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Family owned and operated, Cipriano's is decorated in classic style with checkered tablecloths and brightly painted, stuccoed walls, with the sounds of Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin in the background. The menu features home-style Italian dishes, with recipes dating back to 1953, when owner Frank's father, Guiseppe Cipriano, introduced the large, flat, and round crust to Vancouver. Frank and wife, Christina Cipriano, have been operating the restaurant for twenty-three years, with Christina's brother, Al, joining on as manager in 1991. Over the years, several family members have filled in as cooks and servers. While the faces may change, what remains constant are the generous portions of pizza and pasta in a dining room that's a little slice of the old country.
I bought the $24.00 deal and took my mom .We arrived at 5;30pm and one couple were just leaving Palate was drooling .... I ordered the full ribs and spaghetti [$5 extra] mom i had the canneloni and spaghetti.. Our server remarked that the cannelloni was small .1 st course caesar salad not hearts of romaine hand peeled wilted romaine with dressing 2nd their famous garlic bread not in the oven enough and doughy 3rd Cannelloni brought our personally by the chef prize dish? Terrible two small cannellonis in a small chaffing dish and too much sauce not tasty and the filling was waterlogged stuffed with unseasonded beef i guess.not enough for a man or my mom ... MOM's side of ribs with spaghetti ribs were a full side but not cooked enough and did not fall off the bones mom had 2 pieces i had 1 terrible. cheap with the sauce Last course mom had spumoni ice cream ok i tried their homemade lemon parfait.Gross i dislike artificial lemon flavored anything.. I told our very large server about the cannelloni too much sauce ribs could be cooked more and i only had one spoonful of lemon parfait.Every time he just gave me a look like how dare you critisize our 5 star entrees. He saw i barely touched the parfait did not offer a replacement. I was very courteous when i mentioned to him three seperate times regarding our meals at different stages..He quickly brought out the bill and left not to be seen again so i payed the extra $11.60 .$5 plus tax. I complained to the dealer but never got a response.My mom warned me that you get what you pay for..I thought they have been in business for 30 yrs. plus .and thought a home cooked authentic italian meal mmmmmm drooling already.HUge disappointment will never return again.
Cipriano's forgetaboutit. Great food, awesome ambiance, and service second to none with outstanding value how can you go wrong....right out of a scene from Goodfellas' we highly recommended it. It's our favourite restaurant can't wait till our next meal there.If you love Italian this is a must visit when in Vancouver. The atmosphere is so romantic I asked my wife to marry me right at our favorite table!Ciao Bella & Joe
After having passed by this restaurant many times in the past but never stepped inside, I've finally given it a shot after reading enough reviews to expect possibly rude service with maybe some good food.
They obviously use canned tomato paste for the red sauced pastas--very disappointing--the kind of stuff I use to cheat with & it tasted near identical to when I used to not even bother to try! The pasta itself, however, is made perfectly al dente. The "lightly battered" veal is awfully bland processed meat like a burger patty with extra miscellaneous products patted in as fillers. The tiramisu is okay--very much like the prepackaged stuff.
The service by the old guy is adequate & pleasant. The prices are a little high for canned tomato paste & the pizza prices seem a little up there, too.
I wanted to return to try a white sauced pasta, but was a little turned off from reading the reviews here as well as from an attempted call-in take out order for pizza. I didn't really care to sit in again as the ambiance leaves little to be desired though it's darkly lit in the "romantic" sense, the half the chairs used were like my grandma's old chairs though I can only assume the place is kept adequately clean as it's too dark to be sure.
My husband suggested Cipriano's for dinner on Friday night.
It is dimly lit and the ambiance is like an Italian restaurant from another era with red checkered tablecloths and Frank Sinatra playing softly in the background.
We both decided to go with the $24.95 value menu. It gives you a choice of 4 different salads, bruschetta + garlic bread, a choice of any entree from their menu and dessert. For the salad you could choose from Caesar, green, Italian or tomato and onion. My husband opted for the tomato and onion salad and I had the Caesar salad. The servings were large enough that you could easily share 1 between 2 people. They were very good salads, all the ingredients were nice and fresh and the salads were nicely seasoned. Next came the bruschetta and garlic bread. The garlic bread was very good but the bruschetta was absolutely amazing - nice ripe tomato on crusty bread that had been brushed with garlic. For entrees my husband had veal with eggplant and penne pasta. He said it was very good. I had spaghetti with Italian sausage and it was a huge portion and very well prepared. They were very generous with the Italian sausage and the sausage had a very nice spicy taste to it. I was only able to get through 1/3 of my pasta and requested a doggy bag for the rest. For dessert the choices were spumoni ice cream, lemoncello ice cream or tiramisu. I had the teramisu and hubby had the the lemoncello. The ice cream was a better option. With a 1/2 litre of wine and tip dinner was $80.00.
Excellent value for the quality of food.
Heard good things about this place so decided to check it out. Well I ordered the puttanesca, and it was horrible, the "sauce" tasted like it was out of a can, the worst puttanesca I've had in my life. The service was decent, the room was a bit rundown but the food was just horrible. Won't be going back that's for sure.
Italian food, being ubiquitous in North American home kitchens, has to have some major zing to impress diners, and this is where Cipriano's falls flat on its face. $18 portions of lasagne that i could have made twice as well, and for 1/3 the cost, are not a good deal. The pizza is totally average and I have frankly had better at Panago.
The restaurant looks homey, the elderly owner is friendly, but the food is bland and totally average and seriously overpriced for what you get. Oh, and in a city with some of the best breweries in the country, the beer selection is atrocious. Italians drink beer too...why not offer some decent fresh local stuff? The wine list is far from all-italian...
Thsi is the kind of place I would LOVE to love...but I can't,
Went there with some friends a couple Saturday nights ago. It was my first time but couple of my friends said to try it out as they've been there before and said it wasn't bad. We arrived just a little before 6 and we were the first customer that night. Fortunately we did not get the horrible big Italian waiter (owner?) but a female waitress and she was alright. 3 of us got the "feast" and the others ordered a la carte. The food was not bad at all and the service was not that bad either. Make sure you try the garlic bread if you go, it's really good. Strong possibility I may go back.
From the outside (which is a good place to stay) this looks like a real old time restaurant you might find in NY's Little Italy. That where all comparisons end. Better food can be found in a high school cafeteria although the portions here are larger. The sauce tastes canned and the pasta is over cooked. I won't even get into the obnoxious owner. How any one could find this place worth a visit is beyond me.
My boyfriend and I went here to celebrate his new job. I felt like I'd heard good things about it from friends, and we decided to chance it after reading the some of the negative reviews on this site because it sounded as though the food was decent.
The food was just okay--not memorable. Large portions, but nothing is particularly fresh or well prepared. Definitely overpriced.
However, the ambience and service are what made this a truly uncomfortable and unpleasant dining experience. The server (I believe he is the owner) repeatedly bumped into and jostled our table (partly because the tables are all jammed together) and was brusque in his manner. A mom and her son walked in without a reservation and the first thing the owner said was, "I need the table back in an hour." And she looked a bit taken aback and didn't say anything, and he said, "Well, can you do that?" And this other table ordered some bread and the immediate response was "It's extra." I would have tried to ignore all this except he was loud and again, the tables are close together. Also, we could hear kitchen staff yelling and arguing in the back, including profanity.
It's as though they just don't understand or care about the customer experience. It was so uncomfortable, I couldn't wait to leave!
Not recommended.
Made reservations for a party of four on a Friday night at 6:00 pm at Cipriano’s. The place is very small and rather unimpressive. Rather than homey, it’s just old and run-down looking. We were seated at a somewhat cramped table against a protruding wall pillar even though the restaurant was over half empty at that time. The décor consisted of mainly red and green paint over rustic white walls and some assorted old photos of the “Rat Pack”: Sinatra, Sammy, Dean and the like.
Three of our group ordered the “Feast” which at $25 per person gives you an appetizer, salad, entrée and desert; I had bruschetta, Caesar salad, veal parmigiana (served with marinara and penne) and ice cream. Sounds like a good deal, right? Well, read on. The fourth member of our group ordered a simple linguine dish, which consisted of marinara sauce and Italian sausage for $18.95 - pretty steep.
The food is poor to average and quite unremarkable. One of us ordered the garlic bread, which along with the bruschetta was fresh and flavourful. However, I found the main entrees plain and utterly forgettable. The veal cutlet itself was tasteless, even though it was covered with marinara sauce and cheese. The penne and sauce was bland – I make better pasta at home. I sampled the linguine dish and was also disappointed by its blandness.
On an up note, the service was swift and attentive and they cleared away dirty plates in a timely fashion and replaced our cutlery when needed.
Poor food value and I agree with the reviewer who felt they were 30-40% overpriced – he hit it right on the head. I don’t mind paying if the pasta is excellent but this is a rip-off for crappy pasta. Sure the portions are large but who cares if it’s tasteless. I do not recommend this place to anyone and will tell people to stay clear. I will never come back. We finished dinner at 7:20 pm and the place was even emptier than when we came in. Maybe those people know to stay away from this place. Definitely not recommended!
The server was a large italian man who was very intimidating and constantly asked if we were ready. The food took quite awhile to make. I ordered the michael angelo which was pretty delicious however my friend ordered some pesto pasta which tasted like nothing!
There were also many people shouting and stuff so it took away from the mood.
Visit to Cipriano's for the first time. Was told it was cheap and chearful Italian. While it was chearful, it was not cheap, and considering the quality of the food and wine (not good), definitely was not worth it. I would say 35-40% overpriced. If you are going to spend that kind of money there are other much better Italian restaurants to visit.
This was truly one of the worst dining experiences we've ever had in Vancouver! Once we arrived and observed the dated, generic Italian decor we had serious concerns - but since sometimes looks can be deceiving we decided to stay and see what happened. Unfortunately the experience only got worse.
Service was completely lacking in warmth. I ordered a glass of wine which tasted as though it had come from a bottle opened at least the day before. Our dinner was no better. We shared a breaded chicken breast which arrived very cold and slathered in a heavy coating of oily pesto. It tasted as if it was frozen, not freshly prepared. It was accompanied by a luke warm side of pasta. The side of garlic toast ($7) tasted processed and unremarkable.
We would have expressed our displeasure to our server but after delivering the food, we didn't see him again. When he finally came back to collect our only half empty plates, I told him what our food had been like. Other than dropping his jaw in surprise, he made absolutely no comment and offered no apology. He disappeared - and 5 minutes later, the bill was delivered to us by another server we had never even seen. We told him we had wanted to see the dessert menu - and he was embarrassed to admit that he had no idea where we were with our meal, but that our server had told him to bring us the bill.
Eventually we got the dessert menu - but after being told only 2 of the 3 limited offerings were available (this info was shouted from across the restaurant by our original server) - we decided to cut our losses.
I couldn't believe that no apology was made for the cold food - nor was there any effort made to correct the situation. The fact that our server just abandoned us to someone else was in exceptionally poor taste - especially considering he wasn't busy as he was just hanging out by the bar during our interactions with the other server.
Save yourself from a similar experience, and don't go there! For the price, there are so many other places to go and experience much better food, service and ambiance!
The very momentum you walk in to this restaurant, you know that there is a tonne of history here. Only if the walls, tables, chairs... could talk... I do not think much has changed since it was opened, at least a few decades ago. It takes you back to the yesteryears. It is really cool from that standpoint.
It is a quint little restaurant with that "family owned" feeling. It certainly has "character". The tables and chairs are "fitted" in where ever there is room. The bright colors are so "old world". The servers are pleasant. If you are there to enjoy the food and the company, it is a great place to go. If you are expecting "fine dining and attentive service", you may be disappointed. I do not believe the owners intended it to be that.
The food is quite good. Decent portions.
My wife and I had a great time. Since it is on Main Street, people watching is quite entertaining.
We actually quite enjoyed the experience... a little bit of the "old world"... a little bit like dining in a village in Italy a few decades ago.
I have been here three times and have always ordered pasta dishes, never pizza, so I can't comment on the latter. Sometimes they have special events and the prices for such can be prohibitive. Otherwise, value is great because one dish is enough for two people so be prepared to take your leftovers home. The staff I have found to be a boon to the atmosphere and general satisfaction of the experience. The pasta and sauces are always quality and no matter what you order, tack on an order of garlic bread - you won't regret it.
The food was good but the staff made it seem like an awkward evening. One staff must have known the people at the next table because he talked to them for wuite a while...unfortunatly it was loud and there was a lot of swearing. Our water glasses were never refilled. A coupke came in and had to wait for a table. When the table was ready the owner (?) stood behind the bar (on the other sise of the restaurant) loudly shouting HELLO! HELLO! and pointing to the table. I like to think that they heard him but chose to ignore him. The only attentive service we got was when we were putting on our coats to leave and the owner(?) rushed over to our table to get our cresit card receipt...making us think that we were going to dine and dash. Yes, the cannaloni and the eggplant was good...but the staff weren't up to the job.
My husband and I have been going to Cipriano's for about 10 years now. We only go about twice a year as we are not that close by, but it is such a treat for us to go there. We do not go for the decor or service, not that I think it is that bad, but the food is wonderful. It is tasty, rich, and the portions are large. And yes, the garlic bread is to die for. We are going there next week and we are so excited. The place does look a little old fashioned, but I just think of it as one of those places that you go to because the food is great!
I went to Cipriano's with two others for the first time recently and have already recommended it to others. I felt this was an authentic Italian restaurant, flavours were wonderful and portions extremely generous. It would be a mistake to go expecting 5 star service but the atmosphere is relaxed and casual. Almost like eating in an Italian home. I loved the restaurant and the food! and I could tell there were regulars there which is always a good sign. Cipriano's exceeded my expectations.
Wow,
So we read the reviews and went blindly into the abyss. Traveling over town, getting a great table in what is a lovely dining room we thought we might be in for a treat.
Well we where surprised.
Way too much food with that "just out of a can" flavour. Really disappointing.
After getting past the charge on my card we found ourselves laughing outrageously all night long as to how sad this meal really was. The line in a previous review about the Italian consulate charging this place with "crimes against cuisine" nailed it and I find myself laughing even now.
Perhaps we should have had a pizza?
Even though I have lived in the area for nearly 30 years, never been to Cipriano's... have walked by and thought of going, but never did, until a few months ago when Crave's line up was too long!
One of our friends had tried Cipriano's pizza and said it was fantastic so we decided to give it shot! Didn't realize they only do reservations, and if you want to wait in line you could be waiting for quite some time. We decided to wait it out, and about 45 minutes later we finally got a table.
I ordered a spagetti bolognese and you would think a proper Italian restuarant would get that right? This tasted like they just opened a can of tomatoes and put it on top of the pasta yuk!!
My friends fared better, with one ordering a lovely pesto penne, and the other had an incredible pizza. Also we had some pretty amazing garlic bread.
The atmospher seemed okay, except we were sitting right by the bar? and could hear the staff talking/yelling/swearing and making inappropriate comments.
Also quite pricey.. not sure if I would want to pay that much?
Overall.. i may go back, but would order pizza for take away perhapes.
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