Carano — Restaurant in Vancouver

We had an incredible Sunday family get together for our sister's birthday celebration. The service was phenomenal as if you were going to your cool best friends restaurant but the food is extraordinary using fresh ingredients, piping hot dishes and definitely made with love. The head pizza chef was incredible....I literally watched him forming the dough to the pizzas and he did every one with patience and care as if he was making it for his own family to eat.

I love how the owner(s) have hired excellent staff and enough of them so we never had to wait long. The pastas were incredible rigatoni with pork ragu had the perfect about of heat, 🍄 mushroom risotto had a nice truffle oil, cacio pepe minus the pepe was perfect for the kids ...my picky son asked me to order another order. There is so much good food I don't know where to even start....if you love a lemony garlicky Caesar salad /kale Caesar with the best homemade croutons ( love). Meatballs tapas were excellent and don't forget to order the homemade foccacia bread ( I was told the head pizza chef makes it) is a must and don't forget to dip in the meatball sauce.

And of course the pizzassssssss......

The crust is just incredible. Light and crispy with the right al dente chewiness and the ingredients were amazing ..highlights for me were the sausage and fennel, Hawaiian with roasted macadamia buts and fresh roasted pineapple, spicy coconut kale was fantastic and it is spicy ...I don't think you can go wrong.

Thank you to my sister 💕 for introducing this gem of a restaurant with cute outdior seating too...can't believe I have only tried it now . My side of the family has seen the photos and we are already gonna come back next week. ENJOY!!

PS INSIDER TIPS ...ASK FOR THEIR HOMEMADE CALABRIAN CHILLIES DIP AND BLUE CHEESE RANCH TOP FOR YOUR PIZZAS. THANKS ME LATER.

PPS DRINKS ARE GREAT TOO PLUS THEY USE GLASS...

I forget where I came across this, but I heard that this place had a "spicy coconut kale pizza" and I knew I had to try it. I finally visited with a friend and the pizza totally lived up to my dreams. The flavours are pretty unexpected for pizza, but the aroma of the coconut cream with the nutty sauteed mushrooms and chili heat is heavenly. Their crust takes thin crust to a new level - it's almost paper thin but crispy and sturdy with nicely puffed edges. I saved a piece to take home, but one hungry person can definitely finish an entire pie. My friend got the Hawaiian and also praised it highly. Tiramisu is one of my favourite desserts so I also had to try theirs while I was here. We both really liked this too! Every bite was at first rich and creamy, and then the bittersweet coffee and cocoa flavour hit. The vibe here is great - our waiter was super friendly and made sure we had everything we needed. We hung around for a while after we paid and didn't feel any pressure to leave. It might be a little too popular to really be a neighbourhood secret, but it definitely has that feel of a cozy and cool place that's a little hidden away...

Small little pizza place with interesting flavours. (For those who are gluten-free, there is the option to pay extra for GF crusts). We ordered the Caprese salad, Spicy Coconut Kale pizza, Sweet Corn and Serrano pizza, and Tiramisu. The Caprese salad was made with chunky heirloom tomato and cherry tomatoes, and very soft chunks of bufala mozzarella, with a sort of basil pesto instead of the usual whole leaves. I liked their version of Caprese a lot.

The pizzas were also fairly good, but the crusts were a bit hard (and the 2 slices of leftovers were even harder the next day). They were also not that filling. We still had room for dessert so we decided to try the Tiramisu. It was creamy and the taste of liqueur was fairly strong, with cacao nibs on top to provide some nice textural contrast.

All in all the food was fairly enjoyable, and service was good. However, the prices are quite high, with the bill coming to nearly $70 (after tax and tip) for 2 people with no drinks, and we don't consider ourselves to have large appetites. Leftovers got really hard after reheating. Although I enjoyed the experience at Carano, not sure I would...