I dined here for lunch today with 9 colleagues while on seminar. I had reached my Vancouver Asian/pub food saturation point and need some Italian to reset my DNA roots. The gang followed along. We walked in, nice decor..clean, comfy, spacious, no nonsense, I notice they have a small inviting patio space for the good weather (note to self!). They were setting up for a party of 24 and didn't bat an eye when we showed up. The owners are Italian and very affable. The menu for lunch was a decent range of antipasti/starters , pastas and some mains. The pasta list was very nice and everyone found one to their liking. The price range for the pasta was between 12 and 15 bucks.I had the linguine in rose sauce with imported porcini. They served pane e olio with ciabatta bread to start with our water, a nice touch. When the pasta arrived it just reaffirmed that these guys are real Italians. First off the pasta was delicious, top quality pasta, not over cooked and with an abundance of sauce which was scratch made for sure. The second thing I noted and pointed out to my friends is that this was an authentic portion of 100 grams of pasta per person unlike most "italian-ish" d/t places that give you 50 grams for twice the price! I also ordered a 6 oz glass of house Italian red to go with my pasta ($6.50 very reasonable) and I was truly pleased. The service was excellent despite the two big parties and the place was full! They got us in and out in under an hour. I think I will be coming back much more often for lunch, you should too!

We came here last night with a party of six. I had made reservations the night before, no problem. The problem started on the way down to the restaurant..I called just to confirm our res and at first they couldn't find it! They then said Oh OK we have it. When we arrived (the place was full) they led us out to the patio in back to what can best be described as a decontamination bubble with way to many heaters! My whole party was hesitant to sit, this is not what we wanted. After one of our party made a quick recon to cactus club across the street to secure a better seating, we were finally moved to a decent table (Thanks cactus club btw..next time we will try them out). with that sorted we move on to drinks and appys. I ordered a mojito..wrong!..it had, I kid you not, one sprig of mint which hadn't been even muddled and no sugar. It had NONE of the attributes a mojito should have! Our waitress (who was wonderful btw) offers to take it of the bill. Other drinks around the table were off also..stick to beer/wine at this place! (watery/weak was the consensus, a regular over priced drink here has 1oz of booze, a REAL 2 oz drink, which they list separate, is REALLY over priced. Bad policy in my books)
The food made up for the res and bar-tending being way off Thank goodness! The appys (esp the flat bread) are great and the fish tacos are justifiable famous, same for the sushi. The mains were equally satisfying. I had butter chicken which was a great value/portion and tasty to boot! All the salads, salmon, burger etc were meet with approval too.
The ambiance and decor are most pleasing also, and they look like they do a good job of training their wait staff,
would I come back? probably for the food and decent service but I would avoid peak hours and NOT order anything from the bar. I'm torn about the service rating..the res/seating screw up was huge, but they did recover nicely and were great during the meal.I'll give a solid and see what happens next time.

We were her last night with two other couples at ones insistence that we try this place. It is the old anduccis on Lougheed so the decor was nice with some Asian/Japanese additions. We decided on the Omakase at $60/person. Now sometimes omakase (which literally means "its up to you" in Japanese)can result in two things, either the chef gives you a parade of ho-hum cheap stuff for a big rip off or it can be a way to try stuff you never normally would and it lets the chef show off his skill. Thankfully this place was the latter. They asked us ahead if we wanted emphasis on cooked or sushi/sashimi and we went with the first. The parade of dishes was truly amazing and I lost count of how many! some high lights, Lobster roll, tuna tataki, a great octopus sashimi in a curry sauce, smoked salmon, TWO dozen Kishu (sp) oysters with various sauces, a sirloin beef roll (most unique) steamed mussels in curry sauce, a beautiful prawn tempura in a shredded fried potato nest with salad, oh and the desserts, green tea creme brulee, a white chocolate with bean paste and poached pear with ice cream were the three we choice (one per couple). I am positive that I've forgotten some dishes as there were too many to remember. The service staff was attentive and efficient and very pleasant. The chef would be right at home with this type of place and menu downtown. Foe 120 per couple it was a great fine dining value. I will be back to pick and choose next time from his large inventive sushi/tapas menu. This is an easy one to recommend!

We were at the Beaver the other night for a B-day party which coincided with 'name that tune night". I used to work out here and I remember the food at the beaver always being a notch above what you would expect from a pub, the calamari here used to be some of the best in town. I ordered the same thing and ended up with a soggy portion of tiny rings and a small mound of messy shredded lettuce as a "side salad" Wow what a change. Other people we were with ordered various dishes and NONE of them were really any good, the closest to being good was the salmon burger. On the plus side the ambiance of this place is great and the beer is cold and reasonably priced. Good place for a beer and a view but don't bother with the food..they even managed to fail at doing nachos! whoever is running this place should bring back the former chef!

My wife and I dined here with another couple last night. The room is in my opinion absolutely beautiful. From the leather sling seats to the ceiling effect it is very west coast contemporary. The wine list is justifiable famous, huge! easy to navigate and you will find a wine for every taste and budget guaranteed! Most of the table went with seafood themed meals so we had a lovely Sicilian white. Speaking of meals, this is the only thing lacking in these types of restaurants. The food is beautifully prepared and presented but seeing that entrees average 40+ dollars and first course around twenty, the could afford to give decent portion. I'm not talking about stuffing your face but some dishes don't even allow you to develop and appreciate all the subtlety and care they were made with before they're gone! The service was impeccable, unobtrusive and friendly. The service was the high light of the night, which shouldn't be the case, the service should supplant the meal not overshadow it! The cocktail list is very inventive, I had a Bergamo (blood orange and coffee based), wonderful! All in all the night averaged out to over $100/person all in. In line with the caliber of the restaurant but still an overall disappointment for that kind of dough. Vancouver has way to many restaurants with this type of formula. A neutral rating at best.

I had lunch here for the first time today, I've passed their advert board on Burrard enough to be interested and when my son suggested lunch up we went to the second floor. The ambiance and decor are certainly better than most lunch places and in keeping with more of an evening dinner space. Nice linen table cloths with cloth napkins, the works. The buffet isn't extensive but what they have is very good. Special mention for the Tandoori chicken (excellent) and the fresh Naan they bring to the table (again excellent, not greasy or heavy and always hot/fresh made, a real treat in itself). The butter chicken was good as were the various Daals they had. Coke for my son was 1.50 and bottomless, always nice with teenagers! A bit more expensive than most d/t lunches at $15 but in my opinion well worth it. They don't hurry you at all and are very attentive and gracious and the view of downtown scenery is a plus. I would recommend and return.

A group of ten were here last night for the taste of yaletown. The $35 three course menu was a good selection of the tried and true and some lesser known dishes. I had the mussels in Chorizo sauce as a first, the sable fish and risotto main and their deservedly legendary warm ginger pudding and gelato dessert. The dishes were well prepared, the mussels were OK but the sable fish and dessert more than made up for it. Looking around the table I'd have to say that the main of choice would be the new york strip loin, beautiful cut and about 8 oz to boot! It alone is worth the price of the fixed menu (take that "Morons" steakhouse!) The service was professional and attentive, there was a slight order mix up (resulting in a delay of 5 min max ) and that person was immediately offered a comp (he took a cocktail). Other dishes of note were the Asian tenderloin salad starter and any of the accompanying risottos were excellent. The Ambiance is pure yaletown and this place in particular pulls of the casual sophistication that the area is know for. I would recommend.

The old school East Van Chinese restaurants are the best when it comes to great food, service and value. The Pelican is all that plus a great ambience with it recent rennos. The food here is fast and fresh with the average dish running between 10-12 dollars. Service is Cantonese style which i MUCH prefer to the mandarin places that seem to think they are doing you a favour. Our party of 14 ordered up a storm of everything from the run of the mill to some lesser know dishes including three fresh crabs done three ways. The food arrived fast, hot and tasty with great service. They even plated up a B-Day cake for us with comp mango pudding on the side. With a few beers on the tab it came to about $25/person including a great tip which they earned and deserved! I'm glad places like this are still around

I've finally had my first Japa-dog, I usually don't go much for street dogs simply because the taste never lives up to the aroma! This place has a different twist with Japanese type sausages and toppings. The prices are slightly higher than your usual cart dogs but then again the meat is of a bit higher quality. i had the Oshinoko (sp?) dog which was basically a pork sausage with shredded diakon, teriyaki sauce green onions and wasabi mayo (which I warn you is HIGHLY addictive!) As the weather gets better this would be a great place to chow down outdoors with a buddy, sipping a coke and watching the street traffic in front of the Sutton. I look forward to it!
Oh yeah, service, polite and efficient with a Japanese twist, just like their dogs!

I had completely overlooked this place and it's not hard to see why. A non-descript building on Hastings in a not great part of town. This was my first sushi place back in the early 80's! This and the Japanese deli on Powell (long since gone) are the grand daddies of sushi in Vancouver. We went last night with 3 other couples. Dishes to recommend are their BBQ Unagi, the best in town IMHO, the lobster roll, very decedent and they have a great scallop roll called the chop-chop. The attention to details obvious such as the basic Miso comes with clams; the iced tea is actually brewed iced tea! One of my new faves is the cucumber roll made by wrapping in cucumber instead of rice. The beer is also reasonably priced. The menu is not cheap like a lot of other sushi places and is actually a bit pricey for the area, however the quality and service make up for it. w/c’s were very clean, a nice break from the norm for this type of restaurant. I’m glad I rediscovered this place and would recommend you give it a try, oh btw, reservations are highly recommended.