Where to eat during the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver

For those downtown Vancouver make sure you check out Robson Street where people watching and shopping mix with an array of both local and ethnic culinary flavours. Every other store front is a restaurant, noodle house, cafe or Coffee Houses where not only is the food the show but the endless stream of visual ambience stimulates the senses.

Thousands of Restaurant in Vancouver will be serving everything from sushi to souvlaki, from curries to pizza, from Gelato to Crepes – will be busy competing for the hearts and stomachs of hungry Olympic fans.

One of the best places to stage your own culinary Olympics, while also mingling with fans, media and athletes, is Granville Island. A market and restaurant district on the edge of Downtown Vancouver, Granville Island will house the French Quarter, Swiss House and Canada’s Atlantic House during the Games, serving as an unofficial hub of Olympic activity.

To satisfy a craving for freshly made international cuisine head to Granville Island’s Public Market, an expansive indoor market featuring hundreds of vendors selling fresh meats, cheeses, breads and produce, as well as prepared foods. "I think [visitors] will be impressed with the diversity," says Eric Pateman, whose company, Edible B.C., offers guided tours of the market for foodies. "[It] is generally quite overwhelming for most people."
Asian fruits and vegetables, European charcuterie, local Canadian seafood, international cheeses and handcrafted sake are just a few of the international specialties available at the market.

Vancouver’s Gourmet Pubs and Breweries

Paris has its sidewalk bistros and cafes. Buenos Aires has its Steak Houses . New York has its pizza joints. But when it comes to defining Vancouver’s unique contribution to world dining, the answer isn’t so obvious. The city’s culinary landscape has been shaped by a range of influences: a legacy of hearty English pub fare and traditional French cuisine, subtle flavors brought from Japan and China and a contemporary West Coast aesthetic emphasizing fresh seafood and healthy ingredients.
From this unlikely mix, however, has sprung what may be the quintessentially Vancouver eatery: the gourmet pub. In few other cities in the world can you pony up to a bar and order a handcrafted microbrew accompanied by wild sockeye salmon with bok choi. This unique combination – sophisticated cuisine served in pub and club settings – sets Vancouver apart.

"Our menu is influenced by many styles and flavours of cuisine," says Marnie Burnett, general manager of Steamworks Brewing Company, a local brew pub and restaurant housed in a historic waterfront building in downtown Vancouver. "My personal favourites on our menu are our house-made lamb burger with raita, our Thai beef salad and our hand-made pizzas."

Complementing the innovative cuisine are a selection of handcrafted beers, brewed on the premises in kettles fired with steam from the municipal steam lines that run right through the building. Make sure and check out our Brew Pub Walking Tour.  A rotating cast of seasonal beers are brewed on premises, including pale ales, stouts, lagers and wheat beers.

Across the city in Vancouver’s warehouse district Yaletown, the Yaletown Brewing Co. offers traditional pub fare, as well as menu choices that incorporate influences from France, Japan, Germany and India. Among the more innovative items on the menu is a thin-crust pizza topped with duck confit, Roquefort and arugula.