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Anton's is a one of a kind restaurant in the Greater Vancouver area. Pasta portions are very large and reasonably priced. There is usually a line up outside the door so come early.
Hours: Monday to Thursday (11:30 am to 10:30 pm), Friday and Saturday (11:30 am to 11:00 pm), Sundays and Holidays (4:00 pm to 10:00 pm)
I've driven past Anton's many times over the years and have always wondered why people line up to eat here. I've always heard that they are known for their large portions more then the good food. Finally I went here to eat for the first time yesterday.
Came here for lunch with my wife (wouldn't go at dinner and wait in line) We waited inside the front door for about 5 minutes until we were seated, place was busy. Has a busy, rushed feel to it. Not like our usual quiet & romantic style italian dining we prefer. Our service was very friendly.
I ordered - Linguini alla vongole (linguini with clams in tomato sauce) for $12.50
It was a large portion and was plated nicely with clams around the outside edge of the plate.
The noodles were great and cooked perfect.
The sauce.. meh, was ok-good somewhere in there, nothing special.
I'd rate the dish a 3 or a 3.5 out of 5.
Would I return? hmm well I wouldn't go out of my way, I can name a few other Italian restaurants on hastings that I prefer but if I was with friends that wanted to eat here sure why not.
Why is this place so popular?
I'm guessing it is because there is so much food that you always take some home. But the quality is very average.
I met an Italian guy at work recently. He knows the owner, but even he says that the food is not Italian.
I have no idea why anyone would line up to go here. I only went in when there was no line up so wasn't worried about wasting my time.
I tried this place for the first time last night. Wished I hadn't.
- Unbelievingly long line-ups, wait 30 mins+ (I don't understand why people would willingly line up for this)
- The waitress took forever. I realise some busy restaraunts take a while to get to you. But I've also seen restaraunts where the waitors come every 10 minutes asking if everything's alright and if we would like anything else. Being impatient, quick service is something I look for. This place took 30 mins just to ask for our order.
- Expensive food for a very cheap quality. They have a $11 MINIMUM LIMIT so you can't just share a pasta. Huge portions (1 plate can feed 3-4 people. I could eat a quarter of it. The pasta was mediocre, and the meat tasted like paper. Similar to the cafeteria food in the USSR.
Btw, they only take cash. Silly of me to think they would accept debit like most restaraunts..
If you don't care about quality and just want huge portions of food, this is the place for you. For people with taste, I would not recommend it.
I have never gone to Antons and had a bad experience , i do try and go early so i do not have to wait in line but the last time i went i had to wait 1 hour ....
once my friend and I finally got in we got bread , our drinks and our order taken right away ! food came out just as fast ... huge portions for what i thought was a really good price . Everytime i go there the pasta is always amazing !! and I try and get something different everytime .
It was my friends first time and she said she would most definitely be back and i know for a fact i will be too !
The first thing I noticed dining at Anton's after a break of several months is the reduction in portion size, roughly 25%. If you look up at wall in front of the kitchen there is a large plate with Italian colours saying "Anton's" if I am not mistaken. That is the size of the dish they used to serve it on, basically family size, for those of you who did not experience Anton's at the height of it's glory. Now it comes on a dish that only reaches the diameter the of inner red ring of the plate on the wall. A little disappointing.
The value quotient has considerably eroded over the years. $16.95 is not cheap and we are not talking about 'all world pasta' here. What puzzles me is how they continue to keep on winning awards... Anton's lost it's 'Stepho's of pasta' title with me years ago.
There's nothing wrong with Antons, but it has greatly benefited from constantly ranking high in media and sits like Dinehere, plus always having a line out the door. Always busy in the evening, with a quick go-go attitude towards customers that remains fairly polite, Antons is worth visiting just so you can see what the hype is all about.
The food's pretty good, the portions are huge and the price is very affordable. It's nothing special; just typical pasta that's well made and in large quantities. I DO like it here, but that being said Antons gets over with Vancouverites for being small, packed and constantly busy. Take this pasta and prices and make it a restaurant chain, or perhaps make the restaurant itself 2-3 times as large... I question whether the hype would still be there.
As far as foods go, try anything. I had penne with the sausage chopped in and it was great. I had about half of it and was full, and they happily packaged up the other half so I could take it home. The portions are REALLY huge. I hear you get a pen if you eat it all?
When I eat at Anton's, I learned along time ago, to avoid the line up's from the lunch/dinner crowd, go after 2pm or 8.30pm. The place isn't all that fancy, lots of tables, servers to move you along and your food arrives quickly.
My server was friendly, she kept inquiring if I needed anything, and made the effort. My linquini bolgenese with meatballs arrived, thinking as many times before, I can finish this...wrong. I have left overs for a couple of meals and was full before I knew it.
Antons when I arrived was after 3pm on Saturday, not very busy, no line up's and service was very quick. When I left, Antons still wasn't busy and I'm sure many people will wait in line as usual. I cannot figure out why people line up for some places, I would rather go, when its not busy or another day.
My pasta dish was good, I'll be back for a late time meal.
Pasta places are supposed to be cheap - that's why you go.
I like the food, the service, and just the busy ambiance restaurant feel. But, the lunch bill came and I thought it added up pretty fast. All we had were two dishes two cups of coffee.
The Bombay Curry pasta is great. And the staff is very flexible when it comes to making special toppings on your dish.
Great food - a bit pricey - good staff.
Worth a try.
Back in its heyday the price was better and food tastier. Now it's not too bad - good sauce, good portions (always HUGE), and pretty warm and cozy restaurant. You always know who has gone to Anton's by the sheer volume of people with take out boxes on the 135 bus! =) I went for the first time after many many years at around 9pm on a Thursday night and phew, no lineup! Was seated right away and ordered my pasta dish - the wait was not long and food was piping hot. I had leftovers for lunch the next day so that was nice. I don't really have a memorable dish, but at least I went home very full. =)
Haven't been to anton's in years so decided to give it a try again since they always seem so busy.
Found my pasta decent but not great. The sauce was pretty tastey, but the pasta itself was overcooked, as was the meatballs I had with it. The portions were huge, I could only eat about 2/3rds of it and I was super stuffed.
Service was slow, which was to be expected I guess since the restaurant was full on the saturday night. It was very noisy in there the night I went and it was difficult to talk. Definitely left there as quickly as possible after my meal.
Probably would not be back.
We've eaten here many times. We've tried a good majority of the menu. We usually go on Saturday around 4 as you can get seated right away. Honestly I think if you want to stand in a line out in the rain for over an hour I think you are crazy. We did that once before we knew any better and never again.
Service is good. I think it has gotten better in recent years (and the waitresses cuter =)). Only recently found out you get at least one refill with a pop, wish I'd known that earlier as I love guzzling my pop.
Food: Only real complaint is the often hard butter served with the bread.
I read some reviews here that say the food isn't good, and some that say it is great. I would wager these people have not tried the right dishes. I have a knack for knowing what will be tasty to me, and as I ordered each trip I got more adventurous. My instincts found the tastiest dishes first, and nearing the end of the menu not so tasty. Nothing wrong with the quality, just bland, but honestly they looked bland on the menu. Some people might like those dishes though.
These are my favourite dishes, and I'd dare anyone to try a few of them and say the food is "bland" or mushy or whatever:
Meat Lasagna
Conchiglioni in creamy tomato
Agnoloti Don Vincenzo
Frutti de Mari
Caeser Salad
There's probably more but I can't remember without the menu in front of me.
I did finish my portion a few times, but only got a pen once =). It's great having leftovers for later, but I do notice it's not nearly as good after as it dries out.
If you don't feel like cooking for, say, the next 4 days, then come here. Most of the time, I can't stomach Anton's, the food is so-so, and if you get too close to the bathrooms there's a disturbing mix of garlic and urine wafting from them.....BUT, once in awhile, maybe twice a year, I go there. The penne Filippo is good, as is anything with the creamy tomato sauce. I am also a big fan of the creole pasta....that being said, I was there a few months back and can't see myself returning for another few months at least....
I used to always go to Anton's for a great pasta dinner. The portions were huge and the quality was never a let down. Now, I rarely go. The quality has gone down-hill. Before, there would be line-ups a few shops long, now whenever I drive by, it's just a short line-up. Maybe they changed chefs.
That's about all there is to the place. For under $15, you can stuff yourself with pasta with plenty to take home. The flavour isn't all that or all there necessarily. Length of lineups varies depending on time/day/luck. :) I haven't gone back since my teenage years simply because it's all hype, really. Decent food, large portions, decent price. I prefer better service, average portions, flavourful... and little to no lineups, except if I'm going to somewhere like Vij's. :)
The portions at Anton's are almost surreal. You could easily feed a small family with one plate of pasta. For under 15 dollars, you will be hard pressed to find a better deal in the city. I haven't been here many times simply because there is usually a long line up and I don't have the patience for it.
I really wanted to enjoy this restaurant as I have heard so much hype about it and I am a self-proclaimed pastaholic. My sister and I decided to try it out around 9 pm on a weekday. I expected to wait in line because I have driven past it many times and there has been a line up out the door. Luckily we were sat within 15-20 minutes of waiting. After waiting 15 minutes for someone to aknowledge our presence we were finally introduced to our "lovely" waitress who seemed like she could have possibly been the owner. She proceeded to mock me as I struggled through some of the Italian words on the menu. I let that slide as I was there to enjoy dinner with my sister. When we received our food my sister (who has a lactose sensitivity) noticed that there was cheese in her pasta sauce eventhough there was none mentioned on the menu. She called over our waitress and explained to her that she was very sorry and that she could not eat it. Our waitress continued to belittle my sister explaining to her in a very rude tone that "all of their sauces have cheese in them and my sister should have told her to begin with that she couldnt eat cheese". My sister tried to explain that nowhere on the menu does it state that there is cheese in every sauce. After the conversation started to get heated the waitress finally took the dish away to the back to make one without cheese. While standing at the back of the restaurant our waitress continued to mock my sister with fellow waiters and the cooks. The service alone has turned me off of this restaurant. I cannot give a fair evaluation of the food as I was getting a cold and was not able to taste much of anything. Eventhough part of their "value" is giving you rediculously large portion sizes, I think it is unnecessary as they should concentrate more on the value of the food itself. I would get take out from this restaurant in the future but would not deal with the service, line ups, and very tight tables (we were basically sharing a table with the people sitting beside us).
The food at Anton's was a bit disappointing after all the hype I had from my friends. Maybe it was just the one dish as I've only been there once. I like my pasta to have flavour but my dish had too much flavour. My pasta was so strongly flavoured that I almost couldn't eat it after a couple of bites. Maybe someone spilled the dill jar into my serving? I don't know what happened but it was strong. The serving was crazy huge but they do not allow sharing so be prepared to bring home left overs. I would probably go again and try a different dish as my friends keep insisting that it is a great eatery.
I really am not a big pasta person, but when my date suggested we go there I decided to try it out. The menu was daunting for me (since I don't eat pasta, I don't know the difference between fussili or linguinie) so the date ordered for me. It was some spirally pasta, with a slightly spicey clearish sauce and a bunch of different meats, and we shared a caesar salad which is the only caesar salad I've ever had in a restaurant that I like. There was something real tasting about this pasta, less processed and just so fresh tasting!!!! The sauce was flavourful, the meat aplenty and so was the pasta. We didn't even finish our meal, and were completely stuffed (and both of us are big eaters).
The service was awesome, the girl fetching everyone was super nice and was even polite to the numerous pepole walking in past the line up and demanding a table. I hope her tip outs are good, because I could not handle the way people were acting toward her myself. It's not her fault it's a popular place, and their is a line up! Our server was awesome as well, she was super busy and was still taking the time to answer questions and even told me about the wine when i ordered just the house white (a little dry, but goes wonderfully with the pasta). Our plates were cleaned up promptly with smiles and wasn't intrusive.
The ambiance I'm giving a higher rating because I love how there are pictures of Anton's life, and the cheesy neon lights totally fit with the style of the place.
Well worth the wait, even for a non-pasta lover
Voted best pasta by many different consumer magazines, and in my books, definitely. The small space gives a cozy feel and the dimmer lights give that atmosphere. Large portions but they have gotten smaller over the years I've been there. They would give a free pen if you finish the serving. However, their take out is MUCH smaller and not worth it. Eat in if possible. Line up is long, but in my opinion, truly awesome.
I go here when the weather is nice because I hate standing in the rain. The staff are harried and the line is crazy long, but if you can wait it out, the food comes in huge portions and the sauces are pretty good. I got the pen once, but it was a struggle to eat the whole plate. As for the pasta, it could be better. It is cooked properly, but the quality is so so. Focus on the sauce. Maybe these guys could expand or move to a bigger location...
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