For Vancouver's fourth annual Michelin Guide Ceremony, organizers packed a dressed-up version of the venerable Commodore Ballroom with chefs, restaurateurs, media, and invited guests in black and white cocktail attire. Attendees showed up to witness the awarding of stars, Bib Gourmands, and other distinctions to restaurants of every flavour. The Michelin Guide has become a trusted culinary map for visitors looking to taste the best of Vancouver, and a checklist for locals looking to keep up-to-date with the city’s top kitchens.

Vancouver’s 2025 Stars: Newcomers and Familiar Favourites

Central to every Michelin Guide are its stars, awarded to restaurants offering outstanding cooking. In 2025 Vancouver added two new stars to the list:

Chef Pete Ho’s Sumibiyaki Arashi is intimate, just 14 seats around a yakitori counter. The fire is fuelled by binchōtan charcoal from Wakayama, Japan, prized for the way it burns hot and clean. Chicken is the focus, skewers spanning from thigh to heart and beyond, each piece either salted or brushed with a tare that’s been refined over many years. Vegetables and seafood sometimes make an appearance, but the menu is really about one bird. Guests get to watch Ho working the grill with a fan, the whole act combining patience, heat and technique.

Sushi Hyun, led by Chef Juhyun Lee, goes in a different direction. The omakase service is quiet and deliberate. A meal might begin with slices of white fish before moving into richer cuts like toro, interspersed with a shellfish selection or uni. Each piece arrives already seasoned or brushed. The room is simple and calm allowing you to dedicate your focus to what’s served in front of you. Lee also picked up Michelin’s Young Chef Award, recognition for his obsessive care with seafood and rice.

With these additions, Vancouver now features 12 Michelin-starred restaurants, all holding one star:

• AnnaLena
• Barbara
• Burdock & Co
• iDen & QuanJuDe Beijing Duck House
• Kissa Tanto
• Masayoshi
• Okeya Kyujiro
• Published on Main
• St. Lawrence
• Sushi Masuda
• Sumibiyaki Arashi
• Sushi Hyun

Bib Gourmand: Vancouver’s Essential Neighbourhood Kitchens

Michelin’s Bib Gourmand category celebrates restaurants that offer great food at a great price, the kinds of places that locals return to often and travellers are delighted to discover. These restaurants prove memorable meals don’t need to come with fine-dining formality.

New to the list this year is Good Thief, a modern Vietnamese restaurant with a menu that reimagines traditional flavours through small plates such as lotus root salad, skewers glazed with fish sauce, and rich oxtail finished with pho demi-glace. The cocktail program weaves Southeast Asian ingredients into inventive drinks, and does it well enough for Good Thief to be selected for Michelin’s Exceptional Cocktails Award this year.

PreviousNext

The full 2025 Bib Gourmand list now includes 17 restaurants:

• Anh and Chi
• Chupito
• Fable Kitchen
• Farmer’s Apprentice
• Gary’s
• Karma Indian Bistro
• Little Bird Dim Sum + Craft Beer
• Lunch Lady
• Magari by Oca
• Motonobu Udon
• Phnom Penh
• Say Mercy!
• Seaport City Seafood
• Song (by Kin Kao)
• Sushi Hil
• Vij’s
• Good Thief

Michelin Recommended: The Wider Culinary Map

Michelin’s Recommended list broadens the map beyond the starred and Bib selections, pointing to neighbourhood favourites and stylish rooms that deliver consistently memorable meals.

Elem on Main Street is built around the four elements: earth, water, air, and fire. Chef Vish Mayekar draws heavily on seasonal BC produce while drawing from a global pantry of spices and techniques. The result is a polished, modern approach to local dining with flavours that reach out into the world, far beyond Vancouver’s boundaries.

PreviousNext

Nero Tondo is a small, ingredient-focused room in East Vancouver. Most seats are at the counter, where diners can watch the kitchen work with BC produce and regional specialties. The philosophy is simple: let the quality of local farms, fishers, and foragers drive the meal.

The full 2025 Michelin Recommended list now includes 51 restaurants:

• The Acorn
• Acquafarina
• Ask For Luigi
• Bacaro
• Bacchus

• Bao Bei
• Bar Bravo
• Bar Gobo
• Bonjour Vietnam Bistro
• Botanist
• Boulevard Kitchen & Oyster Bar
• Café Medina
• Carlino
• Chang’an
• Chef’s Choice Chinese Cuisine
• Cioppino’s
• ¿CóMO? Tapería
• Elem
• Delara
• Dynasty Seafood
• Elisa
• Fanny Bay Oyster Bar
• Folke
• Hawksworth
• Homer St. Café
• L’Abattoir
• The Lobby Lounge & RawBar
• The Mackenzie Room
• Maenam
• Miku
• Moltaqa
• Nammos Estiatorio
• Neptune Palace
• New Mandarin Seafood
• Nightingale
• Octopus Garden
• Ophelia
• Osteria Savio Volpe
• Per Se Social Corner
• PiDGiN
• Riley’s Fish & Steak
• Sushi Bar Maumi
• Sushi Jin
• Nero Tondo
• Suyo
• Tetsu Sushi Bar
• Torafuku
• Wildlight Kitchen & Bar
• Yuwa
• Zab Bite

Special Awards: Raising a Glass to Service and Skill

Michelin also highlighted the craft, care, and skill behind the scenes with its individual and team awards:

• Young Chef Award: Juhyun Lee, Sushi Hyun
• Sommelier Award: Franco Michienzi, Elisa
• Exceptional Cocktails Award: Vysion Elter, Good Thief
• Service Award: The team at St. Lawrence, with Danielle McAlpine recognized on stage for leading one of the city’s most consistently welcoming dining rooms

From Local Gems to Global Recognition

The Vancouver restaurants featured in the newest version of the Michelin guide prove the city belongs on any serious diner’s map. It features an exciting mix of destination meals and neighbourhood favourites, the kind of places that are worth travelling for, whether it's across town or across the world.