The best raw seafood bars in Vancouver

Ancora’s Nikkei-inspired menu makes it one of the more distinctive players in Vancouver’s seafood scene. Expect oysters alongside tiraditos, ceviches and beautifully plated sashimi incorporating bright Peruvian flavours and Japanese technique. The False Creek waterfront views don’t hurt either. 

The most exciting arrival in Vancouver’s seafood scene in recent years, Bar Bravo opened in 2023 in the Fraserhood neighbourhood and immediately made itself essential. Small, loud and very good, it was named Best New Restaurant 2024 and Best Seafood 2025 by Vancouver Magazine, with Michelin recognition in both years. The raw offer centres on coast-to-coast oysters with house-fermented hot sauce, and a signature Tofino king salmon with maple ginger dressing that has become one of the most talked-about dishes in the city. 

Vancouver’s definitive seafood address since it opened in Yaletown, Blue Water Cafe operates on an ‘East meets West’ philosophy: Japanese precision applied to Pacific ingredients. The daily oyster selection rotates across Shigoku, Fanny Bay, Royal Miyagi and beyond; the seafood plateau and Dungeness crab roll are raw bar classics. 

Offering a more formal raw bar experience, with white tablecloths, a deep wine cellar and an old-school sense of occasion, Boulevard has become one of the city’s go-to spots for celebratory seafood dining. The menu covers albacore tuna tataki, Dungeness crab Louie and snow crab alongside rotating half-shell oysters. Consistently ranked in Canada’s 100 Best Restaurants. 

The Vancouver outpost of Taylor Shellfish Farms brings genuine tide-to-table credentials to a lively room near the city’s stadiums. The daily oyster selection reads like a wine list, with tasting notes for each variety; geoduck arrives as thinly sliced sashimi with wasabi and ponzu. New chef Alex Guido (joined 2024) has added Latin inflections – think scallop aguachile and freshened tuna tartare – alongside the shellfish classics. 

Miku introduced Vancouver to aburi – flame-seared sushi – in 2008 and remains the city’s definitive Japanese seafood experience. Now at Canada Place with harbour views to match, the signature dish is pressed BC wild sockeye salmon, flame-seared with Miku’s proprietary sauce. The raw bar also offers a chef’s daily sashimi selection and a nigiri flight including spot prawn, hamachi and scallop. 

With just 17 seats, one seating per night, and a counter handcrafted from Yoshino cypress by Japanese artisans, Sushi Bar Maumi is Vancouver’s original Edomae-style omakase counter and still its most quietly authoritative. Chef Maumi Ozaki, with three decades of experience, ages, marinates and seasons each piece of nigiri before serving it directly across the counter at its peak. There's also an exceptional sake, shochu and Japanese whisky list.