If you're eager to brush up on your cooking skills while practicing social distancing, but could use the assist of some professional help, fear not: Several Vancouver restaurants are here with the assist.
In addition to fully-prepared meals for take-out or delivery, many restaurants are opting to offer meal kits where you're in charge of the cooking and assembling. Try your hand at rolling sushi, follow a video to turn out a French meal for two, bake up some delectable croissants, or whip up a hearty pasta or pizza feast.
We're compiling a list of Vancouver restaurants that are letting you take the wheel, with their expert guidance and top-quality ingredients. We'll keep updating the list, too, so bookmark this page or check back often to see what other culinary skills you can sharpen thanks to Vancouver's many celebrated restaurants.
Mackenzie Room/Say Mercy
Trailblazers among Vancouver restaurants for launching the "Staff Meal" program that has since seen many others sign on to participate (a donation is added to each order for the Food Bank, plus you can order a meal for someone in need), the team behind these two terrific spots have now added on another option - Family Meal. Get all you need ready to fire up at home for a meal for four - they prep it, you cook it. Their online marketplace is available for pre-orders Tuesday through Saturday from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. for same-day pick-up at Say Mercy on Fraser in Vancouver.
Provence Marinaside
Learn French cooking at home thanks to this Vancouver restaurant. Photo: Provence Marinaside
Brush up your French cooking skills and create a dinner for two from Yaletown's Provence Marinaside. They've got a French Cooking Made Easy program. Priced at $40, their kits consist of the recipe for a selected dish plus enough ingredients to make two servings, plus each kit also includes half of a French baguette. Bonus: Each kit has a demo video showing the preparation of the dish so you can follow along at home.
Toptable2U: Elisa, Blue Water, CinCin, Thierry
Each of the four Toptable Group restaurants in Vancouver are offering variety of meal kits featuring dishes right from their menus and their impeccable ingredients. Make Blue Water's signature miso sake glazed sablefish to enjoy at your own dinner table or take home cooking to the next level with Elisa's whole truffle roasted chicken. The full menu is available to view via Toptable2U, where you'll find details about pick-up and delivery. Pick-up is from Elisa restaurant, located in Yaletown.
Livia
Order today, pick up tomorrow from Livia's bakery restaurant on Commercial Drive. Their meal kits feature items from their pasta menu, priced per serving, and include bread, dessert, and salad. Plus their website includes a video for each of their three dishes to walk you through cooking.
BLVD Provisions
The Sutton Place hotel's Boulevard Kitchen & Oyster Bar is now offering BLVD Provisions, a pick-up and delivery service. Here you're doing some mix-and-match building of proteins and sides, or heat-and-serve, to create your own meals. Add on salads with their dressing, soups, and so on to build your elegant at-home feast from one of the city's most acclaimed restaurants. Order online via Tock.
Caffe La Tana
Commercial Drive's Italian cafe and mini-grocer is selling DIY Pizza Kits. Each kit comes with two balls of dough, sauce, and toppings like anchovies and sausage. Fun for the whole family!
Miku
Get a Ramen kit from a Gyoza Bar chef. Photo: Miku
Ready to try your hand at making sushi or ramen? Miku is now offering two Aburi Meal Kits. They've got a Tamari-Shoyu Tonkotsu Ramen Kit, created by Gyoza Bar ramen master Woojin Kim, which includes everyting you need for your next comforting bowl of ramen, like the broth, house-blend noodles, that ramen egg and more. You can also get a Temaki Sushi Kit, which includes three to five servings, featuring Miku’s chefs’ choice of sockeye salmon, maguro, spicy salmon, and cooked ebi, tsukemono accompaniments, sushi rice, nori, and more. Each kit is meant to be enjoyed within 48 hours, and is available via pre-order for pick-up at at Miku Restaurant (70-200 Granville Street) by calling 604-568-3900. Miku says they plan to expand the line-up soon, too.
Nook: Pasta Room
Pasta plus sauce equals a wonderful meal. Nook is offering up kits of fresh handmade pasta and their sauces through their Pasta Room, which is located on West 1st Ave in Vancouver (between Burrard & Cypress) beside their seafood restaurant, Oddfish. The space is open Tuesday thru Saturday from 4-7 p.m., and you can pre-order and pay online before pick-up.
Chez Christophe
Want to try your hand at baking, but with much less effort? Chez Christophe is offering take-and-bake frozen pastries, like sweet and savoury scones and croissants. The packs come frozen, with instructions for baking up hot in your own kitchen. The frozen pastries are available for take-away from their Burnaby location, which is also offering delivery for orders of $35 or more within a limited radius in Burnaby/Vancouver.
La Taqueria
Missing your Taqueria fix? Order meal kits online from their new Cyber Taco Shop and pick-up at their Yukon location in Vancouver. Meals serve two to four people, with optional add-ons as well as beer and margs.
JOEY
Through JOEY's new "Market" offering, the Canadian chain has not only a broad list of groceries, from pantry essentials to proteins, as well as some of their own dressings, but also a set of meal kits. You can order up items like Butter Chicken for two, a guacamole kit, a bake-it-yourself apple pie or pan of brownies, and more. Available for pickup and delivery.
Local Public Eatery
Like sibling spot JOEY, Local's Vancouver outposts are offering what they are calling the "Local Corner Store," which includes everything from fruits and veg to pantry items to booze and even toilet paper. They also have meal kits to help you put together your own nacho platter, brunch dishes like Eggs Benny, and even bar mixes to whip up a batch of their Caesars.
Nuba
Yes, you can even score a couple of bars of gold - aka rolls of TP - with a meal kit order from Vancouver's Nuba. Photo courtesy Nuba
For an option light on the cooking - but that still has you assembling your meal - Nuba has two meal kits available. Score these kits via advance order Mondays through Sundays exclusively for delivery. One clever option that comes with the most sacred item of all: TOILET PAPER! For direct delivery of Nuba menu items, wine and beer in the Downtown Vancouver and Kitsilano areas, go to Nuba's site and choose delivery during checkout or call the location nearest you. Guests located outside of the direct delivery radius can also order delivery through DoorDash, Foodora and Uber Eats.
