MICHELIN recommended Wildlight Kitchen + Bar in Vancouver has brought back their Summer BBQ Series, inviting guests to gather around a long communal table in the restaurant’s open-air atrium.
The series began in 2024 as a way to bring the surrounding neighbourhood together, move the cooking outdoors, and give guests an opportunity to see the kitchen team at work. That original idea continues this summer through three dinners celebrating Chinese, Indian, and Filipino culinary traditions.
I attended the opening dinner on July 26, which featured the China BBQ Night menu by Executive Chef Tim Hui and the Wildlight team. The open-air setting gave the evening a relaxed feel, and I enjoyed watching the dishes arrive family-style across the table. The menu pays homage to Chef Tim’s roots as his father was a Cantonese Chef.
The meal began with green onion pancakes topped with mapo eggplant, followed by roasted pork belly with crispy skin and char siu pork shoulder. One of my favourite parts of the dinner was the Shao Kao skewer spread, which included lamb shoulder, chicken skin, shiitake mushrooms, chicken tenderloin, eggplant, squid, prawns, and zucchini.
The complementary dishes included sautéed tung choy, chicken fat Hainanese rice, pork bone soup, and Szechuan spicy cucumber. I appreciated how the menu moved between smoky grilled meats, vegetables, rice, and soup, making the dinner feel generous.
Dessert included baked tapioca custard and a chilled taro tapioca sweet soup. I enjoyed the contrast between the warm custard and the cool, lightly sweet soup at the end of the meal.
Optional cocktail pairings were served throughout the evening, with zero-proof options available. The drinks added another element to the dinner, but the food and communal format remained the focus for me.
Drinks served included Baiji Spritz; The Char Siu Fix (sesame oil-washed Shanghai gin, mezcal, BBQ pork & five-spice syrup); and Rabbit Hole (White Rabbit candy-infused tequila, condensed milk, roasted alm).
The Summer BBQ Series continues with Indian and Filipino nights, offering two more opportunities to experience Wildlight’s outdoor dinner format and the culinary traditions represented by their kitchen team.