Pacifico Pizzeria Ristorante (map, website, menu, 970 Smithe Street, Vancouver, BC, Canada, phone: 604-408-0808) offers Italian pizzas and pastas in a sophisticated and airy modern atmosphere. The candle-lit dining room with double-height ceiling and balcony is a popular spot for a gourmet pizza before or after a movie. It’s located right next to the Scotiabank Movie Theatre in downtown Vancouver (near Burrard and Smithe).

Formerly a pizza place called Lombardo’s (which still has a location on Commercial Drive near 1st ave), Pacifico continues Lombardo’s practice of serving pizzas with inventive and complementary ingredients. We tried the “Salmone” ($25 for large, pictured below), made with smoked salmon, capers, and red onion. A delightfully chewy crust was brushed with extra virgin olive oil, and topped with lots of cheese.

We also tried their desserts. The Mud Pie ($6.00, pictured below) was fairly run-of-the-mill (still frozen solid) but the restaurant’s house specialty Tiramisu ($7.00, also pictured below) was heavenly.

Some higher-end restaurants have picked up a trend of serving “deconstructed” Tiramisu – a mix of mascarpone cheese, custard, coffee, and some liquor in a cocktail glass, with maybe a few biscuits hidden at the bottom. This mode of presentation may be satisfying in a different way from a slice of cake on a plate – consuming the cocktail glass version is sans fuss and trendy too.

Irashai Grill, an Asian fusion restaurant in Vancouver’s Coal Harbour, serves their Tiramisu in a sleek porcelain tray, dusted with a dangerously thick layer of powdered chocolate. Both Irashai’s and Pacifico’s realizations of Tiramisu are worthy of a sweet discovery!

Large smoked salmon pizza ($25) from Pacifico Pizzeria Restorante, a great pizza restaurant in downtown Vancouver BC Canada.

Mud Pie dessert ($6.00) from Pacifico Pizzeria Ristorante in downtown Vancouver BC Canada.

Tiramisu dessert ($7.00) from Pacifico Pizza Restaurant in downtown Vancouver BC Canada.

Toyama Japanese Restaurant (web site, map, 757 Seymour Street, Vancouver, BC, Canada, phone: 604-688-3256) is a new “all you can eat” sushi restaurant that is open from 11am till midnight every day. Price is $11.95 for the all you can eat menu at lunch time, and $20.95 at dinner time. (They also have a late night price that is reduced to around $11 as well).

Toyama has been getting good reviews from visitors on the website DineHere.ca (click here to read), including galvinkuo2 who writes:

We really like this place and are considered regulars. Food is always fresh and very tasty. This is the best place for the price you can find in Downtown, too bad they don’t have all you can eat sashimi during lunch time, But Our suggestion is to go for a lunch all you can eat menu option. We always go for a lot of salmon sushi since this is the best place to get it. And of course the Oyster Motoyaki are “the must try” and the New stuff “BBQ Korean Pork” spicy and tasty!!

Pictured below are some of the items we ordered. I’m definitely going to go back to Toyama Sushi, maybe even on a regular basis!

Nigiri sushi from Toyama Japanese Restaurant

Sushi cones from Toyama Sushi - All You Can Eat Japanese restaurant downtown

Alaska roll and chopped scallop roll sushi

Assorted sushi from Toyama All You Can Eat Chinese/Japanese food

Assorted Nigiri Sushi from Toyama All You Can Eat Sushi restaurant downtown.

The Templeton (web site, map, 1087 Granville Street, Vancouver, BC, Canada, phone: 604-685-4612) is one of my favorite places to visit on the Granville Street strip downtown, for healthy nourishing food. The decor is retro with the original furnishings of a 1950’s diner, including juke box controls at every table, swivel bar stools, and lots of stainless steel. The modernized menu is packed with vegetarian options as well as some non-vegetarian choices for those into something a little more meaty.

This area of Granville Street is a colorful mixture of new, high-end restaurants, older greasy spoon places, night clubs with pounding beats, and a couple of remaining sex shops left over from seedier days. The street is in transition with the sidewalk widening almost complete, making it a safer place to walk at night (along with the sometimes rowdy crowds of night-clubbers). It’s only a five minute walk from the upscale Yaletown shopping and restaurant district to the east, and about the same distance to Burrard Street to the west and beyond that the West End residential neighborhood.

Some of my favorite items to order at the Templeton are the Macaroni and Cheese (around $10, served with fresh tomato salsa, three kinds of cheese, and an organic green salad), and the Med Quesadilla (also around $10, made with artichoke hearts, sun dried tomatoes, green olives, aged white cheddar, fresh tomato salsa and sour cream). On my last visit however, I had already eaten something substantial earlier in the evening, so opted for the ultra healthy and “good for you” Dinner Salad (around $6.50, pictured below).

The Templeton is one of the few dining spots that is open with full service food late at night in the downtown area. I was there a little after 10:00pm on a Sunday night and they did Last Call for food at around 10:30pm. That’s pretty good for a Sunday. If it’s late and you’re hungry, it’s worth a shot – why not give them a call (604-685-4612) to find out if they’re open? =)

For more photos (and info about their breakfasts) please view Part 3, Part 2, or Part 1.

Dinner Salad from the Templeton on Granville Street in downtown Vancouver BC Canada.