Trattoria Italian Kitchen

Press

Everyone has been excited about Trattoria Italian Kitchen right from the beginning. Read what the local media has to say about us below.

Tim Pawsey,
Vancouver Courier
Friday, July 04, 2008
There's an unmistakable buzz to Kitsilano's newly minted Trattoria Italian Kitchen, far removed from the below par Chianti Café that preceded it--and guaranteed to raise yet further the growing culinary fortunes of this taste-filled stretch of Fourth Avenue.

T.I.K. is the latest brainchild from the Glowbal Group, which already runs namesake Glowbal, Coast, Sanafir and downtown's Italian Kitchen. However, the Kits offshoot offers a unmistakable counterpoint to its Alberni Street parent. Less slick, far less attitude-driven and virtually suit-free, the streamlined, more casual Kits tratt version is all about food and fun, with nary a hint of pretension--thanks in no small way to a staff that goes out of its way to make everything click. Four of us with varying tastes descended en route to a show last week, luckily arriving around 6 p.m., ahead of the dinner surge that makes table waits a norm.

The experience starts with a great space from prolific and progressive Box Design. Here's a sassy space that flows around its long bar-open kitchen, and central wine table where servers can pick up and open your bottle (picked from an efficient and well-priced list) with ease.

The menu--straight-ahead pan-regional picks--caters to all comers with everything from anti-pasti and personal pizzas to well-priced mains and affordable sides, plus well-conceived pasta servings that rely on flavour not volume to satisfy. Case in point: the perfectly assembled insalata mista ($8), which arrives as a delicious tangle of baby organic greens, radicchio, ripe heirloom tomatoes, diced fennel and carrots. The list makes for easy choosing, with portions to suit every appetite. Sides ($5-7) such as the lemon thyme roasted herbed potatoes are easily shared and don't push the tab over the edge, along with meat and fish mains pegged mainly in the mid-teens.

Veal piccata arrives tender and sliced thin with an abundance of capers, while the rosemary herbed half-chicken is moist and flavourful. Ultimately, though, it's the smartly sized pasta plates that impress, with a range of cleanly interpreted classics: linguine carbonara sees a simple but well-balanced plate of nicely al dente pasta enveloping robust flavours of pancetta, parmesan and sliced free range scallions.

Italian purists might be tempted to pick apart the folksy Italian approach (especially given the apparent lack of homegrown Latins on hand) but we found the kitchen well-versed and the staff sincerely helpful--right down to running out to buy more Brussels sprouts from a local store when the supply for the lemon caper roasted tidbits ran out.

Ultimately, besides what's on the plate, it's also all about the atmosphere, from the open kitchen to the ever-accessible wine table and "meet your neighbour" banquettes. In just ten days, professional and polished, this is already a "go-to" Kits room--and it's easy to see why.

The Trattoria Italian Kitchen (1850 West Fourth Ave., 604-732-1441) is open weekdays 11.30 a.m.-12.00 a.m. and weekends from 10.30 a.m.