Fiorino, Italian Street Food Chinatown Vancouver — Restaurant in Vancouver

Wow! What an absolutely terrible experience we had an Fiorino. We were greeted by the host and asked to choose two tables that were available, however all of the booths beside the stand were empty and available. The host noticed we were looking at the booths and he reluctantly was like, "Oh yeah, we have some people coming in celebrating birthdays, and anniversaries, so those are unavailable." We were there to celebrate my friend's 30th birthday and her passing an important exam, but didn't put it in the reservation notes, so it was unfortunate we were given less desirable seats because the host let us know people had more important celebrations. We booked at this restaurant because Fiorino had their dineout menu on their website even though the official festival had ended a few days earlier. We know that some places extend it, so we figured since their menu was up on their website, they were offering it still! When we sat down and were given the regular menu, we asked about the dineout menu, the host rudely remarked that it ended a few days earlier. We mentioned it was still on your menu and he brushed it off like it was irrelevant. It's the only reason we booked there. After that the server came to us and let us know the restaurant menu was designed to be "family style" and recommended for 3 people to order "5 to 10 dishes". My immediate response was "10 dishes?! They are $40 each" and the server rudely responded, "okay." After a few brief awkward seconds she walked away clearly annoyed by the interaction. It was bizzare. I guess she told the host about the interaction and he came back to our table and explained to us that 10 would be too much food for the 3 of us and we didn't need to order that many. After all of that. We ordered two appies to share and we each ordered our own dish. I ordered the gnocchi, which was okay, but it immediately made my stomach achey. I was feeling fine but something didn't agree with my stomach. After sharing two appies and having a meal to myself, I still wasn't full. Very frustrating given my portion of the bill came to $60 (with no drinks). There is definitely NO bang for your buck at this restaurant. If you want decent portion sizes for a decent price, do not come here. On top of that, the staff were incredibly rude and standoffish making it a really crappy dining experience which was supposed to be a nice night out with friends to celebrate exciting life accomplishments. If I had it my way I would absolutely not consider this a "Michelin Star" restaurant. I would recommend double thinking about coming here and spending your hard earned...

Came with high expectations but left disappointed....

Food: Fried risotto balls--interesting to try deep fried risotto, but the risotto flavor is not that good, too much cheese on my opinion, yet lacking some spices and broth flavor...

Beef carpaccio--not too good not too bad, just wish it would have more spices. There are other Italian restaurants in van make this dish much better

Gnocchi--bad...it's overcooked. Can't stand the overly mushy and easily breaking apart texture, it supposed to be a bit squidgy. The sauce is great, very flavorful, if it's done in the right time, it would be a good dish. But the texture is too bad I had to return this dish.

4, parpadelle--good, but need some improvement on the wrapping shape. They use freshly made dough, the wrap is thin and chewy, tastes very good with the filling inside. But because of the shape of the parpadelle, the top part has too many layers sticking together, making the flour there not fully cooked like the rest of the parpadelle (refer to my close-up picture) I ate the whole thing but left all the top part, cuz it's just a bunch of undercooked flour. Sauce is great. This dish is nearly 40 bucks for 3 parpadelle, I expect better pasta with this price, at least not like this throwing away a bunch top layers situation.

Service: Quite attentive service. But not really liking the store automatically set tip percentage 25% as the first choice on the card machine, especially food is not even that good, like I spend 100 bucks on a very average meal is already very disappointing, and paying 25 bucks for services within the 1 hour ish dining period at tiny bar spaces ...of course I could choose to type my preferred tip amount, but it's really unpleasant to see restaurants do this (setting a very high tip percentage as the first choice on the card machine).

Atmosphere: The interior capture some vibes that matches the restaurant's cuisine, livly and a lots chatting and laughing.

Overall: High prices for very average Italian food. Not quite worth the money and experience. I won't come back myself unless any of my friends or family want to try...

The service was attentive, warm, and friendly overall. The ambiance and decor of the restaurant felt authentic to the theme of Italian streets. However, the food that we ordered (boar gnocchi, seafood cone, arancini balls) was subpar at best.

First, the arancini arrived hot and crispy, however upon the first bite and a couple of chews in tasted as if it had been oversalted, and I had swallowed sea water. I cannot remember a time in my dining experience that I did not finish a dish due to the excessive amount of salt content. I genuinely wanted to enjoy it.

Second, the boar gnocchi arrived as our main entree. I was expecting a little more meat protein in the sauce, and perhaps the amount of boar in the sauce ratio is what it's intended to be. The gnocchi we received was very mushy and seemed overcooked. Upon taking the first few bites, it transported me back to my childhood when my mother would heat up canned Chef Boyardee for my after-school snack. It's not a bad thing at all, quite nostalgic, I was just expecting the flavour profile and textures to not be that.

Lastly, our seafood cone had arrived and as a seafood lover, I was expecting fresh, decent sized portions. The seafood was hot. Good. Crispy. Also good. The size of each seafood seemed like it had shrunk quite a bit during the frying process to the size of my thumb. I also didn't see how this is any different from ordering a calamari dish from any other typical and mediocre Canadian restaurant in Vancouver.

The server was very kind and suggested us to try their dessert next time, which I may still do. To sum it up, solid service and ambiance. The food was not so good, and would not pay the amount we did (about $100) for two people to return to this type...