The list isn’t large at this new Kitsilano restaurant, but wine lovers will want to make a visit to sommelier Roger Maniwa, one of the most thoughtful somms in the city. With a stint at a sake brewery in Japan and years working at local favorite Hawksworth, where his work garnered him Vancouver Magazine’s Sommelier of the Year award in 2016, his knowledge is as deep as his tastes are far-ranging. That’s an advantage when it comes to the complex French-Japanese-inspired tasting menus put out by chef Makoto Ono (Mak) and partner–pastry chef Amanda Cheng (Ming), and it also keeps things surprising. One recent night, fresh-caught Humboldt squid met its Pacific match in the silky Amamiduki Junmai Ginjo Sake while the scents of the seaweed oil and spruce tips in the poached-lobster course were picked up by Punica’s Samas, a Sicilian white. As with the food, you’ll never know what comes next—only that it will be esoteric and eye-opening.
1629 Yew St., Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
French, Japanese
604-737-1155
This story appears in the print issue of February 2018.
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