Praise + Accolades
Awards
Best Seafood, Gold
Vancouver Magazine Restaurant Awards, 2008
Restaurant of the Year, Bronze
Vancouver Magazine Restaurant Awards, 2008
(second consecutive)
Best Japanese Fine Dining, Silver
Vancouver Magazine Restaurant Awards, 2008
(second consecutive)
Chef of the Year, Frank Pabst
Georgia Straight Golden Plate Awards
Critics’ Choice, 2008
Best West End/Downtown/Yaletown, Gold
Georgia Straight Golden Plate Awards
Readers’ Choice, 2008
Wine List Award, Platinum (Best Overall)
Vancouver Playhouse International Wine Festival, 2008
Sustainable Seafood Award
Where Most Memorable Meal Awards, 2007
‘Best of’ Award of Excellence
Wine Spectator, 2007
Best Japanese Fine Dining, Silver
The Georgia Straight Golden Plate Awards
Critics' Choice, 2007
Best Downtown Dining, Gold
The Georgia Straight Golden Plate Awards
Critics' Choice, 2007
BC Wine Dinner at James Beard House
New York City, 2006
Comments from the critics
“For the freshest local seafood, head for Blue Water Cafe...Executive Chef Frank Pabst shows off his Michelin-starred experience from the Cote d’Azur in mouth-watering gourmet dishes.”
Elite Traveler magazine, 2008
“Chef Frank Pabst is known not only for his innovative and well-executed West Coast plates but also for being an advocate of wild and sustainable seafood.”
Coastlines magazine, 2008
“Blue Water Cafe’s Private Wine Room is an oenophile’s dream.”
Coastlines magazine, 2008
“The head-turning choice is the Blue Water Tower: three tiers of iced fish, shellfish, and samplings.”
Robb Report, 2008
“At this chic spot in Yaletown, chef Yoshihiro Tabo prepares excellent sushi and raw-bar plates, while chef Frank Pabst adds a modern-Vancouver sensibility to his French-inspired seafood dishes. We loved: ‘Unsung Heroes’ sampler of sustainably raised fish, such as sardines, spot prawns and lingcod.”
Food & Wine, 2008
“Blue Water Cafe’s Wine Room is an oenophile’s dream.” “A phenomenal and very recently expanded cellar that not surprisingly carries an expert sampling of BC’s best.”
Coastlines, 2008
“What really keeps diners coming through the door is Frank Pabst’s expert, understated way with wild and sustainable species, and faultless sushi from Yoshihiro Tabo.”
Vancouver magazine, 2008
“The Raw Bar at Blue Water Cafe (Silver) consistently cranks out some of the best sushi and sashimi anywhere…thanks to disciplined and expert knife skills, top-notch sourcing, and informed service.”
Vancouver magazine, 2008
“Frank Pabst uses ‘a delicate touch to make sustainable seafood sing’.”
Vancouver magazine, 2008
“At this chic spot in Yaletown, chef Yoshihiro Tabo prepares excellent sushi and raw-bar plates, while chef Frank Pabst adds a modern-Vancouver sensibility to his French-inspired seafood dishes.”
Food & Wine magazine, 2008
“They really capture the essence of what the region, but also the neighbourhood, is about.”
Jim Tobler, Critic, Georgia Straight Golden Plate Awards, 2008
“What I really admire is his food is really pure…Frank doesn’t mask flavours. He’s refined in what he does. You can taste everything on the plate. He’s very much in tune with local ingredients and local suppliers. It’s for real.”
Iron Chef Rob Feenie, Critic, Georgia Straight Golden Plate Awards, 2008
“One of Vancouver's hottest restaurants. If you had to describe this busy, buzzy place in one word it would be fresh, as in fresh, seasonal seafood; only the best from sustainable and wild fisheries makes it onto the menu.”
Frommer’s Travel Guide, 2008
“One of the best unsung sushi bars in town.”
Where magazine, 2008
“Chef Frank Pabst is adamant on the use of only wild and sustainably harvested seafood, while raw bar cut master Yoshi Tabo is one of the very few sushi chefs (at least so far) to embrace such a mantra.”
Where magazine, 2007
“Honors Vancouver’s passion for seafood.”
Coastal Living Magazine, 2007
“Sensational.”
The Northern Advocate, New Zealand, 2007
“Standout raw bar.”
Condé Nast Traveler, 2007
“Boasting the most varied, inventive, and refined menu of seafood and fish this writer has tasted in the Northern Hemisphere.”
Yogi Times, 2007
“One of the finest restaurants in the Pacific Northwest.”
LA Daily News, 2007
“Yoshihiro Tabo's sushi is outstanding, and executive chef Frank Pabst displays a Japanese restraint and aesthetic in his treatment of the freshest possible fish.”
Georgia Straight, Golden Plate Critic’s Picks, 2007
“Frank Pabst’s ‘Unsung Heroes’… sings virtuously to the merits of sea urchin with ponzu sauce, or crunchy herring roe on kelp with wispy bonito flakes, or line-caught ling.”
Vancouver magazine, 2007
“Sushi bar chef Yoshi Tabo continues to run a disciplined counter, supplemented with rafter-climbing plateaux de mer and fine oysters.”
Vancouver magazine, 2007
“The fish are still flopping just before they reach your table at this bustling seafood hot spot where the top-notch raw bar, amazing tower of crustaceans and innovative sushi are a religious experience.”
Zagat Guide Vancouver, 2006
“The best spot around for fresh, seasonal Pacific seafood. Housed in a century old brick warehouse with soaring timeber beams, Blue Water has a bustling open kitchen on one side and a raw bar on the other”
NWA World Traveler, 2006
“Frank Pabst at Blue Water Cafe continues to impress, bolstered by Yoshihiro Tabo’s sushi and Jean-Pierre Sanchez’s clean-flavoured desserts.”
Georgia Straight, Golden Plate Critic’s Picks, 2006
“Blue Water Cafe & Raw Bar excels with its sushi bar, great oyster selection and Blue Water Towers – three tiers of shellfish, sushi and a whole sweet-fleshed Dungeness crab that’s indigenous to the West Coast”
Delicious magazine, Australia, 2006
“Silver award winner Blue Water Cafe was cited for Frank Pabst’s extremely clean cooking at high volume, some of the best private room dining in the city and a wine and sake list that is fish forward.”
Vancouver magazine, 2006
“Regulars dip in to the Blue Water Cafe to emerge exquisitely fed. Seafood is ultra-fresh here from smoked black BC cod to a three-tiered tower of sushi and chilled shellfish. Wrapped in old timber and brick the room is warehouse chic and cosmopolitan sleek.”
Essential Vancouver 2005/06
“Vancouver's culinary allure owes much to its natural bounty…best for fish and seafood are Blue Water Cafe in trendy Yaletown”
Sunday Telegraph, UK, 2005
“One of the city’s finest fish restaurants…spankingly fresh…”
Olive magazine, UK, 2005
“This Yaletown destination seafood room buzzes with the vibe from its busy open kitchen and raw bar opposite. Chef Frank Pabst respects ingredients sourced from local fishers and growers”
Where magazine, 2005
“Towers of pristine seafood are a city favorite, and no place tiers better than Blue Water Cafe”
Bon Appetit magazine, 2005