
Five Sails culinary director Alex Kim displays the edible oyster shell that as won him national acclaim. (Adrian Brijbassi photo for Vacay.ca)
Soon after winning the Canadian Culinary Championship in January, Alex Kim returned to Vancouver and continued to toil on his winning recipe — a cracker formed perfectly to resemble an edible oyster shell, which was filled with a bivalve and dressings.
It took Kim six months and 17 versions before he was satisfied with the creation that won him the competition in Ottawa. He used different base materials — potato starch, rice flour, and pastry flour; formulated different ratios and varied the levels of hydration and altered the cooking methods before he knew he had the recipe for success. After all of that, Kim took a breath and contemplated excluding the dish from his menu at Five Sails because of the time commitment involved.

Located inside the Pan Pacific Hotel at Canada Place, Five Sails is best known for its spectacular views of Vancouver’s Burrard Inlet and North Shore mountains. (Adrian Brijbassi photo for Vacay.ca)
“We sat together for hours after he won the Canadian championship and discussed what we thought the menu should look like following that experience,” said Alexandre Blais, the general manager at Five Sails, the flagship restaurant of the Pan Pacific Hotel. “He said, ‘You don’t realize how much work this is to do the oyster shell, and people will be disappointed if it’s not done right.’ I said, ‘Alex, we have to put this on the menu. It’s your signature dish.’ I may not have realized how much pressure that one dish is for him, but I think I was able to push him and he agreed we should keep it on the menu.”
It’s a snapshot into the camaraderie, support, and ambition of an entire operation that has coalesced around Kim, a stellar young talent with decades of high-level cooking in front of him. What Blais was suggesting — keeping an intensive, time-consuming morsel on the menu — would only be possible if Kim had the confidence of the team around him.

The corn course at Five Sails features cornbread inspired by chef de cuisine Juan Ruiz-Torres’s Colombian heritage and a corn custard with Dungeness crab. To connect with local produce, the restaurant will present its servings with raw items directly from nearby farms. (Adrian Brijbassi photo for Vacay.ca)
Throughout its operations, Five Sails has the talent to support his vision of a fine-dining experience that is among the best in the country. His sous chef, Juan Ruiz-Torres, spent years at Alinea, the legendary Chicago restaurant that propelled that city’s dining scene to recognition on a global scale. Kim and Ruiz-Torres worked together a decade ago at the Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise and mused about reconnecting when the opportunity arose. Eventually, it did when Kim took control of the culinary reins at Five Sails and Ruiz-Torres was available to join his supporting cast.
Blais arrived in October 2024 after spending the previous five years at Le Laurie Raphaël, a Michelin-starred icon in Quebec City. He contributes to Kim’s vision by overseeing the wine program and elevating the Five Sails’ front-of-house experience. He holds weekly seminars for staff on what is expected for a fine-dining restaurant to gain acclaim. Diners can expect delivery of a warm towel after they’re seated, synchronized service, and engaging conversation, if they wish.

Restaurant director Alex Blais is also in charge of Five Sails’ wine program. (Adrian Brijbassi photo for Vacay.ca)
“We’ve completely changed the culture at Five Sails now. We have higher than 90% retention of staff since January,” Blais said. “They’ve gotten used to knowing that throughout the night everyone has to be in the right place at the right time. So food isn’t waiting for five minutes at the pass. By having those details in place, we can support Alex and his creativity. That’s what we’ve been building in the past year. It is more than carrying plates to the table and collecting the payment — it’s a culture that we’ve implemented.”
Five Sails Pushes to Change Perceptions

The scallop dish at Five Sails is served with shellfish bisque that includes gochujang spice in honour of chef Alex Kim’s Korean heritage. (Adrian Brijbassi photo for Vacay.ca)
Yet, there are skeptics. Five Sails has a long-standing conundrum. First, it is located deep inside the Pan Pacific Hotel, which cuts it off from the streets of the city. For years, it has served cruise-ship passengers and delegates for events at the Vancouver Convention Centre. It has been tagged with the dreaded label of “tourist spot” — a place where patrons come for the view and locals avoid because of a perceived lack of authenticity. From the third floor of the hotel, the vaulted windows of the dining room overlooks Canada Place — whose design inspired the restaurant’s name — and the mountains of the North Shore that stretch high above Burrard Inlet. You could serve an uninteresting menu of staples like fish and chips and Caesar salad and many guests would be pleased, because of the eye candy on the horizon. Kim’s ambition is to offer much more than that.
“I don’t want to be known as the restaurant just with the view. Every part of the restaurant has its own role. I don’t want to depend on any one part of it,” he said.

During the tasting menu at Five Sails, chef Alex Kim escorts diners into the kitchen for a special amuse bouche course that punctuates his dedication to British Columbia ingredients. (Adrian Brijbassi photo for Vacay.ca)
His menu, culinary skill, and burgeoning reputation as a standout in the kitchen have addressed some of those concerns. The second challenge, though, has to do with the ownership of Five Sails. It’s part of the Glowbal Group, which is known locally for restaurants that are focused on volume sales and happy hours — not the discipline or dedication to top quality that fine dining commands. Industry members and media critics I have spoken with insist that Five Sails cannot possibly be among the best restaurants in the city, let alone the country or continent. Those opinions, for the most part, are based on the belief that Glowbal Group doesn’t have the resolve to support the financial burdens that fine-dining restaurants face.
Emad Yacoub, Glowbal’s co-founder and CEO, says that may have been true in the past but with the purchase of Five Sails in 2020 and the hiring of Kim the enterprise has shifted.

A highlight dish at Five Sails is the sardine-shaped eggplant that is cooked sous vide, and then grilled to add a charred flavour and texture. (Adrian Brijbassi photo for Vacay.ca)
“When we took it over, it was my dream that Five Sails would be the flagship for Glowbal Group. It would be a great restaurant with great food and apprentice chefs across the company would have the goal of working in fine dining one day without having to leave us. They would be in our company knowing where they will end up if they wanted that as their career,” Yacoub said in a phone interview. “It would be the beacon for all of our teams.”
The dream has become a reality with Kim at the helm. “If Alex was on his own, he would be running a Michelin-starred restaurant. I have no doubt in my mind. I thank him for being with us and I tell him, ‘You’re carrying a bag of memories of our company,’” Yacoub said, referring to Glowbal’s reputation that has lingered.
MORE VANCOUVER DINING: ELEM Shines on Main

British Columbia prawns at Five Sails are frequently harvested from Vancouver Island or nearby Deep Cove. (Adrian Brijbassi photo for Vacay.ca)
Kim, though, is changing perceptions rapidly and doing so largely because of recognition from outside of the city. Following the national championship victory, he announced in September that he will be among the competitors on “Top Chef Canada” Season 12, which premieres on October 14. Don House of Calgary-based IDMG Marketing, which operates the Visa Infinite Dining Series, has noticed Kim’s work and recognized his talent. So convinced that Kim is a chef to watch on a national scale that he has solidified a pair of collaboration dinners with Tanière³, the Quebec City marvel that in recent weeks has earned a 2-Michelin star rating and won the “Art of Hospitality” award from the inaugural North America’s 50 Best Rankings (where it placed an astounding No. 5 overall). Those dinners, featuring chef François-Emmanuel Nicol of Tanière³, are scheduled to take place in February and will officially be announced in January.
It exemplifies the expanding belief in Kim, the extremely likeable and generous-of-spirit chef, who is pushing himself relentlessly to deliver multitudes more dishes like his award-winning edible oyster shell. He recently travelled through Europe, dining at Michelin-starred restaurants, searching for inspiration both on the menu and in the spaces he visited. Among them was Le Jules Verne by Frédéric Anton in the Eiffel Tower.

A recent amuse bouche spoonful at Five Sails is served in the kitchen and includes peaches and caviar. (Adrian Brijbassi photo for Vacay.ca)
“His style is proper French dining with langoustine beautifully plated, and with truffles, and an upscale fine-dining vibe. It made sense to bring those things into Five Sails,” Kim said. “The view with windows and crystal glasses, and white table cloths — those all enhance the atmosphere and ambience.”
While challenges remain, change is happening fast. Not just in the quality of food and experience, but in tangible bottom-line ways, too. Blais witnesses it when he reviews the nightly reservations.
“Lots of restaurants are looking at us right now. People see how well Alex is doing and some are taking note,” Blais said. “Something I noticed happening in the past couple of months is people are coming from other locations to here. If you’re coming to a restaurant with a guest for an important occasion — a business dinner, a family milestone — you want more than the view. You want the service and the food, you want your food to impress your guest. People who come once now come regularly. We’re really building that clientele base.”

Five Sails has risen to culinary distinction during 2025 with its food and wine program that matches its stunning view. (Adrian Brijbassi photo for Vacay.ca)
He pointed out that he asked his staff what their friends and family think of Five Sails and learned that very few of their connections had ever heard of it, an indication of how an entire generation of Vancouver diners has passed over the restaurant.
“Through them we’re starting to change the demographic,” he added. “We’re getting more and more of the 40-year-old and younger crowd, and that’s how you can start to make change, too.”
Yacoub says Five Sails now has all of the ingredients to be the dining icon of the province.
“It’s an incredible view. It’s the best view anywhere. When you combine it with the service and the food it should be a jewel that B.C. would be proud of,” he said. “It’s something you can have in New York or Chicago; I think Vancouver could do that, too. Here, we are trying to create a culinary mecca with that view. I think it’s gradually, slowly happening. First we had to stabilize the restaurant from an operations standpoint and then we could move it up a bit in service and ambience, and now we have the culinary vision of the person in Alex who can lead the ship to the next level.”
MORE ABOUT FIVE SAILS

Alex Kim of Five Sails is a culinary sensation whose star is rapidly rising in Canada. (Adrian Brijbassi photo for Vacay.ca)
Location: Pan Pacific Hotel, 999 Canada Place, Vancouver, British Columbia (see map below)
Website: glowbalgroup.com/five-sails/
Menu Price Range: The Tasting Menu is $165 per person with supplements available for a “worldwide” wine pairing ($95) or a “sommelier premium wine pairing” ($195). (Select the premium wine pairing if you have the chance; selections will include the likes of Dom Perignon Champagne and Brunello di Montalcino by Altesino). For the a la carte menu, current prices range from $39-$155 (for 5 ounces of A5 Wagyu steak).
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Upcoming Events: Five Sails features a Thanksgiving tasting menu from October 10-13 and then hosts a “Top Chef Canada” viewing party on October 14 (6:30 p.m.), where guests can cheer on Alex Kim in his series debut. The collaboration dinners with Tanière³ are scheduled for February 26 and 27, 2026 and only open to Visa Infinite card-holders, according to Don House of IDMG Marketing.
Notable: Glowbal Group owns the restaurant but the Pan Pacific Hotel owns the rights to the Five Sails name.