Italian

AL PORTO
In the heart of the most touristy strip of Gastown sits Al Porto, a restaurant which attempts the daunting task of serving fine Italian cuisine to patrons who have just disembarked from a week-long floating buffet. The result is mixed—for every authentic treasure like gnocchi with braised veal and artichokes ($15.95) there is that very Italian dish of filet mignon with Burgundy demi-glace ($26.95). The ample wine list takes a general double-the-retail ethos which banishes any steals but prevents excessive gouging as well. All in all a pleasant, fair-minded establishment well suited to helping you get your land legs back. 321 Water St., Gastown, 604-683-8376. $$-$$$

AMARCORD
This charming and affordable Yaletown tratt, perhaps one of our most unsung, boasts thoughtful, mature service that stands out. Specializing in the cuisine of Italy’s Emilia-Romagna region, it’s a restaurant for grown-ups, foodies and those not looking to see or be seen. Start with a classic dish, melon wrapped in prosciutto before moving on to the “Zuppa Imperiale,” a flavourful Italian cold remedy—chicken broth with mortadella and egg. For main courses, consider the maccheroni with Italian sausage, fresh herbs and cream, or the honest piccata of veal sautéed with olives and capers. For dessert, you’re on your own—it’s all good. 1168 Hamilton St., Yaletown, 604-681-6500. $$-$$$

ARRIVA
An old-school room with soft lighting, new paint and alcove windows that’s been a regular haunt for traditional Italian food on the Drive for two decades. The gamberi picanti is neatly spiced, and the porcini base to the fettuccine al funghetto robust, almost beefy. If it’s in season, go for the rombo al radicchio (halibut with radicchio and tangy white sauce), a chiffonade of radicchio, perfectly prepared fish and a side of mushroom risotto. 1537 Commercial Dr., 604-251-1177. $$

LA BUCA
The new restaurant from Chris Stewart and chef Andrey Durbach (both of Parkside fame) that’s the absolute picture (in miniature) of a charming neighbourhood trattoria, minus the checkered table cloths. Appointed sleekly with an art deco whiff, the 32-seat space seems as if it’s been a fixture here, very much loved, for decades. It’s always busy, and so it should be. Durbach’s cooking is bold, with strong flavours and La Dolce Vita freshness permeating a menu that’s a pleasure to explore. Diners will be hard-pressed to find better pasta classics but the real meat of the menu is the meat on the menu. Delicious scallopines of veal alla limone or marsala ($22.50) underwrite osso buco ($24.50) with saffron risotto (Durbach does fabulous risotto) and excellent crispy chicken ($19.50) redolent of rosemary and lemon or there’s always a daily fish ($26-28). The wine list leans to Italy, but travels well locally, too. 4025 MacDonald St., Dunbar, 604-730-6988. $$-$$$

CAFE IL NIDO
This comfortable West End room claims wildly loyal regulars but is also kind to walk-in tourists. Classic trattoria cooking, good fresh sheets, consistent and attractively priced. Neat caprese salad at lunch, coconut soup with seared scallop and seaweed launches dinner. Move on to peppercorn-crusted halibut or cioppino. Custom pastas on request. Wine list reasonable; quality sherry and port sheet. All-in-all a decent experience. 780 Thurlow St., West End, 604-685-6436. $$$

CAFE PRESTO PANINI
This little café packs them in, serving cheap and hearty Italian fare with the lively authenticity of a Milanese café. The room, no bigger than an Alfa Romeo, is resplendent with all things Italian, right down to the red and white checkered tablecloths. Owner Zoran—mustachioed master of the panini—holds court here, serving a steady stream of hungry shoppers, tourists and flocks of legal eagles from the nearby Law Courts. Try the classic panini ($8.95), crispy flatbread stuffed with hot capicolla, salami and mozzarella, or the linguine carbonara ($9.95). Palatable house wines and incredible value. 859 Hornby St., Downtown, 604-684-4445. $-$$

CAFFE DE MEDICI
At this 28-year-old gem, serving Northern Italian cuisine, attentive service starts at the door. Begin with beef carpaccio, loaded with parmesan ($15), or assorted antipasto ($19) and the delightful ravioli con funghi with wild mushrooms, ricotta, truffle and poached pear ($15). Don’t miss perfect turns of parpadalle con anatra (duck confit, porcinis and truffle oil, $24) and gnocchi with wild boar ($24) or the deeply delicious gamberoni alla Medici (prawns and scallops over risotto, $37) and the lamb osso buco ($29). Good, if pricey, wine selection from both the new and old world. 109-1025 Robson St., West End, 604-669-9322. $$$

CAPONE'S
Hot jazz and cool martinis await at this Yaletown eatery, where, every night, live music reigns. And like fingers on a fretboard, chef Matt Kamieniecki’s menu strolls all over, ranging from tapas (sambuca prawns) to well-presented entrées (bison strip loin, $34), but Capone’s is best known for signature thin crust pizzas. Try the Alcatraz ($19), loaded with baby scallops, prosciutto and mozzarella—even better when washed down with an award-winning martini. That superb martini selection, over 30 strong, keeps the atmosphere lively even when the band is between sets. 1141 Hamilton St., Yaletown, 604-684-7900. Caponesrestaurant.net. $$-$$$

CIAO BELLA
A basic red-sauce menu announces heaping plates of pasta mixed and matched with over 20 sauces; chef Mario’s lasagne della mamma ($14.95), made with four kinds of cheese, is the best reason to go. A small patio faces Alberni Street, and the brief wine list is a bargain. 703 Denman St., West End, 604-688-5771. $$-$$$

CINCIN
The flicker of the signature wood fired cucina at this rustic Tuscan tratt draws a steady crowd of visiting celebs and local epicures. Chef Mark Perrier shows a deft hand with his fork tender marsala braised veal shank with rapini and lemon ricotta gnocchi ($45)—a bone fide show stopper. Over 1,000 labels strong, sommelier Michael Mameli’s award-winning list features an unexpected selection of impressive rare and vintage wines by the glass and patissier Thierry Busset’s stellar desserts are world class. Private wine room and secluded garden terrace offer luxurious exclusivity from the boisterous room. 1154 Robson St., West End, 604-688-7338, cincin.net. $$$-$$$$

CIOPPINO'S
In Pino Posteraro’s Dover sole, a French classic meets Italian ingredients to create light, soulful Mediterranean cuisine. Other longtime favourites, like his crispy rotisserie chicken ($26), appear on a crowd-pleasing “classics” section of the menu. Less concerned with price are diners eyeing up the $2.5 million, 2,600-label cellar of vino options. The Enoteca space next door now opens for lunch only in December and through summer; during dinner, both spaces operate seamlessly as one, with a warren of elegantly appointed private room options seating 20-200. We like the Mama Paula wine room for the same reasons we love the comfort-food fettucine with zucchini and ricotta ($20) “like my sisters make,” as Posteraro notes. 1133 Hamilton St., Yaletown, 604-688-7466. $$$-$$$$

CIPRIANO'S
Hearty pizzas come along with the claim that founding father Giuseppe Cipriano was the first to bring the dishy pies to Vancouver in 1953. Tablecloths are red-checkered and meatballs ($12.95) weigh perhaps a half-pound each. This is true red-sauce Italian, veering on kitsch, with authenticity and warmth keeping it real (and keeping Main from over-gentrification). You won’t be able to finish it all, but order a Mama Cipriano Feast ($24.95), including salad, bruscetta, an entrée, garlic bread, and dessert that is under no circumstances to be bypassed, until you are. 3995 Main Street, South Main, 604-879-0020. $$

LA CUCINA DEL DIAVOLLO
Passion and pride runs deep in owners Colin MacDonald and Lela Selmo. From the breakfast sandwich—a Russian baguette and fine quality cheeses, Parma ham and organic greens—to a delicate, exquisite lemon and chocolate ganache tart, all foods are made on premise, surprising for such a tiny place. MacDonald bakes light, flaky scones in small batches throughout the day—the cinnamon and raisin variety brings loyal customers from afar. Selmo concocts sweet sins using top ingredients such as Gianduja chocolate. 1701 Powell St., East Side, 604-677-1119. $

DON FRANCESCO
An opera-singing owner and charming white-shirted waiters give this Italian room a made-for-tourist ambience. Classics like caprese salad ($14.95), beef carpaccio ($16.95), veal scaloppini ($32.95), and mushroom risotto ($24.95) neither surprise nor disappoint. The best-in-town tiramisu ($10.95), paired with the spectacular Sicilian dessert wine, Passito di Pantelleria, could make a regular of even the most tourist-wary local. 860 Burrard St., Downtown, 604-685-7770. $$$

FEDERICO'S SUPPER CLUB
The main attraction is owner Federico Fuoco who performs a medley of wedding-singer favourites while you eat. The menu has less razzle-dazzle but offers dependable Italian classics with an upscale twist. Starters ($10-15) include mixed greens with port-infused raisins and pear slices; pastas ($18-25) feature a four mushroom fettucine with truffle essence; and mains ($25-40) tempt with a roasted rack of lamb in rosemary Barolo reduction. Service is slow, but there’s only one seating per night, and you’ll be too busy dancing to care. 1728 Commercial Dr., 604-251-3473. $$-$$$

IL GIARDINO
The city’s longtime Tuscan standard-bearer is beautiful and not a little wise. Owner Umberto Menghi pulls pretty crowds to the city’s prettiest garden patio for salmon carpaccio mediorente and a rack of lamb with onion confit. Hell, it’s all quite good (if not the best), and highly seductive. GM Bobby Copiak is one of the city’s most gracious hosts and a deserving winner of Vancouver magazine’s Premier Crew service award. 1382 Hornby St., Downtown, 604-669-2422. $$$$

INCENDIO
This Burrard Street ristorante’s location is its greatest asset and its greatest curse. Attached to the arty Fifth Avenue Cinema, it’s a shoo-in for a pre-movie bite, but off the culinary screen on its own. Shame because wood-fired pies such as the kooky Ukrainian Angst ($14.99/23.99) with crushed tomato, potato, garlic and rosemary are very good. Less well known, but equally superb are the daily meat and fish specials (at the elusive “market price”), which are also fired. The serviceable, well-priced wine list has some outright steals, such as the bracing Gazela Vinho Verde at $28. There is a sister location in Gastown where patrons are less likely to hold forth on Woody Allen. 2118 Burrard St., Kitsilano, 604-736-2220; 103 Columbia, Gastown, 604-688-8694. $$

ITALIAN KITCHEN
A decidedly modern sprint from the traditional Italian restaurant, this newly arrived Glowbal Group property rubs shoulders with Tiffany’s next door and will match any Maserati that pulls up outside its slick glass frontage. With just over 175 seats, the two-level space is well kitted out with a 55-foot kitchen bar (gorgeous white stools) and a glassed-in lounge on the more casual main floor. Upstairs, the look and feel is more Miami Beach than Milan with a white, red, and pastel terracotta colour palette, a floating bar that is adroitly tended, and fashionably dressed servers who have started out strong. For dinner, executive chef Ryan Gauthier (formerly of the Beach House) plates excellent pastas ($19) that range from the awfully rich (truffle cream, Kobe meatballs, tomato onion confit) to the classics perfected (aglio olio, pomodoro, Bolognese) and dishes up dry-aged steaks dressed in olive oil, passable pizzas, and quality bruschetta (do the prosciutto di Parma with rosemary, $5). Wine list sails the Mediterranean. 1037 Alberni St., West End, 604-687-2858. $$-$$$

LOMBARDO'S PIZZERIA
Hidden away in the corner of an unassuming shopping mall, you’d never suspect that this casual spot is home to Vancouver’s best thin-crust pizza—Patti Lombardo’s wood-fired pies have been garnering accolades for more than 20 years. Classic combinations of the freshest ingredients are the key, best showcased by traditional favourites like the caprese featuring sliced tomatoes, bocconcini, onions, capers and basil. The newly opened downtown location around the corner from the Paramount Theatre satisfies the movie-going crowd. 1641 Commercial Dr., 604-251-2240; 970 Smithe St., Downtown, 604-408-0808. $-$$

MARCELLO PIZZARIA
A sizable wood-burning oven takes centre stage in this lively room with soaring ceilings and a Mediterranean feel. Rightfully so, as Marcello’s smoky thin-crust pizza is the primary reason that diners are willing to overlook the often sketchy service. With over 20 varieties on the menu, simple is best: try the margherita with tomatoes, anchovies and capers. Antipasti, salads and pasta dishes are also available; look for the house-made gnocchi, best tossed with quattro formaggi. 1404 Commercial Dr., 604-215-7760. $$-$$$

NAT'S NEW YORK PIZZERIA
The authenticating stamp for any self-respecting pizza joint is Italian lineage by way of New York. And so it is with Nat and Franco Bastone’s west side institution, which opened on West Broadway in 1991 (a West End location opened in 2000) after the brothers visited their Big Apple cousins to learn the family’s 100-year-old pizzamaking secrets. This being Vancouver, popular pies lean toward the veggie side—Pesto Artichoke, Tomato Onion Salad, “The 5th Avenue” (spinach, tomatoes, sweet onions and feta)—with a variety of pastas and heros rounding out the menu. As cheesy as the New York-inspired artwork might be—a photo of the Brooklyn Bridge, paintings of checkered cabs and David Letterman—the thinly-crusted, thickly-dressed pizzas are the real deal. 2684 W. Broadway, Kitsilano, 603-737-0707; 1080 Denman St., West End, 604-642-0777. $

LA NOTTE
This is the west side’s most classic Italian eatery in both the best and worse sense. Classics from antipasto della casa ($12.95) to zuppe minestone ($5.50) with every recognizable name in between are well prepared and delivered by an accommodating, collegial staff. But while the menu reassures with familiarity it lacks something in imagination—Mario Batali this is not. The pleasant, warm room seems to be conceived by a Calgarian spec developer’s idea of “Tuscan,” but after a few glasses of verdicchio may lend a hazy invocation of la dolce vita. La Notte shoots for the middle ground and succeeds perfectly. Great weekly specials and bargain takeout. 3307 Dunbar St., West Point Grey, 604-222-4033. $$

OSTERIA NAPOLI
Sunday night ritual and favourite with those in the know: Joe roasts whole suckling pig to crackled perfection and the whole joint parades around. Thursday through Sunday is sing-along as Enrico entertains. La Familia-friendly service lights up super-sized tortellini, and points south to traditional Sicilian rustics: penne pomodoro with tomato, onion, garlic and basil, and a delightful linguini with pancetta. Straightforward entrées, feather-light fillet of sole and satisfying rack of lamb: no fuss, no muss. 1660 Renfrew Dr., Commercial Drive, 604-255-6441. $$-$$$

LA PIAZZA DARIO RISTORANTE
This old-school haunt, located in the Italian Cultural Centre, is serious about its food. The room, a monument to old-world Italy, is large and open, yet the linen-clad tables still manage to feel intimate. During the day, businessmen in Italian suits press the flesh and at night, starry-eyed couples sip chianti to the strains of operas—occasionally punctuated by a crooning Dean Martin. Chef Claudio’s menu features a stellar selection of meats, seafood, fowl and pasta, and the wine list strolls up and down the boot from Piedmonte to Calabria. Tops are homemade gnocchi, bites of pillowy perfection. 3075 Slocan St., Kingsway, 604-430-2195. $$$

PRESTO CUCINA
Middle-of-the-road pizzeria chainlet features broad selection of passable pies and generous-to-a-fault pasta platters made family friendly. The massive “old country” meat lasagna ($12.99) is baked and fattened up with ricotta, mozzarella and cottage cheese, requiring access to a defibrillator. The killer fettucine Alfredo comes with tender chicken (lunch $10.99, dinner $13.99) and sees a Lululemon-clad lunch crowd guilt-prepping for the evening jog. Go easy on the little soft, hot and perfectly seasoned breadsticks as you’ll want to make room for the crème brûlée cheesecake ($6.99). Takeout and delivery service is quick and easy. 2272 W. 4th Ave, Kitsilano, 604-731-7222; 1746 Marine Dr., West Van, 604-925-2229. $$

QUATTRO ON FOURTH
While some of Vancouver’s esteemed Italian eateries have been running on fumes for years, Kitsilano’s Quattro’s on Fourth always manages to seem innovative and fresh. Credit the able and youthful owner, Patrick Corsi, and an airy and light room that happily steers clear of faux Tuscan theme. The food likewise injects subtle innovation without ever forsaking its old country roots—to wit, an inspired ravioli piedmontesi with wild mushrooms, mascarpone and a thankfully appropriate use of white truffle oil ($23.95). The branzino alla crosta is a deft preparation of Alaskan black cod crusted with pistachios ($32.95). These dishes are backed up by a stellar, if pricey, wine list which includes such finds as multiple vintages of brancaia or full verticals of the vowel heavy triumvirate: ornellaia, tignanello and solaia. 2611 West 4th Ave., Kitsilano, 604-734-4444. $$$

SCUIE ITALIAN BAKERY CAFE
Downtown power lunching took a turn for the cheap with the arrival of this fast-paced modern room. The theme of Roman street food eaten on the quick gels well with the suited finance wonks queuing up for excellent Italian flatbreads (“pane romano”) and solid panini briefs. Served cafeteria style and offered alongside a full range of gelato flavours and espresso drinks, they’re molto authentic: go for the pancetta and gorgonzola flatbread or target the full-flavoured pizza-like braesola, parmesan and roma tomato version for rustic simplicity. 110-800 W. Pender St., Downtown, 604-602-7263. $-$$

LA TERRAZZA
This Yaletown room lives up to its name: in warm weather, French doors open onto a terrace, which pulls the alfresco light indoors. Chef Gennaro Iorio’s menu is inventive, modern northern Italian. Simple yet inspired pastas include the house-made ravioli ($22.88), and chewy little strozzapreti (“priest stranglers”) Bolognese ($17.88). However, the kitchen’s creativity shines even brighter when it comes to the mains: grilled bison in a huckleberry port sauce, with a pasta galette ($37.88); or pan-seared duck breast in Calvados ($29.88). The service is discreet yet attentive, and the enormous wine list leans toward traditional names, but upstart regions and innovative winemakers abound. 1088 Cambie St., Yaletown, 604-899-4449. $$$-$$$$

VILLA DEL LUPO
Villa may have a new proprietor and a new chef but the fine (and friendly) touches remain, surrounding a menu that touches the very top of Italian fine dining in Vancouver. Credit chef Greg Turgeon (ex-Circolo’s), who understudied former proprietor-chef Julio Gonzalez-Perini for six years—the kitchen hasn’t missed a beat. Veal sweetbreads, exquisite soups, neatly composed salads or gnocchi with Italian sausage to begin; autumn is found in a sturdy lamb shank osso buco, redolent of garlic and tomatoes, then taken up the register with the suggestion of cinnamon. The wine list is exquisite and well managed, the food reasonably priced for this calibre of dining. 869 Hamilton St., Downtown, 604-688-7436. $$$-$$$$

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