If you’re missing Toronto’s Momofuku Shoto or can’t get to Ko in Manhattan, Vancouver’s Street Auntie Aperitivo House is the next best thing. This tiny, sleek Chinese restaurant set around an open kitchen has arrived on the West Coast by way of Beijing, where owner Yuyina Zhang ran BMK at The Courtyard with the English Michelin-starred chef Brian McKenna. The weekly tasting menus take Ms. Zhang’s home province of Yunnan as their starting point, say, with spicy ghost chicken paired with exquisite pu-erh tea. From there, they embrace other regions with, for example, an elaborate course of oversized Cantonese dim sum, or perhaps detour into quasi-traditional French territory with seared foie gras sprinkled with orange-peel zest, and then end on a whirlwind of fun desserts, including a roll-your-own joint with edible rice paper, “pop rocks” and mint-chocolate weed leaf.
—Alexandra Gill
Photo Credit: Airisa Photography