A Rejuvenated Vikram Vij Is Ready to Prove Himself and His Restaurant Again

The first time I dined at Vij’s was in 2002, lured there by effusive reviews in the New York Times and travel guides. I was living in the Big Apple and was making my first trip to British Columbia to see the scenery, hike the mountains, and try this Indian restaurant in Vancouver that had amazed Mark Bittman. While curious, I kept my expectations in check. Indian restaurants in North America at the time tended to be uniform. The best in New York in the early 2000s was Tabla by Floyd Cardoz, which had lots of bells and whistles — gold-plated ramekins of rice and curries, ornate artwork with more flourishes of gold and swirls of Sanskrit to connote romance, and a sleek interior design befitting its grand location near Manhattan’s Flatiron Building — and even it served food that was thick with buttery sauces and salt. It tasted good and the atmosphere delivered on the promise of an elegant night out, but it was also an example of the continued Anglicization of Indian food, making it pleasing to Western palates foremost, which left it as merely tolerable for those of us who were raised on rotis, authentic curries, and spicy daal.

In contrast, Vij’s was a revelation. Located in its previous space on West 11th Street that seated approximately 40 diners, it was humble in every way but the food, which soared with flavours: nuances of textures that were nutty, silky, and crispy; and spice that was remarkable in how consistently it hit the back of your mouth, a culinary technique that prevents the tastebuds from being blown away when heat daggers the tip of the tongue. Such heat, typical of too many Southasian restaurants, might at first trigger an intoxicating sensation in your somatosensory cortex but leaves you in an uncomfortable sweat before the plate is done. All of the dishes were unique creations sourced from the heart of Vij’s heritage in Amritsar and the skilfullness of Meeru Dhalwala, his now ex-wife who until 2024 managed the kitchen and developed the dishes on the restaurant’s menu. Dhalwala and Vij divorced a few years ago and last year she left the business to start her own acclaimed restaurant. Vij took control of the kitchen and the front of house and has been working to reclaim its status as a national, not just municipal, must-dine experience.

As the years progressed, Vij’s pushed a culinary ambition that kept patrons intrigued and underscored the restaurant’s reputation as an innovator. Versions of naan were made with cricket flour, jackfruit — foreign to many in Vancouver — was a regular part of the menu and came prepared in a tangy and mild curry, cassava fries were passed out liberally to guests who waited in long lines for a table, and while spices and the brigade of female chefs were sourced from Punjab the restaurant adapted British Columbia ingredients to Southasian dishes — with delicious results.

Save for the famous lamb popsicles, the signature dish that no one tastes without closing their eyes to meditate on the pleasure, Vij’s has been about change and often the pursuit of it.

“What he did was revolutionary,” said Tushar Tondvalkar, a Mumbai-born chef who is on the verge of opening his own restaurant, Kavita, in Vancouver (see more below). “Back in the ’90s and early 2000s there was no one doing Indian cuisine like Vij’s. He changed how Indian food was thought of and not just in Canada, in all of North America. No other chef was doing that with Indian food. To do it for 25 years or more and still be at the top is amazing.”

Both the restaurant and its owner became superstars. Vij was one of the moguls featured on CBC’s “Dragons’ Den”, sitting alongside Kevin O’Leary and Arlene Dickinson as they deliberated which budding entrepreneurs to invest in. He was nominated for the Order of Canada and travelled with the federal government to promote the nation and its culinary offerings. By 2019, Vij and Dhalwala had built a culinary empire. Vij’s moved into its massive new three-storey space on Cambie Street and retained Rangoli, a small eatery and take-out specialty store next to the former West 11th Street location. They added 120-seat My Shanti with a gleaming Bollywood-esque exterior in South Surrey, a small diner inside the Victoria Public Market, a restaurant in Seattle’s tech corridor, and a manufacturing facility to package and distribute Vij’s foods to retail stores across the country. Only Vij’s remains.

The COVID-19 pandemic and a failure of the manufacturing operations caused financial stress that led to closures.

“I lost $6 million because the manufacturing plant didn’t work out,” Vij said while we spoke last month in his restaurant. “It’s a case of us doing four things right, doing them very well, but the fifth thing it wasn’t a success and it hurt the other parts of the business, brought them down, too.”

A forever optimist, Vij admits to also losing some of his drive to compete for the status the restaurant had achieved. In 2012, Vacay.ca named Vij’s the best restaurant in Canada, an award voted on by more than 40 judges from across the country. While Vij’s is still beloved and continues to host visiting celebrities and dignitaries — Mick Jagger and Prince Harry were among the 2024 guests — its reputation has diminished. There isn’t the buzz among today’s dining public as before.

After the restaurants closed and the spotlight dimmed, Vij returned to the flagship restaurant, which turned out to be a challenge.

“In January 2024, we found ourselves both full-time at Vij’s and there wasn’t enough Vij’s for the two of us,” Dhalwala said in an email. “There wasn’t enough room for our creative differences. Neither one of us was wrong or right, but we began blurring boundaries and irritating the heck out of the other. I realized that we had finally hit our personal break point, and breaking was not an option for the parents of Vij’s, Rangoli, as well as Nanaki and Shanik, our daughters. We take our restaurants and family very seriously as a team.”

Both Vij and Dhalwala maintain that their relationship is one of kindness and collegiality. “We still end all phone calls, meetings, lunches with a hug and ‘I love you,’” Dhalwala said. But it was time to choose her own path and she did so with the launch of Lila.

“I get to create my next phase as I wish and want. It’s the beginning of inner freedom. A big realization was that, in fact, I was ready to let go of Vij’s and hand it over to Vikram, who had new wishes for Vij’s,” she added. “So Vij’s prior to April 2024 was, all of it, my recipes and cuisine. Vikram has been having fun re-doing Vij’s cuisine and menu to reflect his cooking style since then. I’m glad he has this opportunity. I believe we’re both happy with today.”

With Dhalwala making Lila a rising star in the city, Vij has returned to the kitchen, taking the reins and developing recipes or augmenting existing ones in the pioneering restaurant they started in 1994. Vij’s is likely the only restaurant in Canada serving alpaca. Sourced from a farm in the nearby Fraser Valley, Vij turns the pungent meat into a biryani with floral touches and the restaurant’s distinctive basmati rice covering it. His other menu alterations are more subtle. He adds a chutney to the serving of the lamb popsicles — which are a rack with the bones polished clean to entice diners to use their fingers to swirl the curry onto the meat before biting into it. For dessert, a brûlée tops the rice pudding, which now also comes with a homemade pumpkin tutti frutti.

“These additions take more time and the kitchen had to adapt to my way of doing things. It’s taken a few months since Meeru left to get us all on the same page, but now I think we’re there,” he said.

Vij is determined to reinvigorate the restaurant. His next change, if successful, will be to retrace some of the steps he and Dhalwala took to reach the pinnacle of Canada’s culinary world. To claim iconic status among a generation of diners looking endlessly for new “wow” moments on the plate.

“It’s time to get back on track. We have the team to do it. We have the knowledge now to work smarter and to leverage the brand equity we have built up,” Vij said.

Rather than producing its own retail products, Vij’s is collaborating with established companies to co-brand wines and spirits. Phantom Creek Estates makes a Petit Cuvee with Cabernet Franc that’s a good match for the restaurant’s spicy meat dishes. MadLab Distilling produces Vij’s-branded wine, gin, and vodka. His new cookbook, “My New Indian Kitchen” (Figure 1 Publishing), is scheduled for publication this summer and is co-written with his girfriend, Jennifer Muttoo.

 

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Any restaurant that has endured three decades, as Vij’s has, will go through periods of uncertainty and friction. As Vij settles his enterprise after a turbulence phase, I find it easy to root for him and his goals for a renaissance. Not only because I have a multi-decade relationship with the restaurant but there’s a hopefulness in the Vij’s experience that speaks to why Canada is a place that can work. Vij is an immigrant who chased his desire of opening a restaurant despite long odds. He shuttled his curry on the bus to his initial location on West Broadway, finished preparing it in a near-empty restaurant, deliberated on closing before a local food reviewer’s postive words convinced readers to visit, and took the opportunity the community gave to become a national sensation who retained his principles of serving the food he wants, with the ingredients he desires, and the quality he covets.

Even though the restaurant has moved, each time I enter and see Vij shaking hands with guests, I recall the encounter 23 years ago of walking in from the sunshine to the sound of a spoon swirling chai in a cup. A burst of joy arrived with the warm tea. Vij greeted me with a handshake and the first thing I noticed were his blue eyes, which were a touch darker than the collared shirt he wore that day. Blue like the Pacific horizon. Blue like the boldest of sky-high visions to which artists and dreamers aspire.

MORE VANCOUVER DINING NEWS

Vive St. Lawrence

In a year where Canadians are devoted to travelling domestically to connect with the different regions of the country, St. Lawrence offers Vancouverites a reminder that a taste of Quebec is not a cross-continent trip away.

Chef J-C Poirier launched a “Summer in Quebec” menu this week that will whisk you happily to eastern Canada. Highlights include a pastry filled with cod that is especially nostalgic for those of us who have fond memories of the cuisine of Quebec and the Maritimes. A plate of root vegetables is simple and unadorned, an homage to Atlantic Canada’s heritage. The Swans Cream Puffs will wear out your camera. Extremely beautiful and luscious, it’s also lighter than it appears, even with the crème anglaise serving as a pool for the decorative pastry.

St. Lawrence is celebrating its eighth anniversary in 2025 and has become a cherished table in a city that has too little regional Canadian fare.

Kavita Ready to Spice Up Olympic Village

Tushar Tondvalkar has built a sterling reputation in the Vancouver culinary scene as a private chef and talented back-of-house restaurant staffer. He’s now embarking on his own restaurant, Kavita, scheduled to debut in September. The 46-seat space will feature a menu that highlights the four corners of India, Tondvalkar’s home country. Dinner options will include choices of an a la carte or a tasting menu dubbed “amma-kase”, in honour of the mothers of India and evocative of the refined Japanese omakase dining style. A passionate forager who was featured on the series “Chefs vs. Wild”, Tondvalkar recently collected more than 20 pounds of morel mushrooms and has dried them for use in a stuffed chicken kebab dish at Kavita.

The chef also has the benefit of a rooftop garden in an adjoining residential tower. He grows kale, herbs, and other ingredients.

“I’m excited for his restaurant. He really knows his flavours,” said Jefferson Alvarez, a highly regarded chef in Vancouver who has worked events with Tondvalkar.

Named after the chef’s mother, Kavita promises to build on the global trend of highly acclaimed fine-dining Indian restaurants. Tondvalkar has spent time working at Gaggan and Gaa in Bangkok, both among the best restaurants in the world, and is eager to showcase inspirations from those experiences to his patrons.

ELEM’s Lamb Skewer Wows

Among the interesting stories in Vancouver’s dining scene is the two young Indian chefs from the same village in Maharashtra. Tondvalkar and ELEM’s talented Vish Mayekar also both studied culinary arts in Niagara Falls before venturing to the west coast. While Tondvalkar is embracing the cuisine of India, Mayekar is exploring flavours from destinations that have ignited his imagination. He still retains much affection for India and with lamb he wants to spotlight a meat product from which Canadians have often shied away.

ELEM’s grilled lamb skewer is sourced from New Zealand and is prepared for four days. The end result is a texture and taste similar to a tenderloin. Added elegance comes from the finishing touches such as a Medjool date glaze and delicate ginger labneh. It’s among the best dishes currently offered in Vancouver.

 

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ELEM has debuted a tasting menu and continues to offer a la carte options. It’s one of the hottest dining rooms in the city at the moment and well worth a visit — or several.

Say Hey to Sainam

Maenam for years has been a leading fine-dining restaurant in the city. Chef and restaurateur Angus An has followed that success with the launch of the more casual Sainam, focused on Issan (or Northern Thai) cuisine. You’ll find a variety of papaya salads, a specialty of the region, and delicious Wichian Buri Grilled Chicken, which is gently spiced with Thai herbs. The cocktail list is small but still creative (try the Yuzu Elderflower Margarita). The tasty desserts include pandan custard cake and kanom tuay, a coconut pudding with a maple-like caramelized filling.

Located on Davie Street in the West End, Sainam is an excellent addition to a neighbourhood known for its diverse casual dining options.