The boy from Dundee done good. Mark Brand’s Boneta is maintaining a good head of critical acclaim since the informal Gastown restaurant opened almost two years ago. This is in no small part due to the team he has assembled with co-owners, rising star-executive chef Jeremie Bastien and wine expert Neil Ingram. The trio often refer to the family ethic behind the operation (named after Brand’s mother), with communal staff meals before opening, a common tip pot, and a “one-for-all” ethos that can often see a co-owner help with the dishes.

So it’s not surprising to learn that the service at Boneta is great. Friendly in an unforced, genuine way, the staff’s consistency never flags from greeting to goodbye. The co-owners also occasionally take time to work the room and make sure everyone’s having the best experience possible. In Boneta, it seems it’s difficult not to. A typical Friday evening is bustling, with loud chatter filling this room of high ceilings studded with angled mirrors. Local artists’ work adorns the walls, including a huge abstract on the room’s west side. We’re seated on a lower level which means we can’t see into the open kitchen, but our location does help to dilute the noise of carefree diners: Businessmen, girls’ nights out, visiting parents treating student offspring, all seemingly at ease. There’s a happy, lively, relaxed buzz.

The cocktails are almost certainly loosening a few tongues. The menu is of original concoctions, and they’re the best I’ve had in the city so far. A heady, aromatic Sirocco is effectively a margarita turbocharged with passionfruit and sage and makes for a great aperitif, while you’ll be more than likely delighted to meet Mr. Samuels – Makers Mark tangied up with house-made ginger beer and citrus – in whose company I’d gladly spend a whole evening.

Which is saying a lot, because there’s so much to vie for your attention at Boneta. The food menu sings with both time-honoured and inventive creations, while some of the latter already feel like the former. Exhibit A: the kitchen’s increasingly famous bison carpaccio. On its own, the meat packs robust flavour enough. But teamed with peppy arugula, soft quail egg, crunchy walnut and shavings of dense, salty pecorino – and bound in a tart sherry vinaigrette – and the doors of perception open wide. It’s a revelatory dish which should be enshrined as a benchmark of simple ingredient combinations. I could eat it every day and not get bored.

Our other starter (the Good Lady and I swapped halfway through) was no less impressive in structure, and also highlighted the quality of Boneta’s produce. Salmon can often be a let-down, particularly when it’s technically not yet in season. But here? The sockeye is subtly smoked and has a bite finely poised between tender and firm. Like the carpaccio, it could justifiably be served comme ça, with perhaps a little lemon. But the kitchen teams it with a stellar salad of earthy red beet, salmon roe and capers (the latter two offering different intensities of salty pop), and tops it all with a fennel foam of delicate anise tones. Excellent.

Of the “hot” courses, the fish options entice the most. Once again, they’re bursting with ideas, and the execution remains flawless. My halibut (just back in season) is one of the best-cooked pieces of fish I’ve ever had: Seared to a caramel brown on top, falling away at a prod into delicate, pearly flakes. It’s fresh, creamy and so good it overshadows the simple but distinctive flavours of the accompanying artichokes, oyster mushrooms and a subtle sauce vierge.

On the other side of the table are four queen scallops, again cooked expertly. They’re resting on an island of rich, homely-tasting barley and ham hock risotto, which is surrounded by a moat of split pea puree. The flavours here are tried and true, with the ham being a perfect partner to both the seafood and peas. Altogether, they combine to immensely satisfying effect.

Holding its own admirably with both the rustic scallops and more refined halibut is a 2008 Riesling from the Okanagan’s JoieFarm, which has an immediate robustness tempered by a lively apple flavour.

We both know what we want for dessert. One of our main reasons for visiting Boneta (aside from the carpaccio) was its use of the tonka bean, in my limited experience the only Vancouver restaurant to employ this wonderful flavouring. Strong woody vanilla with hints of tobacco doesn’t even start to do this legume justice. (Justice is, in fact, in short supply for the tonka, which is currently banned for food use in the US due to its lethal quality in larger doses.) At Boneta, they’ve incorporated it into a chocolate quartet, including a parfait that just might kill you – it’s that good. Sadly, there’s a little timidity on the kitchen’s part here as the bean’s flavour doesn’t quite shine through enough. That said, it’s a heavenly, decadently rich way to finish off the meal, and great for sharing.

It’s not an inexpensive night out, but with such skill and produce on display it’s better value than many. However, it worked out that we could have spent our final bill on a couple of those Leonard Cohen tickets I was craving. I guess it’s all about weighing up experiences. Maybe next time (I pray to all the deities there is a next time) I will see Lenny – but a night in Boneta is truly memorable in its own way.

Boneta, 1 West Cordova Street, Vancouver, 604-684-1844, www.boneta.ca