Kissa Tanto

Kissa Tanto occupies a mood-lit, first-floor room in Vancouver's Chinatown that channels the spirit of a 1960s Tokyo jazz kissa—niche coffee houses where vinyl records and great food coexisted. Chef Joël Watanabe, whose French and Japanese roots inform his singular culinary voice, has spent over a decade refining a cuisine that fuses Italian technique with Japanese precision. The restaurant's name—'kissa' for the Japanese café form and 'tanto' Italian for 'much'—signals the ambition: a house of plenty where two traditions enrich each other. Dishes like plum wine-soaked tofu tiramisu and miso-cured yolk tajarin have earned Kissa Tanto a Michelin star every year since the guide launched in Vancouver. It is also featured in the World's 50 Best Restaurants Discovery list.