Wine Spectator Award-Winning Restaurants in Vancouver
Vancouver's restaurants with a Wine Spectator Restaurant Award are gathered in this list of 14 venues, including Botanist, Elisa and L'Abattoir. Several are Downtown or Coal Harbor, and many also have recognition from Michelin. We choose venues by weighing recognition from independent critics, guides and awards.
Browse the entries in alphabetical order. Each shows the venue's town or city, a short description and awards from independent sources, including its Wine Spectator award.
How this list is chosen: Every restaurant here holds a Wine Spectator Restaurant Award. When more qualify than the list can hold, En Primeur Club chooses among them by weighing recognition from independent critics, guides and awards. Entries appear in alphabetical order.
acquafarina
Vancouver, Canada
Wine Spectator Best of Award of Excellence
Acquafarina holds a Michelin Plate for 2024 and 2025, serving Italian and Canadian cuisine from a downtown Vancouver address at 425 W Georgia St. Chef Paolo Cattaneo leads the kitchen while Wine Director Frankie Torng oversees a list of 745 selections and 8,250 bottles of inventory, with particular depth in Italian, French, Californian, and Canadian labels. A two-course meal lands in the $40–$65 range, with corkage set at $35.
Bacchus Restaurant
Vancouver, Canada
Wine Spectator Award of Excellence
Inside the Wedgewood Hotel on Hornby Street, Bacchus occupies a register that Vancouver's newer wave of contemporary restaurants rarely attempts: unhurried European classicism with a grand piano, chandelier-lit dining room, and a kitchen committed to technique over trend.
Also recognized by Canada's 100 Best, Relais Chateaux
Botanist
Vancouver, Canada
Wine Spectator Best of Award of Excellence
On the mezzanine level of the Fairmont Pacific Rim, Botanist delivers Pacific Northwest contemporary cooking through a plant-first lens, with Chef Hector Laguna's Mexican-inflected technique shaping seasonal menus that change seven to eight times a year. A Michelin Plate recognition and a 435-label wine program overseen by sommelier Matthew Jacobson make this one of Vancouver's more complete fine-dining propositions at the summit of the city's price tier.
Also recognized by Canada's 100 Best, Opinionated About Dining, Tales Spirited Awards, Top 500 Bars
C-Prime Modern Italian Steak & Wine
Vancouver, Canada
Wine Spectator Best of Award of Excellence
C-Prime Modern Italian Steak & Wine occupies a fifth-floor address on Burrard Street in downtown Vancouver, combining Italian culinary tradition with prime steakhouse format and a wine program recognized with a White Star on Star Wine List in December 2021. The room sits within the broader West End dining corridor where the city's higher-end Italian and steak-focused restaurants compete on wine depth and ingredient sourcing.
Also recognized by Star Wine List
CinCin
Vancouver, Canada
Wine Spectator Best of Award of Excellence
CinCin has anchored Vancouver's Italian dining scene from its Robson Street address since long before the city's restaurant scene earned international attention. Ranked #52 in Opinionated About Dining's Casual North America list in 2023 and #64 in 2024, the room carries the kind of sustained recognition that separates it from trend-driven openings. Chef Andrew Richardson leads a kitchen where the wine program is as considered as the menu.
Also recognized by Opinionated About Dining, World's Best Wine Lists Awards
Elisa
Vancouver, Canada
Wine Spectator Best of Award of Excellence
Elisa is Yaletown's benchmark wood-fired steakhouse, operated by Toptable Group and awarded a Michelin Plate in 2025. Chef Andrew Richardson works a bespoke Grillworks Infierno grill across premium cuts from British Columbia, the US, and Japan. A 6,000-bottle cellar with a 700-selection wine list, led by Wine Director Franco Michienzi, rounds out one of Vancouver's most complete occasion-dining rooms.
Also recognized by Canada's 100 Best, Star Wine List, World's Best Steaks, World's Best Wine Lists Awards
H Tasting Lounge
Vancouver, Canada
Wine Spectator Award of Excellence
Positioned along Vancouver's Inner Harbour waterfront, 1601 Bayshore Dr. occupies one of the city's more spatially commanding bar addresses. The setting places it within a concentrated stretch of hospitality that draws both hotel guests and locals seeking drinks with a view of the Burrard Inlet. For cocktail programmes along this corridor, the address carries weight simply by virtue of where it sits.
L'Abattoir
Vancouver, Canada
Wine Spectator Award of Excellence
L'Abattoir occupies a 19th-century brick-and-beam building on Carrall Street in Gastown, where it has held a position at the summit of Vancouver's French-influenced contemporary dining tier for over fifteen years. Earning a Michelin Plate in 2025 and ranked in both La Liste and Opinionated About Dining, it pairs West Coast ingredients with classical French technique in a format that has evolved from tasting-menu rigidity toward a more fluid à la carte structure.
Also recognized by Canada's 100 Best, La Liste, Opinionated About Dining, Star Wine List
Le Crocodile
Vancouver, Canada
Wine Spectator Award of Excellence
A Vancouver institution since 1983, Le Crocodile returned to form in 2024 when Rob Feenie took over from founding chef Michel Jacob, pairing Alsatian-rooted French cooking with a wine list of 4,500 bottles. Ranked #427 on Opinionated About Dining's North America list in 2024 and climbing to #545 in 2025, it occupies the mid-to-upper tier of the city's French dining conversation, open Tuesday through Saturday from 5pm.
Also recognized by Canada's 100 Best, Opinionated About Dining
Miku
Vancouver, Canada
Wine Spectator Award of Excellence
Miku holds a Michelin Plate recognition, placing it among Vancouver's most consistently regarded Japanese restaurants. The waterfront location on Granville Street anchors a format built around aburi-style flame-seared sushi, a 1,425-bottle wine inventory, and a sommelier-led floor that handles both lunch and dinner service with notable depth for a Japanese program at this price tier.
Mott 32 Vancouver
Vancouver, Canada
Wine Spectator Best of Award of Excellence
Mott 32 Vancouver brings the Hong Kong original's approach to premium Cantonese cooking to the Coal Harbour corridor, positioning itself alongside Vancouver's most serious Chinese dining rooms. The format pairs precise kitchen work with a front-of-house operation calibrated for a high-spend crowd, placing it squarely in the $$$$ tier that defines the city's upper bracket for Chinese cuisine.
Also recognized by Chinese Restaurant Awards
The Lobby Lounge & RawBar
Vancouver, Canada
Wine Spectator Best of Award of Excellence
A Michelin Plate-recognised Japanese and European raw bar set inside the Fairmont Pacific Rim's lobby at Canada Place, The Lobby Lounge & RawBar pairs an architecturally considered waterfront room with a wine program spanning 1,520 selections and 2,150 bottles in inventory. Two-course meals price at the $40–$65 tier, with Champagne and Italian labels among the cellar's noted strengths.
Water St. Cafe
Vancouver, Canada
Wine Spectator Award of Excellence
On Gastown's cobblestoned Water Street, Water St. Café occupies a spot where the neighbourhood's brick-and-beam heritage architecture meets a bar program that rewards curiosity. The address alone situates it within one of Vancouver's most historically layered dining corridors, making it a natural reference point for anyone mapping the city's cocktail scene alongside its restaurant traditions.
Wildlight Kitchen + Bar
Vancouver, Canada
Wine Spectator Award of Excellence
Wildlight Kitchen + Bar sits on University Boulevard in Vancouver's UBC area, holding consecutive Michelin Plate recognitions (2024 and 2025) for its Pacific Northwestern–Canadian menu.