New Eats: Kuma

Japanese for "black bear," Kuma has brought modern, elegant, honestly exceptional Japanese food to Tofino.

Locally sourced, housemade fare respectfully showcases Vancouver Island’s natural bounty. Start with a seaweed salad of dulse, sea asparagus and shiitake, followed with lightly crisp-puffed tempura oysters and washed down by a yuzu smash cocktail (this Japanese citrus fruit taste like sophisticated lemonade). Next, try meltingly tender miso braised beef served with kale, soft boiled egg, lightly crisped rice cake and a smear of pungent miso mustard butter sauce. We wish we’d been there for a happy hour fuelled by rice balls and tuna tataki and, on days when the salt air’s thick with damp, piney fog, can’t imagine anything better than a rich bowl of Kuma’s shio ramen or kimchi udon after a morning surf.

Rice bowl takeout and Tofino Brewery beer on tap seal the deal; we’d book a ferry just for another meal at this perfect little spot. —Adrienne Matei

101- 20, Fourth St., Tofino, 250-725-2215, www.kumatofino.com