Vancouver restaurant closes abruptly, giving staff under 24 hours' notice

Just last month, Mojo Cantina-Izakaya, a new Mexican Japanese fusion restaurant, opened its doors in Vancouver. However, guests and staff who have recently shown up have been met by a locked door.

Brought to us by the team from the now-closed El Gato Gab Gab (and operating in the same space), Mojo Cantina has quietly closed its doors.

Mojo Cantina was meant as the start of a new concept from the team — one that would see multiple short-lived restaurants come to the space.

The idea behind it was that, every couple of months, the team would change the name, branding, and menus to keep things fresh and exciting.

Mojo Cantina was meant to be the first of these rotating restaurant concepts, and at the time of opening, the team shared it would stick around until the new year, with the potential to extend for longer, before rotating to whatever the next restaurant idea the team cooked up.

“Over the past summer, the team have been thinking a lot about what excites them most in this industry, and the answer is always the same: creating something new,” Mojo told Dished when it opened. “So instead of sticking to one fixed restaurant, they are turning this Mount Pleasant space into their ‘playground’ of sorts.”

Fast forward to today, and the restaurant has quietly closed its doors just a month after launch. No announcement has been made online, and — according to an individual who wished to remain anonymous — staff allegedly received less than 24 hours’ notice of the closure.

“After a month, the owners emailed staff at 2 a.m. saying ‘sorry, but we’re done,'” wrote the individual on Oct. 23, 2025. “Staff showed up the next day to a locked restaurant, and some of them haven’t even been paid (including severance they’re legally entitled to).”

Additionally, guests with existing reservations at Mojo Cantina showed up to a locked restaurant.

“They didn’t even disable the reservations or warn management,” they said.

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Dished reached out to Mojo Cantina, who confirmed that the restaurant is now closed.

“Sadly, we’ve made the difficult decision to close Mojo,” said a representative from Mojo Cantina. “We’ve tried a number of things in this space, and it just hasn’t worked. Right now, we are focused on deciding what our next steps will be.”

As for staff and guests, Mojo told Dished that “all staff have been paid, many with severance.”

“We apologize to the handful of guests who were able to book before our reservation system was completely closed,” added Mojo.