11 hotels where the in-house table or rooftop, from a Coal Harbour lounge to a Yaletown waterfront terrace, is reason enough to stay.
11 hotels chosen for a single reason: the restaurant or rooftop downstairs is worth the trip on its own. Verified against each hotel's own site and the MICHELIN Guide.
Fairmont Pacific Rim
Coal Harbour, downtown waterfront
Botanist restaurant
Lobby Lounge & RawBar
The strongest food and drink stack of any Vancouver hotel: Botanist for Pacific Northwest tasting menus, Botanist Bar under creative beverage director Grant Sceney, and the Lobby Lounge & RawBar for omakase, sushi and an internationally recognised cocktail list. In summer the Pac Rim Sports Patio pops up on the front plaza.
Six separate rooms to eat and drink in, which is the reason to stay: Hawksworth is a Michelin Guide recommended Vancouver institution, Reflections is a leafy open air terrace for tapas and cocktails, and Prophecy and the 1927 Lounge cover the late night. Bel Cafe handles pastry from chef David Hawksworth's kitchen.
Book it for ARC, whose patio looks straight over the harbour to the North Shore mountains, with a Province to Plate three course BC menu from executive chef Adam Middleton, bottomless weekend brunch and happy hour 15:00 to 18:00. The rooftop Pool Cabana adds summer poolside dining with panoramic waterfront views.
Vancouver's copper roofed chateau, and the lobby is the draw: Notch8 Restaurant does classic cuisine built around the romance of 1930s rail travel, while Notch8 Bar is a locals' favourite for wine, classic cocktails and live entertainment. A themed speakeasy pop up in the lower lobby changes menu each season.
Built into the sails of Canada Place with panoramic views of the waterfront, skyline and Coast Mountains, plus direct access to the cruise terminal and both convention centres. Coal Harbour Bar sits at the heart of the waterfront, and Gastown, Yaletown and Stanley Park are all walkable.
The reason to stay is H Tasting Lounge: a velvet interior, cocktails made with locally distilled spirits and a waterfront patio with ocean views, plus heated outdoor domes from November through May. H2 Kitchen + Bar handles smokehouse cooking from chef Homer Baisa, and Stanley Park starts at the door.
A 96 room design hotel on Davie Street with five lifestyle decor themes and pop deco art, but the real pull is street level: Capo is a neighbourhood Italian spot doing house made pizza and weekend brunch, and The Spritz is a sleek bar built entirely around Italian aperitivo culture.
An old school independent whose dining room does the heavy lifting: Bacchus serves elegant European inspired cooking with a curated wine list, while Bacchus Lounge is the city's most reliable place for a classic cocktail with live piano every night.
A quiet 77 room boutique hotel in Coal Harbour whose lobby adjoins Tableau Bar Bistro, an award winning French restaurant that locals book on its own merits. Central and calm rather than showy, which is the point.
A 1912 heritage landmark covered in flowering vines, sitting directly on English Bay steps from the beach and the Stanley Park seawall. The restaurant and lounge are genuinely local haunts with live entertainment on Sunday evenings, and the sunset view over the bay is the whole reason to book a front room.
Vancouver's Indigenous boutique hotel, opened in June 2012 in a former derelict single room occupancy building. Eighteen one of a kind rooms were designed by six of Vancouver's top hotel designers paired with six Indigenous artists, and the building also houses live and work studio space for 24 Indigenous artists. No on site parking.