Pacifico Pizzeria & Ristorante — Restaurant in Vancouver

I'm writing this review of the day after we went. And the first thought that comes to mind thinking of our dinner there last night is IT WAS HOT! I sweated through my meal. The elderly couple next to us received their order soon after we sat down and we overheard their conversation leading up to it's arrival. They were melting. They were having concerns about their health and decided to get a to-go box as soon as the food arrived. Just so you know I'm not being dramatic, I had armpit sweat in my thin shirt when we left! IT. WAS. HOT.

We ate there at 6:30 PM on Saturday night. We had reservations but not sure we needed them. The place was pretty full, but there were about 5 tables open when we arrived. By the time we left, about an hour later, there was a line at the door.

FOOD Pretty darn good.

We had the appetizer truffle fries, which are just fries with truffle oil (NOT shaved fresh truffle like I thought) my son insists it said that on the menu. For dinner, I had the tomato-based Gnocchi. The smoothness of the gnocchi was balanced with the crunch of lightly sauteed onions and garlic that was mixed into the tomato sauce. I rather enjoyed it. They claim the gnocchi is made in-house. Nothing to dispute that except that it wasn't really in the shape of gnocchi my grandmother m, de which would slightlyted rolled onto itself. This was the lazy-mans approach of kneaded dough rolled into a tube and just cut into chunks. It seems to be what's served everywhere now and is always a disappointment to me. Otherwise, flavors were good.

My son ordered a pizza with Pepperoni and spinach. Hats off to our server that noticed the spinach was just placed on top of the cooked pizza raw and came out to ask if that's what we wanted before she served it to us. It was NOT what we wanted. They cooked it a bit before serving it. But it wasn't sautéed spinach like we are accustomed. My son is a picky pizza person. Not to say he's an expert on pizza, but he knows what he likes. He said the best pizza he's ever had was about an 8.5 out of 10. He gave this pizza a 6. He said he didn't hate it, but it also didn't wow him. He's not a fan of the thinner crust with crunchy edges, which this had. There wasn't much sauce, and it had the standard smaller pepperoni most fast food pizza places have. Again, not horrible, just not his favorite.

Our server was STELLAR! She was very attentive and always right there when we needed something. They seemed keenly aware of the heat/humidity in the restaurant as our water glasses never dipped below half full, and we were sucking back the water fast! I just can't stress enough how very uncomfortably hot it was in there. We were seated on a landing at the second level of the restaurant looking over the bottom floor. There is a third level I was surprised to see is where the kitchen is. Imagine... in that heat... the serving staff has to go up 2 flights of stairs to retrieve orders to serve to the bulk of their tables downstairs each time! We are the type to sit, relax and chat and enjoy a meal to it's fullest including dessert and they absolutely had a very desirable dessert selection, but we just couldn't bear to sit...

I visited Pacifico Pizzeria and Restaurante last night. The restaurant was quite busy and it took a long time for drinks etc to come. That wasn’t an issue, as we expected longer wait times, especially on a weekend.

When our drinks came, the Blue Buck Phillips Amber Ale was completely flat. It was my partners birthday, so I didn’t say anything. We ordered the prosciutto and arugula pizza along with the smoked chorizo gnocchi.

When our pizza finally arrived, the presentation was good. However, as soon as I bit into it, all I could taste was fish. I eat all kinds of meat and fish, but there was clearly something not right here. Even when I smelt another piece of pizza, it was absolutely rotten. My partner could clearly taste fish as well. I asked the waitress if there was supposed to be a fish sauce on the Parma and arugula pizza, to which they responded,

“No, but I took one home last night and it smelled off.”

At this point I was utterly dumbfounded. I couldn’t believe a restaurant of this standard had compromised not only the health of their staff, but their patrons.

We were asked whether we would like to reorder the pizza, erase it from the bill (not order anything else) or reorder. Obviously, reordering the same pizza would lead to the same issues, so we tried the meatball pizza, to attempt to rekindle the evening and because we were absolutely starving at this point. When the next pizza eventually came, it was great.

We didn’t cause a scene or make a big deal of the issue, but we had hoped the restaurant and staff would have the decency to at least show they were sorry by slightly reducing the bill or providing the meatball pizza on the house to try and make up for attempting to feed us rotten food. They didn’t.

At the end of the evening I attempted to explain a few simple truths, listed above, to the waitress. I may as well have been speaking to the wall. None of our grievances were taken into consideration and we paid the full bill.

I come from a service background and am thoroughly disgusted with this establishment. Not only will I never eat here again, I will actively promote that no one I know does either. There are multiple wonderful restaurants in Vancouver, this isn’t one of...

I walked in for an impromptu date yesterday night around 7:30 and had high hopes. The space is beautiful, the hostess was prompt in seating us and gave us a couple options for tables which I appreciated, and I found the ambiance pleasant.

It started going downhill slowly from there. Half of the beers on tap were unavailable, which is disappointing and unexpected for a Friday night service. Our server was polite and friendly, but training seems to be lacking at this restaurant. When my wine arrived in a sidecar, it wasn't poured, which seems very casual for the impression I got of the restaurant.

Side plates didn't match, paper napkins are underwhelming, the charcuterie, when run to our table, was not explained to us - we had next to no idea what we were eating. Other odd choices in the food confused us - antipasto with undressed greens? Chopped parsley sprinkled on olives as a sad garnish? A pile of what seemed like cheese curds? Very poorly plated and poorly conceptualized.

We were never quality checked and didn't bother finishing the antipasto. The washroom on the mezzanine was out of toilet paper and the paper towel dispenser didn't work. A dirty towel, a spray bottle and a serving tray were left just lying on the banister as you come downstairs, which looks sloppy (and caused me to walk into it, which was not fun haha)

There were some bright spots - the mussels were delicious and the bread was also quite good. All in all, lots of potential, poor execution. I think training at this location is suffering and the manager presence is probably next to none. Until it improves, I'll just go to Italian Kitchen right...