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Vancouver has some phenomenal places to eat, the best of every any kind of food you could possibly want. It takes a lot of effort to stay in and cook when we’re surrounded by so many awesome eateries in the city. There are lots of different neighborhoods you can visit in Vancouver depending on what type of food you are looking for. I have never done a Vancouver food tour before though.
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For Christmas I decided I would book one for myself and my boyfriend, Jeff, who loves some good Italian food. I mean who doesn’t right? It screams comfort food – carby goodness and cheese! And the desserts! I tried to get as many good photos of what we ate as I could. If you’re ever in Vancouver I can’t recommend this tour enough. If you’re a local, I still recommend it.
Booking our Vancouver food tour
We booked our Taste Vancouver Food Tour online. You can book directly at their website or through Viator. The Little Italy food tour is held Saturdays at 2pm for approximately 2 and half hours. It was very easy to book online, and for this particular tour they are able to accommodate vegetarian requests. I am a vegetarian so this is always a big concern of mine, but you need not worry on this tour.
The tour focuses on the Commercial Drive neighborhood of Vancouver, just a little ways outside of downtown. It’s easy to get there by skytrain, or a short taxi ride/drive from downtown.
I often like to visit Commercial Drive, which has a lot of ridiculously good restaurants, so was hoping to find some new favorite places to visit in the future. Commercial Drive is home to Vancouver’s Little Italy neighborhood so is the obvious choice for this tour. We were to meet at Fratelli’s bakery, one of my favorite bakeries in Vancouver. With a non-static waistline, off we went for the afternoon.
Vancouver food tour – not just for tourists
We met our group outside the bakery. Our tour guide for the day was Mia who was a delight, immediately making us all feel at ease with some lighthearted humor. There were 8 of us in total, and we were all from the Greater Vancouver area. That surprised me a little, as I always considered these kinds of tours to be mostly popular with visitors to the city. Perhaps it was because we were doing the tour in early March, not exactly the height of the tourist season.
With our name tags on, we started off with some history of the Italian area of Vancouver. The area really developed as the Italian neighborhood in the 1950s, and some of the businesses are still there. Others have come along in recent years fitting into the neighborhood atmosphere offering traditional and inspired Italian cuisine. Get ready to have your mouth water as I take you along for the ride.
Let the Italian food tour begin
Fratelli’s bakery is amazing. There’s always a queue of people, and you can’t help but be overwhelmed with choice. I always leave with at least 2 or 3 items and I’m not even apologetic about it. We met outside the bakery, but this was also where we would end the tour. For that reason we didn’t get anything from there just yet. Instead we headed into the deli next door.
La Grotta Del Formaggio
Yep, the cheese grotto. I was already excited. The shop does have a grotto type feel – small and narrow, bustling with people. We made our way past the deli counter towards the rear of the shop. The shelves were lined with import products from Italy, delicious looking pastas, meats and cheeses in the counter, and so many amazing smells. Here we were treated to our first bite to eat – freshly made deli sandwiches (meat and veggie options) on focaccia bread.
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The meat option was a selection of deli meats and mozzarella with tomato and greens and a pesto mayo. The veggie option was similar but without the meat, and instead some roasted red peppers, olives and artichokes. Our first “light” bite was already making me feel full so I had to give up before I could finish it. Delicious, though I’m not the biggest fan of olives so I had to avoid them which is not too easy when you’re eating standing up. After finishing our food and a quick perusal of the other foods we might want to come back for, we were off to our next stop.
Sopra Sotto
Our next stop was a newer restaurant that had taken over another former Commercial Drive kitchen, Cafe Roma. This well laid out, bright restaurant was where we’d have our first pasta dish of the day. Sopra Sotto was also our longest stop on the tour, with 45 minutes to sit and enjoy our food and even time for a drink. What else could I order but a Peroni, Italy’s beer.
The menu of Sopra Sotto looked delicious, and we were given one of the house specialties, a penne pasta with truffle sauce and fresh mushrooms. The pasta was perfectly cooked, with a creamy, rich sauce filled with flavor. The mushrooms were tender, mixed in with the truffle sauce and topped with parmigiano cheese. Bread first, now pasta. Don’t come here if you’re on Keto! But do come here, you won’t regret it.
Famoso Neapolitan Pizzeria
I’m a simple girl when it comes to my pizza. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, you don’t need a million toppings if the pizza is good. All you need is some tomato sauce and cheese, and some seasoning. Cheese pizza is the best. I wasn’t disappointed as we arrived at Famoso just a couple blocks down the street, and was told we would be having the Margherita pizza.
Cooked right in front of us in a brick oven, the pizza is cooked in only 90 seconds as the oven is so hot. I don’t care who you are, everyone will always take their first bite of this molten cheese bread when they know it’s too hot to eat and burn their mouth. But it’s always worth it. Same goes here. Amazing pizza.
Santa Barbara Market
Our next stop was not one I was expecting on a food tour. A local grocery store I’ve shopped at on numerous occasions, but wouldn’t really associate it with a food tour. As it turns out the market was named after a woman that the owner was in love with, and this was his grand gesture. We went in and were ushered between the aisles for a mini charcuterie board, to sample a dozen different meats and cheeses.
By our fourth stop I clearly hadn’t had enough cheese and couldn’t hold myself back from even more dairy delights. Smoked cheese, cheddar and Guinness cheese. All to die for. Jeff sampled all the Italian meats – salami and pepperoni. One of my favorite things to eat is a cheese plate, so this made my day. Not on Commercial Drive, but my favorite place in Vancouver for a build-your-own charcuterie board is the Irish Heather in Gastown.
Dolce Amore Gelato
You know you’re on the home stretch when there’s gelato involved. Not sure I could take any more carbs at this point, but I always have room for dessert. Dolce Amore had so many delicious flavors of gelato to try that it looked like it would be an overwhelming choice.
Luckily for us, someone else was there to make the decision for us, as we were all trying the famous hazelnut gelato. Made to perfection, creamy, and just sweet enough without being too much, we sat in silence and at our gelato on this cold winter’s afternoon.
The Drive Coffee Bar
I was actually not looking forward to the fact that at some point on this tour we would end up with coffee. I hate coffee. I’ve tried it countless times and can’t even begin to like it. So when we went into this coffee shop for an espresso I accepted I’d just wait for everyone else. But I was pleasantly surprised by how accommodating the tour was.
We were going to have some more Dolce Amore gelato, with a shot of espresso. So instead I just had the gelato. A lot of others weren’t really feeling the caffeine at that point in the afternoon so at least I wasn’t the only one. We even left the coffee shop with gifts – a nice little notebook and pencil from the owners which I thought was a lovely touch.
Continental Coffee
This lovely cafe is rather spacious inside, and really bright with huge floor to ceiling windows. We were heading in here for a cappucino but again with my no coffee preference they were able to swap that out for me to a tea instead.
I think everyone was getting a little sleepy at this point with so much food consumed so far so it was probably a good pick me up for a lot of us. We sat in there and drank our hot drinks while Mia, our tour guide, went to get something else for us. A surprise!
Fratelli Bakery
Back to where we started, Fratelli’s. Finally we were going to get in there and sample some of the delicious treats. Given that the shop is pretty small and we were a group, we waited outside while Mia went into the shop. She came out with a tray of fresh cream/custard cannolis. The light, sugar crusted, buttery pastry was filled with a deliciously sweet center. Despite all the gelato, cheese, pizza, cheese, pasta, cheese and sandwiches I was still ready for this.
After the tour had ended we went back into the bakery and picked out a few more items to take home including a carrot cake, lemon meringue cheesecake and a caramel apple tart. Their hazelnut nocciolo is fantastic but unfortunately they’d already sold out for the day. Don’t worry, I’ll be back.
First Ravioli Store
As we all prepared to say our goodbyes, Mia presented us with a gift to leave with. A bag of fresh pasta each from the First Ravioli Store across the street from Fratelli. Spinach and ricotta ravioli to be exact. I couldn’t wait to get home and try it. We had it for dinner that evening, and it was amazing.
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Thank you to Taste Vancouver Tours
We enjoyed our Vancouver food tour immensely, and it really felt like we got our money’s worth from the tour. We sampled food from 9 different places and were able to try some things we’d never had before. In Vancouver, although we eat out quite a bit, we don’t tend to think about some areas of the city. So this really gave us an insight into some fabulous places to eat on Commercial Drive. Some we will definitely be back to. Click here to book this Italian food tour.
Taste Vancouver also have a Gastown Food Tour which I think will be our next stop. I know my parents did that one when they were here visiting once and they loved it. It’s fun being a tourist in your own city every now and again. I’m really getting into food tours, and there are so many you can even make up yourselves. But getting to try a little bit of everything is perfect.
If you’ve enjoyed this post please leave a comment below or share using the social media buttons. Have you done a Vancouver food tour, or another truly amazing food tour somewhere? What’s your favorite type of tour to do?
Oh mannnnnnnn. I lived literally less than 100m from Fratellis!! It was dangerous, haha. I miss Commercial, and now I want to try the places I didn’t get to!
Wow, that is dangerous. It’s a great area though, so much good food
Everything looks and sounds so delicious! I would absolutely love to do something like this. Yum! I can only imagine how full I’d be after. Thanks for sharing!
Too funny that I just saw this post now. I was actually eating at Wildebeest in Gastown last night and saw a group on a food tour. It had never occurred me to to take a food tour as a Vancouver local before last night. Thanks for the great overview of your tour. I used to live in the Commercial Drive area and it sounds like you hit all the best spots.