3 Best Restaurants in Chinatown, Vancouver

Start with an eclectic Chinatown storefront, stir in funky Asian-flavored cocktails, then add a creative take on traditional Chinese dishes, and the result is this hip and happening hangout. Load up your table with nibbles like Chinese pickles and steamed prawn, scallop, and chive dumplings, or tapas-size dishes like shao bing (sesame flatbread with cumin-scented lamb, pickled red onion, cilantro, and chilis), mantou (steamed buns stuffed with pork belly and preserved turnip), or steelhead trout with kabocha cumin gnocchi, rapini, and shiso butter clam sauce. To drink, perhaps a Mr. Miao (bourbon, Martini Bianco, beet juice, rosemary, and lemon) or a Plum Flower Paw (rum, sherry, plum juice, peppercorn, bitters, and dark lager). Old Chinatown may have been tasty, but it never cooked up anything this fun.

This hip yet neighborhood-cozy Chinatown eatery is the sister restaurant of Burdock & Co. Enjoy health-conscious dishes that are delicious and hearty, like rice noodles with charred chili and almond-hazelnut sauce, ramen with squash and miso broth, and udon with sake kazu chicken, all of which incorporate the very best of seasonally available produce. Harvest is also a minigrocer, offering urban produce and small-production vegan and local foods.

At this casually cool restaurant and lounge whose tagline could be "Asia's greatest hits," the sharing plates and fun cocktails have elements from Japan to India and everywhere in between. Start with a Banga, a cocktail in a jar, then choose Thai papaya salad, a Vietnamese banh mi (sandwich), or Indonesian nasi goreng (fried rice). Banga #2 blends tequila, mandarin, lime, agave syrup, and galangal, while #3 is a mix of bourbon, mirin, mint, calamansi, and ginger beer. Nonalcoholic drinks with flavors like coconut, ginger, and Thai basil are also delightful. More great food choices include sweet and spicy chicken wings, Cha Ca Hanoi (Pacific cod, rice vermicelli, and greens in a turmeric-herb-coconut milk broth), and spicy sambal green beans.