration. Chinatown in downtown has a few classic old-school restaurants alongside a wave of newer hybrid places.
Sushi is everywhere and ranges from cheap and cheerful neighbourhood spots to high-end omakase counters; standouts include Tojo's (the inventor of the California roll) and Miku for aburi-style salmon. Vietnamese along Kingsway and Korean along North Road in Coquitlam are the everyday neighbourhood standbys.
Modern Pacific Northwest cooking — wild salmon, halibut, spot prawns, BC produce — is the West Coast contribution; Yaletown, Gastown and Mount Pleasant have the highest concentration of these. The craft beer scene, anchored in the Brewery District around East 4th and along Powell Street, has more than 50 local breweries with taprooms.
For a meal you'll remember, the public market on Granville Island is hard to beat — eat your way through the food stalls, then drink a beer on the dock watching float planes take off.