One of the most popular Korean donut shops in Vancouver is landing in the West End.
For months, we have been watching a particular unit along Robson Street, and it wasn’t until earlier this month that we finally figured out what it was.
Mello, the popular Korean brioche donut shop, is opening in the West End at Landmark on Robson.
A Mello staff member confirmed the Robson opening to us in a casual conversation and pointed to it opening sometime in August.
Given how the city handles final approvals, late August or September is the more realistic read.
For months we’ve been wondering what this unit would be.
A permit notice went up on the door in late winter listing a 50-seat restaurant, and Noh Design and Construction papers covered the door.
Noh’s past work runs through a long list of the city’s Korean rooms, including Jeon, Saku in Richmond, Tom Sushi downtown, Tozen on Broadway, and Mello’s own Arbutus location.
We knew that whatever they were working would be a popular spot.
Then the doors started opening for renovations.
Through them, on walk-bys between late April and early July, the room began transforming into something familiar looking: cream and sand walls, an arched niche, a curved counter in soft yellow, and a staircase with cream-and-tan tiled risers running up to a second floor.
It is the same minimal cream palette Mello uses, but we weren’t 100% certain until that conversation with the staff.
A staircase matters more than it sounds.
Landmark on Robson’s ten commercial units run from about 800 to 2,712 square feet, and most of them come with a mezzanine level, which is how a donut shop on this block gets a second room to actually sit in.
Mello lost its Arbutus cafe on February 17, 2025, when the building was approved for redevelopment into a six-storey mixed-use project.
That shop had run about three years, and it was the one with room to sit.
Since then, Mello has run its original Chinatown shop on East Pender and a stall at Time Out Market in Oakridge Park, where the counter line makes the demand case on its own.
A stall is not a sit down cafe though.
This Robson unit is the first space since Arbutus that gives the brand a room again, and it makes the West End shop its third address in the city.
Mello opened that Chinatown flagship in 2019 and built its name on Korean brioche donuts, with many agreeing they make the top ones in the city.
The shop makes them, in its own words, “fresh brioche donuts from scratch everyday and throughout the day,” on a two-day process with a rotating flavour list.
The West End is not short on cafes, and it is not even short on Korean donuts, with Unni Pastries running four blocks west at 1773 Robson.
But a room to sit in on this stretch of Robson, attached to a name people already line up for, is a different proposition than another counter.
Mello West End joins the list of other upcoming Vancouver food spots like % Arabica at Oakridge Park, Krave Kulture in Coal Harbour, and the Chipotle now signed at Cambie and 41st.
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Address: #214 1400 Robson Street, Vancouver, BC