Nightshade

Sometimes, just by accident, you come across a restaurant that you’ve never heard of before, and you end up being pleasantly surprised with the quality of the food, the type of food and the service.

Nightshade, located in Vancouver’s trendy Yaletown neighbourhood, turned out to be a welcome accident just waiting to happen.

On the way back from Underground Comedy Club in Gastown, my friend and I were looking for a bistro to have a late night snack. We weren’t too picky by this point and parking isn’t easy to find in this popular part of town, especially on a Friday night. However, we ended up getting a parking spot directly in front of this restaurant called Nightshade so we decided to give it a try.

A few things to note:

1) Nightshade restaurant has received the Bib Gourmand Award for excellence given by The MICHELIN Guide in Vancouver 2022. For more info refer to link at bottom of page.

2) Surprise..it’s completely vegan. But just like you don’t have to be Jewish to enjoy eating bagels, you don’t have to be vegan to enjoy this type of food. Taking a break from eating meat is a good thing. What I’ve discovered about the few vegan restaurants I’ve been to, is that they rely on using mostly fresh local ingredients with artfully plated, unexpected exceptional flavour. Any good chef should be able to grill a perfect steak, but how many can elevate a common vegetable to taste like something else?

Nightshade fills a void by bringing vegan and vegetarian food into the fine dining arena.
Remember when the only vegetarian restaurants were buffet-style? Well, gone are those days! Although I must admit that I do miss a few of those fill-up-your- plate buffets.

Nightshade prides itself on being globally inspired in a warm yet elegantly floral dining setting with flavours inspired from all around the world.

The restaurant brings an elevated plant-based experience to the table, featuring local ingredients with international flair.

A few of the delicious dishes I tried:

Truffle Gyoza with mushrooms, water chestnuts and rayu sauce (a Japanese sesame chilli oil) with taro chips on the side. I liked it so much that I went back the next day when in Yaletown (again) for Pet-a-Palooza – North America’s largest festival dedicated to pets (but mostly dogs).Tempura crunch sushi roll with 7 spices, smoked tofu by oomé (a locally made in Vancouver premium smoked tofu company that uses organic, non-GMO tofu), Sweet Potato & Shoyu Pepper. Very yummy; and don’t forget I love sushi with tuna and wild salmon the best.

Garden Salad: Mixed Greens from the Farm, Feta Cheese, Toasted Pecans, Rainbow Radishes, with Sherry and Sweet Onion dressing.

Goes to prove that anything fresh and well thought out will satisfy your craving and it doesn’t mean always having to come from animals, including dairy products and eggs.

Interesting cocktails too. Example: EMERALD TIDES – masahiro malt whisky, zubrowka vodka, st. germain, blue curacao, guava nectar, lemon, ginger syrup, cardamom bitters. Wine, beer, margaritas…including mexcal margaritas.