Signature Dishes of Vancouver

Must-try dishes

Japadog

Japadog is a Japanese-Canadian street hot dog: a kurobuta sausage in a bun, topped with teriyaki sauce, Japanese mayonnaise and crisp dried seaweed. The Terimayo is the original.

History: Japadog was launched in 2005 by Noriki Tamura at a cart at Burrard and Smithe in downtown Vancouver. The Terimayo dog combined a kurobuta pork sausage with teriyaki sauce, Kewpie mayonnaise and seaweed flakes, sparking a queue that ran the block and earned Anthony Bourdain's praise on No Reservations. By 2010 there were three Vancouver carts plus a brick-and-mortar on Robson, and Japadog opened a New York East Village shop the same year.

Where to try it: Japadog, Japadog Burrard cart

Watch out for: Gluten, Egg

BC roll

The BC roll is an inside-out sushi roll filled with grilled BC salmon skin, cucumber and sweet sauce, rolled with the rice on the outside. It is one of Vancouver's two Tojo-invented rolls, along with the California roll.

History: The BC roll was invented by chef Hidekazu Tojo at Tojo's Restaurant in Vancouver in 1974, alongside the California roll. Tojo developed the inside-out roll format, hiding the seaweed wrap, to make sushi approachable for Western diners who found nori off-putting. The BC roll uses grilled salmon skin with cucumber and a sweet sauce, a tribute to the Pacific salmon that defined British Columbia's food identity.

Where to try it: Tojo's, Miku, Sushi Masuda

Watch out for: Gluten, Fish

Aburi salmon oshi sushi

Aburi salmon oshi sushi is flame-seared BC salmon pressed onto sushi rice in a rectangular box, topped with miso, then torched. The dish is a Vancouver-invented sushi format, defining the Miku and Minami menus.

History: Aburi-style flame-seared pressed sushi was popularised by chef Seigo Nakamura at Miku Vancouver, which opened on Granville Street in 2008. The Aburi salmon oshi sushi takes pressed Osaka-style box sushi and flame-sears the salmon top, finished with miso. The dish became Vancouver's most-photographed sushi format. Sister Minami opened in Yaletown the same year.

Where to try it: Miku

Watch out for: Fish, Gluten, Soy

Vij's lamb popsicles

Vij's lamb popsicles are marinated lamb chops grilled and served in a fenugreek-cream curry. The signature plate at Vij's Restaurant since 1994, the dish that defined modern Indian dining in Vancouver.

History: Lamb popsicles were created at Vij's by Meeru Dhalwala and Vikram Vij in 1994, a New Zealand lamb chop marinated in coriander, cumin and yogurt, grilled, then served in fenugreek-cream sauce. The dish became Vij's signature, photographed in cookbooks, the Globe and Mail, and the basis of My Indian Kitchen. Vij's appears on Air Canada's enRoute Top 10 perennial, plus Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations Vancouver episode.

Where to try it: Vij's

Watch out for: Dairy, Soy

Pacific oysters on the half shell

Vancouver's Pacific oysters come from Fanny Bay, Read Island, Kusshi, Royal Miyagi and a dozen other BC growers. Served raw on the half shell, mignonette and lemon, the city's reference seafood plate.

History: Pacific oysters have been farmed on Vancouver Island and the Sunshine Coast since the 1920s, when Japanese-Canadian oyster farmers introduced the Pacific oyster (Crassostrea gigas) to BC waters. Fanny Bay Oysters on Vancouver Island, founded in the 1980s, became the city's reference grower. Joe Fortes Seafood opened 1985 as Vancouver's first upmarket oyster bar, the rooftop summer raw bar a city calendar.

Where to try it: Joe Fortes Seafood & Chop House, Boulevard Kitchen & Oyster Bar, Blue Water Cafe

Watch out for: Shellfish

Dungeness crab

BC Dungeness crab is the Pacific Northwest's well-known shellfish, with sweet white meat from the legs and claws. Served whole steamed at Granville Island, with butter, lemon and a cracker.

History: Dungeness crab (Metacarcinus magister) is named for the small fishing village of Dungeness, Washington and has been harvested commercially in BC since the 1880s. The Fraser River and Strait of Georgia provide the city's reference catch. Granville Island Public Market opened in 1979 as Vancouver's reference live-crab counter; cracked-shell shrimp counters in Richmond and Chinatown serve the Cantonese ginger-and-scallion preparation as the kitchen standard.

Where to try it: Joe Fortes Seafood & Chop House, Boulevard Kitchen & Oyster Bar, Granville Island Public Market

Watch out for: Shellfish

BC spot prawns

BC spot prawns are large pink prawns harvested from the Strait of Georgia from mid-May into early summer. Sweet, crisp and snappy, served live or just-killed, the calendar event for Vancouver seafood eaters.

History: BC spot prawns (Pandalus platyceros) are caught in traps in the Strait of Georgia and the Inside Passage from mid-May into early summer, a six-to-eight-week window. The annual Spot Prawn Festival at False Creek Fishermen's Wharf in May, run by the Chefs' Table Society since 2008, is the calendar event. Top BC chefs treat the prawns simply, raw with citrus, grilled in the shell or quickly sauteed.

Where to try it: Blue Water Cafe, Boulevard Kitchen & Oyster Bar, Granville Island Public Market

Watch out for: Shellfish

Nanaimo bar

The Nanaimo bar is a no-bake three-layer dessert with a graham cracker, coconut and almond base, a custard middle and a chocolate top. Originally from Nanaimo on Vancouver Island, the dessert is the city's calendar bake.

History: The Nanaimo bar is named for the Vancouver Island city, first published as a recipe in the 1953 Edith Adams Omnibus Cookbook from the Vancouver Sun. Mabel Jenkins won the first Nanaimo bar contest in 1986 with the canonical recipe. The dessert appears on every Vancouver bakery counter and in the Canadian school lunchbox.

Where to try it: Beaucoup Bakery, Granville Island Public Market

Watch out for: Gluten, Dairy, Egg, Nuts

Cantonese dim sum

Cantonese dim sum, with steamer-cart service of har gow shrimp dumplings, siu mai, char siu bao, and 30+ small plates, is a Vancouver Sunday tradition with the Chinatown and Richmond belts the city's reference.

History: Cantonese dim sum arrived in Vancouver with the late-19th-century Chinese diaspora; Chinatown's first formal tea houses on Pender opened in the 1910s. The trolley-cart format spread through the city from the 1970s. Sun Sui Wah on Cambie since 1985 and Sea Harbour in Richmond since 2003 are the city's references; the 1997 Hong Kong handover migration cemented Richmond as North America's largest Cantonese dim sum belt.

Where to try it: Bao Bei

Watch out for: Gluten, Shellfish, Soy

Salmon candy (BC smoked salmon)

Salmon candy is BC-cured sockeye salmon strips, sweetened with brown sugar and maple, smoked slowly until chewy. The Indigenous-rooted West Coast Pacific salmon preparation, sold at Granville Island.

History: Salmon candy is a Pacific Northwest preparation rooted in Coast Salish cedar-smoked salmon traditions. Modern BC salmon candy combines a brown-sugar-and-maple cure with low-temperature smoking, the sticky-sweet chewy strips a Vancouver souvenir. Granville Island Public Market and Indigenous-owned shops along the coast remain the reference vendors; Salt Spring Coffee and the Boucherie maintain a year-round supply.

Where to try it: Granville Island Public Market, Salmon n' Bannock Bistro

Watch out for: Fish

Phnom Penh chicken wings

Phnom Penh's deep-fried Cambodian-style chicken wings are a Vancouver Chinatown landmark plate: fish-sauce marinated, fried crisp, topped with garlic and pepper. Voted the city's most-photographed.

History: Phnom Penh on East Georgia Street opened in 1985 by the Lam family, refugees from Cambodia's Khmer Rouge regime. The chicken wing recipe combines a fish-sauce marinade with a peppery garlic crust, a Khmer-Vietnamese kitchen tradition. The dish became the Lam family's calling card; Phnom Penh has been Vancouver Magazine's reader-poll favourite Asian restaurant since 2010, plus Michelin Bib Gourmand 2022.

Where to try it: Phnom Penh

Watch out for: Soy, Gluten