jewkarta, Vancouver, BC (2026)

11/05/2025

Much like its neighbour, , is a fixed restaurant (operating at night in a space whose primary tenant is open only during the day) that maintains the novelty of a pop-up, frequently changing its menus and bringing in guest/collaborating chefs.

Until November 8, , a journeyman private chef whose resumé includes and various Food Network Canada programs, is at the helm of a “takeover” in the kitchen at Bar Tartare.

Reflecting his Filipino roots, Mark’s brief but diverse menu includes thrillingly original multicultural creations, including mussels steamed in a broth of calamansi, Thai basil and chilli garlic; beef tartare modelled after bistek (a dish not unlike tartare but flavoured with signature Filipino seasonings); and tuna braised in the style of Filipino adobo and served, per tradition, alongside a wad of mashed potato.

Of course, Bar Tartare’s deservedly acclaimed selection of natural wines is on standby to complete your meal. Let the onsite experts guide you and pour something perfectly suited to your food order and personal preferences.

First come, first served. No reservations. Get going.

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10/29/2025

“Farm to table” has become so ubiquitous and misused a term in the culinary lexicon, it seems to now be as meaningless (although not yet as infuriating) as “iconic.”

But at — on the volatile East Vancouver block where Elephant, Straight and Marrow, and many others have come and gone — former Ugly Dumpling chef Darren Gee has made farm-to-table the ever-changing menu’s guiding principle, sourcing ingredients almost exclusively from regional purveyors and adhering to the bounty of the seasons.

In the space formerly occupied by yet another departed restaurant, the Pie Shoppe (although you wouldn’t know it, so extensive was the makeover), the open kitchen allows you to watch Gee and his zen crew rapidly send out beautifully composed plates that are as inventive as they are delicious. On the night we visited, these included a beyond-generous slab of pâté made from Berkshire pork and Wagyu beef, served alongside outstanding mochi-infused sourdough (yes, you read right) and house-made condiments. Despite their relative sophistication, deep-fried green tomatoes glazed with caramelized fish sauce pushed the same primal craveability buttons as chicken tenders. And our meal was capped with red-wine-braised beef shank accompanied by nuggets of Sieglinde potato and baby turnip: a decidedly North American notion of a classic meat-and-potatoes dinner reinterpreted through a Japanese lens.

Despite an impressive selection of wines and sakes, we were in a cocktail mood, and we don’t regret having been so. Make a point of ordering the Niwa Martini, made uncommonly but wonderfully savoury with the inclusion of sake kasu (a paste by-product of sake production) and garnished with pickled olives — made, of course, in house.

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10/05/2025

Dark, slim and raucous (much like Kley), is one of the newest additions to Commercial Drive’s increasingly diverse dining landscape — brought to you by an array of established hospitality talents with current or previous ties to the likes of , and others.

At first glance, you might assume it to be an izakaya, which is understandable; from its Japanese theme to menu items designed for sharing, a gleefully loud interior and plenty of alcohol, it checks many of the same boxes. But Nomo Nomo is particularly inspired by Yōshoku, a style of cooking in which Western dishes are tweaked with Japanese ingenuity. We experienced this in the form of prawn toast, a Hong Kong-meets-Britain staple rendered almost unrecognizable here with the incorporation of bonito flakes and pickled Serrano pepper, everything mounted onto slices of Chinese donut and slathered with an aioli spiked with sansho, a Japanese pepper.

The Ibérico Tomahawk pork chop arrived at our table without its signature rib bone, but we didn't care. A flavour bomb yet unexpectedly delicate, the accompanying apple kimchi (yes, APPLE KIMCHI!), caramelized apple and a pungent mustard sauce combined to create a collision of sweet and savoury that may be unlike anything we’ve tasted before.

Beverages include various Japanese beers, spirits and, of course, sakes, but we encourage you to opt for the original cocktails — which are truly original. Splurge for the Mugicha (Japanese whisky infused with barley tea and blended with amaro); or, if you prefer something less punch-you-in-the-face alcohol forward, choose the Ringo — likely the first cocktail we’ve encountered that comes garnished with a nori strip that you’re instructed to eat to alter the drink’s flavour profile.

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04/18/2025

Tasting menus seem to have become the Marvel Universe of fine dining: a lucrative investment whose very name promises a particular type of entertainment (despite often lasting an hour longer than you might like).

At .on.main — which, quite famously, topped the Canada’s 100 Best list in 2022 — seasonal tasting menus have always underpinned the offerings of executive chef and co. Stieffenhofer-Brandson is nothing if not ambitious, and his tasting menus are an awe-inspiring showcase for his culinary dexterity — an artful collision between his German heritage, West Coast ingredients, and a Nordic sensibility partly cultivated during a summer at Copenhagen’s world-renowned Noma.

The recently unveiled “Green” Spring Tasting Menu consists of 10 courses that will claim two and a half to three hours of your night. This was our first visit to Published, and it exemplified why tasting menus tend to be described as an “experience” rather than simply a meal.

A platter of “snacks” — bite-sized palate awakeners as decorative as petit fours yet variously savoury and sweet, and never quite what you would expect (they change frequently; yours will undoubtedly be different from ours) — gave way to the audacious sight of a Dungeness crab nugget served in its own hollowed-out shell, perched atop white asparagus and a singular interpretation of sunomono. Manitoba pickerel and newly-in-season ramps sat in a bath of extraordinary smoked-fish velouté. And morels, so very evocative of the season, mingled on a plate with various “spring things,” those being greens and edible flowers.

A cheese course and a pair of desserts followed, and we found that three hours had passed in what felt like half the time. The evening’s darkness imbued the dining room with a lit-from-within glow. Kley and I thought we were tired, but when we spotted a pair of familiar faces enjoying a post-shift bottle of wine at the bar, we suddenly rallied and pulled up a pair of stools to join them. Because beyond being a destination for list-loving gourmands, Published is also a neighbourhood place: come as you are, leave as a somewhat uplifted version of you.

02/17/2025

Intentionally or not, has come to basically own Vancouver’s Casual Italian sector. (We mean “casual” in the economic sense as well as the gastronomic and environmental. The likes of Caffè La Tana and Savio Volpe may dominate this category at award ceremonies, but only at Nook do you stand the chance of enjoying a meal for less than $50.) Beginning as one slender location in the West End, Nook was quickly recognized as somewhere budget-minded couples and beleaguered parents with kids in tow could fill their bellies with good pizzas, pastas and other red-sauce staples for relatively little outlay.

There are now four Nooks across the city, and the parent company’s portfolio also includes Kitsilano seafood temple . And almost directly across the street from Oddfish is another Nook sibling, , which, until recently, was a daytime-only café offering salads, and rice- and grain-based bowls — an embodiment of the neighbourhood’s neo-granola spirit. (There is, in fact, granola too.) Yet while the menu at Radish has rarely been about surprises, what does surprise is everything is so much better than you expect.

This goes, too, for Radish’s recently introduced dinner service: the reason for our latest visit. Beginning at 5pm from Tuesday to Saturday, the dining room lowers its lights, the kitchen expands its purview, and the bar begins pouring cocktails and an unexpectedly vast wine selection.

The dinner menu sits at the intersection of Nook’s Italian focus (gas-oven-fired pizzas; classic pastas such as Alla Vodka), Cactus Club’s something-for-everyone altruism (roast chicken; a knockout porchetta), and Radish’s daytime concept (plenty of vegetables, including Caesar and chopped salads that prove salad can be as pleasurable as anything else you might put in your mouth).

Do order the charred zucchini dip with flatbread, a Middle Eastern-style outlier that, whatever your feelings about zucchini, will make you forever reassess zucchini. And wash everything back with a blood-orange negroni, a simple variation of the Italian refresher that transports you from Kits Beach to the Amalfi Coast — where there is no granola.

02/13/2025

When invited us to try their Big Cut Thursday — a weekly prix-fixe special featuring the choice of a Flinstonian porterhouse (34 oz, with jumbo garlic shrimp) or tomahawk (54 oz, anointed with red wine jus) steak — we agreed immediately. (Kley, especially, needs no time to contemplate the offer of gargantuan servings of on-the-bone meat. Interpret that as you will.)

Of course we opted for the tomahawk (larger, more extravagant in its presentation), served with truffle Gruyère-cream gnocchi, patatas bravas and, in a conspicuous nod to lightness and nutrition, heirloom carrots and fried Brussels sprouts.

It was a hilariously generous amount of food — even for two gluttons like us — but that’s the whole point.

We cobbled together at least three lunches from the leftovers, because while we may project an image of the bourgeoisie, our reality is closer to that of well-dressed coupon cutters.

01/20/2025

You might say (DOVF) and Jewkarta were born of a similar intention. Both set out to help restaurants at a time when they were trouble. Beginning in 2002, DOVF’s goal was to encourage diners to visit restaurants during the post-holiday doldrums of January and February, the enticement being exclusive prix-fixe menus for a bargain price. Jewkarta was a response to the dine-in ban enforced during the pandemic, which resulted in restaurants trying to survive from the meagre profits of takeout and delivery.

Jewkarta’s growth since we began in 2021 has been astonishing relative to our expectations, but DOVF has evolved into a colossus: In its first year, 57 restaurants took part; this year (Jan. 22-Feb. 9), there are more than 350, as well as breweries and wineries, purveyors and more.

The number of choices is almost paralyzing, but this isn’t a complaint. (We would have to be some seriously bougie as****es to gripe about TOO MANY affordable dining options during the bleakest time of year.) Plus, we had the privilege of being invited to a DOVF-menu preview at a restaurant we’ve loved virtually since the day it opened 10 years ago: .

For DOVF, Torafuku is offering a five-course dinner ($65) and a three-course lunch ($27). As a gesture of either generosity or sa**sm, our table — shared with some other social-media gluttons we’ve come to know — was served every single one of the 14 options from the dinner menu. Some were familiar from previous visits; others were new to us. But what they all had in common was the ability to quash the stigma of Asian fusion. Despite its artfulness, there was nothing precious or overwrought about Hiramasa Crudo, the mildly marinated fish served in delicate triangles atop a puddle of white-soy-ginger sauce flecked with burnt orange and shiso reductions. Likewise for a green-papaya salad tossed with duck confit, herbs and crisped rice. And even if you think you’ve tried every iteration of steak possible, we still urge you to order the AAA striploin, its perfect almost-rare slices plated alongside Szechuan mapo tofu (because why not) and a bowl of Hikari rice — just in case you weren’t already full enough.

11/22/2024

2024 vs 2020.

From humble beginnings…

Jewkarta introduced itself to the world four years ago today with a raw, barely edited video shot in Michael’s former apartment.

Whether you’ve been following us from the beginning or only clicked “Follow” yesterday, thank you for being a part of our gastronomic adventures. More to come soon!

11/11/2024

We could easily be accused of favouritism for having written so often about the food and cocktail wizardry of, respectively, chef and beverage director . But it would be a dereliction of our duty to not tell you at the earliest opportunity about the soon-to-open , which brings together Vish and Winnie with , cofounder of and its South Surrey sibling, .

After a three-and-a-half-year tenure at and its adjoining neighbour, — and approximately five minutes at .volpe — Vish has left classical Italian cuisine behind for Elem, a deeply personal culinary vision that defies categorization, each dish having little to nothing in common other than the ability to defy and far exceed expectations. Meanwhile, Winnie’s incomparably imaginative approach to beverages has only had to travel 20 feet, give or take: Elem is next door to Zarak, where she had been cultivating her genius behind the bar since its opening in December 2021.

Elem opens November 19, but we had the privilege of attending a friends-and-family preview last week, and we say without hyperbole that if our meal was indicative of the standard that diners can expect once its doors are unlocked to the public, Elem will soon be recognized as one of Vancouver’s most original, revelatory and acclaimed restaurants.

While Elem’s website uses fanciful language to describe its gastronomic point of view — the name is a reference to nature’s four elements (earth, water, air, fire); the dishes are designed to “transcend boundaries of cuisines in our interconnected world” — this isn’t avant-garde food designed to exercise the brain more than stoke the appetite. This is fusion cuisine in the best possible sense: unusual yet accessible, creative but not intellectual, premium but not haute. Portions are generous, and flavours are ingeniously combined to be as craveable as a slice of pizza. (Vish is, at heart, a populist; he wouldn’t have cooked at Pepino’s otherwise.)

A proper review will follow soon. In the meantime, book your table before it becomes the city’s most impossible reservation.

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