Osteria Elio Volpe — Restaurant in Vancouver

WOWIEEE, I came in with such low expectations for Elio, and to be honest for them to surpass it and on top of that give me even more WOW!!! I was very much pleased and satisfied for the rest of the night.

Thank you Chef Alan Tam for cooking for us that night, and on top of that having such a fantastic server, Sean. Me and my group had a great night, especially when we reserve a table, we were seated promptly when we arrived and was offered to hang out jackets/coats. Our friend was already there, and we were seated perfectly right at the spot where I can see everyone coming into the restaurant. I loved the spot a lot as I love to people watch.

Anyways, the server Sean came to our table and asked us what to drink for the night. I was already ready as I love going through the menus etc. I ordered my drink and the others still had to go through the menu. I love the feel of the menu, it is a nice leather for their drinks. And on top of that the colour is just the perfect aesthetic. I tried to get the tasting menu for the night with the friends, but we decided to just order stuff off the menu a la carte. We were ready with our orders when Sean came back with my drink and he was extremely attentive and answered all our questions about the stuff we were curious about on the menu that night. Very knowledgeable and extremely nice too. Yay Sean.

Anyways we ordered the following:

Honeycrisp apples Salad- 7/10, this was pretty good as the apple flavour really gave the salad the perfect acidity. I really enjoyed how much of a fresh light simple salad can be quite a good delight. And it was perfect for the season of summer to start off something good and delicious.

Baccala 'mantecato' & Potato chips- 8/10, I was not expecting the potato chips to be perfectly stacked like that in the little casserole dish like that. On top of that, the flavours on the potato chips were perfectly dressed. Every bite was consistent, and their version of a mantecato was delicious. I enjoyed every bite and I loved how they pay attention to every detail of the dish. Yummy!! This is a must order again when I do visit!

Manila Clam & Lemon Zest Pizza- 6.5/10, maybe this could have been better. I am not much of a pizza fan, but the others loved this. I felt this could have been so much better if there was more ingredients on it, it felt a little meh. But I did enjoy their perfect bake of the pizza. A good crisps on the crust and on top of that NOT GREASY BOTTOMS. YAY! I enjoyed that quite a lot as I ate it with a perfectly non-greasy hand. THANK YOU.

Grilled Lamb Chops w/ celery salsa verde- 9/10, WOWIEE this was one of their plates that amazed me! I didn't expect this at all. They only serve this as 3 chops and on top of that, this was extremely delicious. The chops were not gamey at all and their celery salsa verde was a delicious blend with the lamb chops. The chop size itself was enough for 3-4 bites and the perfect cooking time too. Well done on this!!

Flatiron steak in black pepper sauce- 10/10, the reaction I had for this steak is not describable. And that pepper sauce that was paired with the steak, omfg I was legit dying and my friends were worried when they saw me eat this steak. I love this steak, it was delicious, it was amazing it was SPECTACULAR! It was a perfect sear of medium rare, and the way the meat just melted in my mouth, I couldn't stop. I have to get this again when I come visit. This is a must eat on my list.

Daily Sorbet (mandarin oranges)- 8/10 it tasted like a delicious fruity creamsicle and it was a good palette cleanser for the night. It was delicious and summery and it was just fully of comfort. I loved this a lot.

The starters and the apps were just ok, but their mains are their biggest attractions for sure! Will be coming back for more dinner nights with friends or maybe trying a...

Our party of 5 was excited to here after months of constantly being fully booked up. Maybe our situation was a one off but it fell below our expectations.

This is how our night went: at 9:10 we arrived at the restaurant and was told we will be seated shortly. We checked back at around 9:30 and were told the table we were waiting for was wrapping up and having dessert. We understand sometimes things are out of the restaurants control. The next time we checked in was at 9:45 where we were told by the front desk that the table was paying their bill. We again, went outside to wait. At 10:10, we went back in to check on the status of the table. When we spoke to the front desk, we had to explain to him that we had been waiting for close to an hour — he did not seem to be aware of this nor did it seem like the fact that we were waiting for this long was on anyone’s radar. During this entire time, no one followed up or gave us updates - we had to go up to the front desk, explain the situation, and ask for a time estimate each time. The person we spoke with was apologetic and told us that said that he “wanted to reassure us that they would make it up to us” and suggested we order a round of drinks at the bar. We told him that we’d order the drinks when we get seated to which he again, said he’d “make it up to us” for the inconvenience. We finally sat down around 10:25, close to an hour and half after our reservation time.

We ordered our food and a round of shots.

Our bill came out to $700 with drinks and food included. We saw that the round of drinks that we were told would be “taken care of” was charged to us in full. We paid the bill and left. We ordered other drinks on top of the first round of shots and did not expect anything else to be comped. The issue we have is that if you are reassuring your guests that you will be extending a gesture to make up for the extensive delay, it doesn’t make sense to then to not follow through. Nonetheless, we didn’t say anything but we did not leave a tip (it was equivalent to the amount of the round of drinks we ordered) because we felt as though the service was extremely lacking. If there is a delay, as guests, we should be informed of such other than having us go up ask 3-4 times and then being misled about how much longer we’d have to wait. Each time the front staff made it seem like it wouldn’t be longer than 15 minutes.

Would we eat here again? No. The food wasn't horrible, but the only memorable thing about our experience was the extremely bad...

I’m so happy to be dining at a restaurant close to home- Elio Volpe it is. Reservation went smoothly and we were seated right away. Parking is plenty outside. Service is friendly and atmosphere is great. 4* because there was a lack of follow through for comments and asked if there’s additional an order so I had to get up everytime. But tbh, she is super kind and she never fails to serve anything that’s being requested. So it’s close to 5*—— this comment is just to give some room for improvement.

In terms of the brunch offerings, it can be way better: The salad was very plain with just mixed greens and fried onions on top for $16 (photo as shown), I don’t think this is worth it. 2* not because it’s bad taste, it’s not meeting the value and the brand perception to the quality of food. There’s only a few vegetable options on the list so it was expected to be a good one. I ended up putting them on my pizza. The pizza was ok, especially the crust but maybe some chili oil, chili flakes, sliced jalapeno, or spicy honey for some kicker? I had some spicy hollandaise sauce but it wasn’t enough. When I requested for more spice, I was given a red hot sauce which wasn’t that spicy as well. Mushroom toppings if it had some truffle oil on it would have been wonderful. At least some condiments on the side would have been great…. The waffle with the chicken was ok…. But it would have been better if it was fluffy on the inside. It was crispy but my kids didn’t even want to eat it. They were soaked with maple syrup. And I tried to dig, had a bite, and left it on the plate as well.

The Dungeness crab with shrimp bowl was very good (love it). It was probably the only 5* for me while some were between 2-3 and won’t have them again on my next visit.

Overall, I think there’s still a few things on the menu which I would have loved to try, but at the end of it I was too full to have more food.

Since I live close, I’ll definitely come back and try the other stuff they have and who knows I’ll find my new favourite?! :) I think I’m just very particular as we’re certified foodies who eats out a lot so we get to compare them to other...