La Piazza Dario Ristorante is the perfect spot for a date night
Tucked in Vancouver’s Italian Cultural Centre is one of the city’s longest-standing Italian restaurants.
La Piazza Dario Ristorante has been in the same spot for more than forty years – a true feat for this city, and a real benefit to both the Italian diaspora community and non-Italians looking for authentic cuisine.
Opened in 1977, the restaurant has been a part of the Ranallo family since 1979, when Claudio Ranallo joined the kitchen team and, not long after, became head chef. He’s been in the kitchen at La Piazza ever since.
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By 1984, Claudio – who grew up in Ateleta, Italy, with an appreciation for fine food and the art of Italian cuisine – became a partner in the restaurant. This lifelong trajectory started with his culinary lessons at Cesare Augusto Hotel in Sorrento, Italy, when he was 15.
His wife Lidia runs the front-of-house operations while their son, Marcello, oversees the wine lists and helps with the day-to-day needs of the restaurant.
With white table cloths, Roman statues, oversized urns, and walls of wine bottles, the space feels, in a lot of ways, like a holdover from an older era – but that’s actually a good thing.
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This isn’t new school Italian; it’s authentic, nostalgic, and completely romantic.
Everything at La Piazza Dario has a thoughtful, authentic approach, from the antipasti to the dolci.
The restaurant invited me to visit and try some of their authentic dishes, so I recruited my husband, who is part-Italian, to join me.
It wasn’t until partway through the meal that I realized this was our first date night in months, as both the pandemic and a new baby had kept us from dining out together for some time.
Turns out, this was the perfect spot to go for an impromptu date.
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The fresh burrata is a great place to start – served with tomatoes, arugula, and olive oil. It’s a dish that will transport you to a Tuscan villa with its emphasis on simple but fresh ingredients.
We also ordered the special of the evening, a platter of mussels poached in tomatoes – perfectly paired with the complimentary bread to soak up the remaining broth.
La Piazza Dario has a huge pasta menu, too, with everything being handmade in-house. Some standouts include the fettuccine al pistachio, an incredibly creamy dish that is nuanced in flavour and essentially feels like a grown-up fettuccine Alfredo.
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The Tortellini al Sugo di Ragu – house-made tortellini with ground beef and veal in tomato sauce – tasted as if it was fresh from a nonna’s kitchen. The restaurant also serves Italian classics, like Linguine alla Genovese and Spaghetti con Polpette – chef Claudio’s special meatball recipe.
The secondi menu – traditionally the main course and usually consisting of meat dishes – includes a range of options like wild salmon, grilled rack of lamb, and white wine-poached chicken.
The Anatra all’Italiana, a pan-seared duck breast with garlic, rosemary, and a red wine reduction, was incredibly tender and served with grilled peppers and mashed potatoes.
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Even if you’re full by this point – which you probably will be – you must order a dessert. And it just wouldn’t be right if you didn’t pair that dessert with a glass of limoncello or amaro Montenegro.
The restaurant often has dessert specials, but it also has Italian classics like spumone gelati – a moulded ice cream with multiple flavours like chocolate and pistachio, served with candied fruit. La Piazza Dario’s menu also includes a must-try tiramisu and cannolo.
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Dining at this restaurant feels like an immersive Italian experience, a chance to dip into an Italian family’s life for an evening. On any given weeknight, you’ll find large family gatherings celebrating birthdays and elderly couples indulging in a date night – folks who have clearly been in the know about this spot for a long time.
It’s an iconic spot to go for dinner and feel like you’re in Italy without having to get on a plane. The restaurant also serves lunch and is happy to host larger groups for special occasions.
Along with its delicious menu offerings, welcoming space, and authentic Italian spirit, La Piazza Dario Ristorante offers something new to Vancouver diners: the romance of the old world, where intimate three-hour long dinners are an integral part of everyday life.
For all these reasons and more, the restaurant remains an impressive spot to bring a date, whether it’s the first or the hundredth, planned or not.
La Piazza Dario Ristorante
Address: 3075 Slocan Street, Vancouver
Phone: 604-430-2195