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The best bakeries & cafés in town

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Listed here are our top café and bakery choices. Each were experiences that either stood out after just one visit, or became our go-to hubs.

These choices extend from our Editorials page, where all additional café and restaurant articles can be found, but as more cafés continue to impress and dazzle, they will be added here to our favourites. You can also use our Concierge page to browse through more of our reviews we've sorted by categories such as neighbourhood or cuisine type.

Flourist

When I first heard the Vancouver-based GRAIN was rebranding into Flourist and would soon open a brick and mortar location, the excitement was immense. This Canadian farm-direct grain and legume provider featured illustrations of their partnering farmers on each box alongside a brief biography and map showing where in the country the product came from. The small but expanding brand—which I first noticed for sale at The Birds and The Beets—was noticeably interested not only in how grains were grown, but how they're later processed.

Their There

Confetti cruller, chocolate malt cronut, creme brûlée doughnut, honey matcha croissant. The unique pastry themes and ever-changing flavours behind the glass display at this Kitsilano vanguard are the subject of wide-spread buzz. In a city where bakeries seem to be both mushrooming all over and bursting at their seams, Their There manages to stand above the crowd. Where else can you get a glass of permaculture-cultivated, skin fermented, barrel aged, BC Pino Blanc with your Paris-Brest or pumpkin cronut? (A croissant-doughnut for the Comedians-in-Cars-Getting-Coffee-uninitiated.)

Caffè La Tana

In North America, it's not often you find a daytime caffè—known equally for its coffee and pastries—that is lauded for its handmade pasta. To be fair, Caffè La Tana is the sister establishment of adjoining Pepino's restaurant, an Italian American-themed pasta house with equal emphasis on house-made items. But the lunchtime pasta menu at the 1,100-square-foot La Tana certainly sets itself apart. The eatery has already gained international media coverage since opening in the fall of 2018—and is much adored for its modish Instagram account which notifies enthusiasts of their daily pasta options.

The Birds & The Beets

The Birds & The Beets café brings a softness to Gastown in what’s becoming a minimalist neighbourhood. While still holding onto moderation, the café’s design exudes comfort with its calm hues, light woods, greenery, and pale yellow botanical wallpaper. Located in a worn, heritage building with hardwood floors and red brick walls, there’s a preciousness to the space. Warm service, an airy interior, botanic delicacy, and a wholesome undertone to its food all add to the café's naturalness, and its intent.

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Revolver

Partnering with high-quality roasters from across Canada, the U.S. and beyond, Revolver is often cited as the go-to coffee-nerd hang out. From pour-overs, to brew-flights, to traditional americanos, this two-room café celebrates everything coffee culture. They update their bean partners routinely and can have grinds from as far as Kyoto’s Kurasu and carbon-neutral Calendar out of Ireland. As one of the first designs by Craig Stanghetta of the celebrated firm Ste. Marie, Revolver’s interior celebrates the café’s global appeal with a wall map of the world’s continents made by thousands of nails. Revolver’s proprietors—the Giannako family—have recently paired up with Matchstick for their baked goods; a small display case at the front of the room offers a selection of these fine treats.

Nemesis

Celebrating coffee culture with a series of cleverly-titled events, Nemesis remains intently focused on community. The whimsically-named “POUR Sportsmanship” is a latte art competition—and Nemesis by Night brings in rotating local celebrity chefs for a five-course tasting menu that gets paired with high-quality roaster selects. The owners love a good beat; the display of 90s hip-hop records and local DJ “Loop Sessions” nights, are testament to it. The small kitchen dishes out big things: stunning plate art with a focus on local produce sourced from ecologically-attuned farm partners. Add in flakey pastries with seasonal fruit, toasted house-made marshmallows, or lavender icing ribbons, and your day is about to turn up.

Purebread

After Paula and Mark Lamming decided to sell their home-made bread at a Christmas market in Whistler, the unanticipated craze for their basic-ingredient goods led to the family opening a bakery in the Function Junction area of the ski town. Purebread soon became a recurring booth at the Vancouver Farmers Market with long, meandering lines serving as the norm. Even today—with three brick-and-mortar locations throughout the city—nearly every treat disappears before the closing hours of the market. Forgoing the fondant and pre-bought dextrose decorations that often accompany store-bought desserts, the focus is on purity—though not banality: treats like the “carrot whoopies”, the dark chocolate “omg”s, and the “drunken apple blondies” keep this bakery exciting.

Elysian

Books and coffee. What else do you need? Recently, Elysian’s Instagram account has been highlighting the hardcovers sold at all four locations and emphasizing its customers with brief profiles. The café-turned-roaster places a strong emphasis on slowing down and enjoying the nuances of flavour found in each cup they brew. While they don’t snub anyone who likes a creamy—or chocolatey—cup, the team has a genuine interest in, and connection to, their coffee. Berries are selected from farms visited by founder Alistair Durie (think: Colombia, Rwanda, Ethiopia) and brought back to Vancouver where they are roasted in the back of the Ontario Street café. To the Elysian team, it’s all about being as close as possible to what they love most.

Timbertrain

Timbertrain is a vignette of two loves: trains and coffee. Entering the coffee shop is akin to stepping afoot a modernized rail car, the world is bustling and quick to pass by, but here you can settle back as a passenger, have a conversation, drink coffee, read the newspaper and enjoy the sites (feel free to hop back into the rat race at any time you like). As kids, the owners Peter, Jeff, and Min had an infatuation for trains, which in turn forged awe for “how trains worked, how trains transported people from one place to another, and most importantly, how trains brought people together.”