These are the most and least expensive items on the menu at Vancouver's new Michelin-starred restaurants

The legendary Michelin guide unveiled its first selections in Vancouver this week, awarding coveted stars to eight restaurants in the city. 

The eight selected restaurants offer a variety of cuisines and dining experiences, but one thing they have in common is price.

All of the restaurants have either three or four dollar signs next to their listing in the guide – indicating offerings on the more expensive side.

Of course, saving money is not the point of dining at a Michelin-starred restaurant. The point is to have a memorable and delicious experience.

With that in mind, CTV News Vancouver took a look at the most- and least-expensive items on the menu at each of the city's new Michelin-starred restaurants, according to their websites as of late October 2022, when the guide was announced.

For five of the eight venues, the most- and least-expensive items are arguably one and the same, since these restaurants exclusively offer fixed-price tasting menus. Still, beverages and optional add-ons at some of these places can up the price considerably.

AnnaLena

Located on West 1st Avenue in Kitsilano, AnnaLena offers a set menu that changes regularly. The price is $88 per person, and there is no indication on the restaurant's website that it offers any a la carte items.

The menu on offer at the time of the Michelin guide announcement featured five courses, including poached mussels, roasted carrot agnolotti and a choice of beef bavette or steelhead trout. 

The restaurant's wine list is not posted online, but its website indicates a $40 corkage fee per 750-millilitre bottle.

Barbara

Barbara's fixed-price tasting menu comes in at $70 per person for three courses. 

The Chinatown restaurant offers a variety of cocktails, wine and spirits, which produce the cheapest and most expensive items on offer. The former is a $6 small pour of Cynar, an Italian aperitif. The latter is a bottle of Le Vieux Pin Syrah "Équinoxe" for $180.

A dish at Barbara restaurant. (photo: Patrick Hennessy)

Burdock & Co

Burdock & Co. offers a five-course tasting menu for a fixed price of $89 per person, with wine pairings available for an additional $65. 

Guests at the Mount Pleasant establishment also have the option to add dishes to their meal, the cheapest of which is a buttermilk fried rabbit for $22, and the most expensive of which is Northern Divine Caviar with tarragon 'tater tots and crème fraîche for $65.

iDen & QuanJuDe Beijing Duck House

While iDen & QuanJuDe Beijing Duck House offers several fixed-price dinner menus, none of them costs more than the most expensive dish on the menu: a whole king crab for just short of $1,000.

The menu indicates this offering is "over eight pounds" and comes in two courses. Michelin's anonymous reviewers mention it in their summary of this Cambie Street location of a Beijing restaurant that traces its roots back to 1864. 

At the opposite end of the spectrum, the cheapest item on the dinner menu at iDen & QuanJuDe Beijing Duck House is jasmine white rice for $3, though many would not consider that a viable option for a meal. The cheapest option that could plausibly serve as dinner on its own is likely the organic pork dumpling in soup, for $15 per person.

There's also a lunch menu, which features dim sum items for lower prices, including a Taiwanese braised pork bun for $5.99. The most expensive lunch items listed on the website are just $30: Mapo tofu with minced wagyu and garlic steamed scallop and egg tofu each cost that much. 

A dish at iDen & QuanJuDe Beijing Duck House. (photo: Ken Huang)

Kissa Tanto

Just a block west of Barbara on East Pender Street, the Japanese-Italian fusion restaurant Kissa Tanto offers fried stuffed olives for $9.

The cheapest offering that could plausibly serve as a meal, however, is likely to be octopus salad or fish crudo, each of which is available for $24 and is technically an appetizer. The cheapest entree is Tajarin – a pasta dish with butter, roasted mushrooms and miso-cured egg yolk – for $33.

The most expensive entree is charcoal udon, which is served with Dungeness crab, prawns, squid, marinated gem tomatoes, and Calabrian chili butter and costs $49. There's also a whole fried fish for "market price," which could be more expensive. http://www.kissatanto.com/

Kissa Tanto also has an extensive drinks menu, the most expensive item on which is a bottle of 2004 Antinori "Solaia," a Cabernet Sauvignon from Tuscany that can be purchased for $1,170.

Masayoshi

Masayoshi specializes in omakase, the Japanese tradition of chef-selected daily sushi menus that change depending on what's fresh.

Dinner at the Fraser Street restaurant costs $195 per person and includes an appetizer, roughly 10 pieces of nigiri sushi, miso soup and dessert. A $50 deposit is required to make a reservation.

Masayoshi specializes in omakase, the Japanese tradition of chef-selected daily sushi menus that change depending on what's fresh. (photo: Leila Kwok)

Published on Main

Another Mount Pleasant restaurant, Published on Main offers homemade potato chips and dip for $8.

The cheapest dish on the menu that might be sufficient for a meal is the fried broccoli with a miso glaze, pine nut and nashi pear for $19. 

The most expensive food item on the menu is Fraser Valley duck breast with a duck confit and chanterelle pie and sunchoke, which costs $55.

All of the food offerings are blown away by the most expensive wine on the menu, however, which is a bottle of Domaine Armand Rousseau pinot noir for $598.

St. Lawrence

Located on Powell Street in the neighbourhood sometimes called Railtown, St. Lawrence offers a seven-course tasting menu with a choice of starter, entree and dessert for $89 per person. 

Guests can add Oreilles de crisse – fried pork rinds with maple and Montreal spices – for $11. Other optional courses include escargots for $18 and a choux pastry stuffed with duck liver mousse for $19.

The Quebecois restaurant does not have a beverage menu on its website.

BIB GOURMAND OPTIONS

For those looking for a more affordable dining experience, the Michelin guide also awarded 12 restaurants its "Bib Gourmand" designation, which indicates "good cuisine at reasonable prices."

According to Michelin, these are restaurants where one can have two courses and a glass of wine or dessert for less than $60.

The full list of Bib Gourmand restaurants in Vancouver can be found here.