It takes a little searching to find Farmer’s Apprentice. Tucked into the ground floor of a condo building on West 6th Avenue, in the South Granville neighbourhood, the restaurant makes no grand announcement of its presence. No glowing sign, no eye-catching storefront. Barely ten tables fit inside this tiny room, which feels more like a private chef’s dining room than a proper restaurant. The walls disappear behind rows of cookbooks and dozens of fermentation jars that quietly tell the story of the place’s philosophy.
It was chef David Gunawan who founded the establishment in 2013, after starting at some of Vancouver’s top kitchens and, a lesser-known detail, completing a three-month stage at In De Wulf in Belgium, an experience that gave him the desire to apply a Nordic sensibility to British Columbia’s produce. The daily menu is dictated by whatever random deliveries arrive at the back door, and the brigade improvises from there. Success was immediate. By 2014, the restaurant had claimed Best New Restaurant, Best Casual Restaurant, and Restaurant of the Year at the Vancouver Magazine Restaurant Awards, before landing second on EnRoute magazine’s list of Canada’s Best New Restaurants.
In 2019, Gunawan handed the restaurant to two former colleagues, Satoshi Yonemori and Mioi Sawada, to focus on a new community project, Ubuntu Canteen (since closed). The two new owners knew the house from the inside out, and they kept their predecessor’s locavore philosophy fully intact. Chef Alden Ong, previously of Coquille and Royal Dinette, took over the kitchen, and it is under his direction that the restaurant reached a new milestone: in 2023, Farmer’s Apprentice was elevated to Bib Gourmand status by the Michelin Guide, a distinction reserved for restaurants offering quality cooking at reasonable prices. The seven-course tasting menu is currently priced at $125 per person, while à la carte small plates range from $18 to $22, and proteins land around $50.
My Experience at Farmer’s Apprentice
I start with the signature dish, the egg yolk and potato rosti sando, two crispy potato fritters cooked in brown butter, sandwiching a confit egg yolk in a kind of miniature sandwich. House-fermented mustard brings a gentle heat, while Yarra Valley salmon caviar (sourced from an Australian producer who releases the fish back after extracting the roe) and lacto-fermented jalapeño lay down a welcome thread of acidity. The result is subtle, perhaps too much so. The potato dominates, and the other elements struggle to hold their own against it.
The kinilaw na kawahi shifts register entirely and immediately establishes an impressive harmony. The raw kawahi, a tropical mackerel, is bathed in calamansi juice that tenderises without cooking, while green mango and fig leaf oil lend a discreet sweetness. Cracked pepper on top kicks the whole thing back into gear with a spiced punch, and small chillies punctuate each bite. The sauce is sweet, marked by bitter almond, with a faint marine quality from the seaweed. Cucumber provides chew and freshness. The whole thing sweet, spicy, briny, raw holds together with surprising coherence.
Then comes the crispy tamanishiki rice with mushrooms, the most ambitious dish of the evening, and my favourite. The rice is beautifully cooked, deep in flavour, with a crust that holds. Glazed mushrooms accompany it on an earthy, textural journey, nori leaves push the umami yet another notch, and the sesame and matcha sauce closes everything out with even more depth. Each bite delivers a hit of umami. One caveat: the crispy rice occasionally sticks slightly to the palate and comes in pieces of uneven thickness, making the eating a little unpredictable. A salad and green tomato cool things down with grace.
Finally, the spice-rubbed Big Glory Bay salmon with pil-pil sauce closes the meal on a more divided note. The fish arrives slightly overcooked for my taste; the flesh has lost the pearlescent quality one hopes for. The sauce, however, is excellent: a generous beurre blanc in which capers cut through with a frank acidity that rebalances the plate. The spice crust is present but timid, and the roasted character of the salmon stays in the background. King oyster mushrooms extend the finish with their silky texture, and Swiss chard, lightly acidic, provides the final touch of freshness.
