The Best Restaurants for Lunch in Vancouver

Every café sells baked treats, but Their There in the beachside neighborhood of Kitsilano takes its carbs as seriously as its caffeine. After all, the nuanced notes of a single-origin Kenyan coffee deserve the equally sophisticated sweetness of Thai tea cronuts with lemongrass glaze and candied Thai basil. Their There sources beans from roasters like Vancouver’s Luna, while baking kouign-amanns, croissants and donuts in house. Its smoked meat, egg and gruyere breakfast sandwiches will spoil anyone’s appetites for McMuffins. Lunch and dinner feature tasty sandwiches and burgers, but check the café’s website for kitchen hours.

Most cafés on this list cater to the coffee uber-geeks that frequent gentrifying artsy neighborhoods like Gastown. Small Victory lets the quinoa-salad-and-avocado-toast crowds in Yaletown and South Granville get in on top-flight brews too. Its pour-over beans come from Prototype and other cool Canadian roasters. Small Victory bakes naturally leavened bread for its aforementioned toast, and for sandwiches like its turkey BLT. The café serves breakfast and lunch at both locations.

Himalaya restaurant offers a wide variety of Indian dishes, including some actual Punjabi, as well as Nepalese food. Like many Indian places, there is a lunch buffet as well as a separate menu. One of the best dishes is the always great butter chicken and the paneer.

Sushi Oyama has two locations in the Greater Vancouver area, in both Coquitlam and Burnaby. They have three menus, including a dine-in, take out and lunch menu. Their sushi pizza combination is very traditional, with deep-fried rice, spicy tuna, salmon, cucumber, avocado, masago, and a mayonnaise drizzle.

Acme Cafe is based in an historic building on West Hastings Street, built in 1907 and home for over sixty years to the Paris family’s Shoe Emporium. Acme Cafe is especially well-known for the quality of the pies and desserts. You can drop in for breakfast or a more substantial sitting later in the day. Breakfast dishes on offer include plenty of ham, eggs, and muffins, with lunchtime sandwiches available such as smoked salmon, roast shrimp and BLT. Main dishes include wild boar and turkey cassoulet or roast chicken.

Bao Down has two locations in Vancouver (Gastown and Olympic Village) and has built an unbeatable reputation thanks to their unique “Pacific Rim fusion” menu. Locals line up for both lunch and dinner in order to try dishes like their Fly Hawaiian Poke. Customers can choose between three proteins—each served over nuts, Korean sea salt, wasabi, avocado, rice cake crisps, toasted nori, and compressed mango.

Bao Down has two locations in Vancouver (Gastown and Olympic Village) and has built an unbeatable reputation thanks to their unique “Pacific Rim fusion” menu. Locals line up for both lunch and dinner in order to try dishes like their Fly Hawaiian Poke. Customers can choose between three proteins—each served over nuts, Korean sea salt, wasabi, avocado, rice cake crisps, toasted nori, and compressed mango.