Food & Drink in North Vancouver

As Quiznos toasted subs emerge slowly from the oven, guests first smell the toasty aroma, followed by a glimpse of artisan bread crisped to a golden brown and cheese bubbling over meats such as all-natural chicken, tender prime rib, and italian meatballs. Next, sandwich-smiths layer on fresh veggies and top culinary creations with pesto, sauces, and premium spreads.

The menu's first-rate ingredients form a fleet of classic and signature subs, including the honey-bacon club. Savoury grilled snack flatbreads and flatbread pizzas extend options beyond the standard sub, and vegetable and meat combinations form fresh salads. Customers can have Quizons cater for them, stop in for lunch, dash in and out to enjoy a park-bench dinner, or bring their unicycle to juggle their meal home.

Taso's Family Restaurant's cadre of chefs and servers has satiated palates with homestyle Italian and Greek cuisine since opening its doors in the late 1960s. Topped with 100 per cent mozzarella cheese and a house tomato sauce, more than 25 pizzas arrive sliced and adorned with delectable ingredients such as capicollo and pineapple. Leather booths flanked by framed paintings bracing the dining-room walls shelter families of patrons scarfing down piles of pasta, Greek dishes, and meats and seafood fresh from the charcoal broiler. The eatery also hosts private parties for up to 50 guests in its back room, where celebrants can feast from preselected menu items, gather round their favourite TV program, or toast at a fireplace that abets the environment by burning breadsticks instead of wood.

After formally studying the culinary arts in Japan, Hanamura Japanese Restaurant's chef spent 20 years accruing experience and perfecting the staples that now fill his menu. Served in a pastel-green dining room with large bamboo shoots stationed between tables, the seasonally changing entrees evoke a trans-Pacific feel. Carefully arranged schools of sushi and sashimi line plates, and orders of tempura vegetables and seafood emerge from the kitchen as crispy as an autumn leaf covered with potato chips.

Blackbird Bakery's European-style shop crafts its bread-based wares and drinks from fresh, natural components, sourcing its ingredients from local growers whenever possible. The bakery's two expert chef owners craft an ever-changing menu of sweetly dispositioned cakes and pastries—including some imbued with local Schramm vodka—as well as savoury pies, rolls, and sandwiches. Pad stomachs against even the sharpest cheeses with whole-wheat sourdough or organic potato bread ($5 each), formed from local Across the Creek potatoes picked at the peak of an identity crisis. Danishes stuffed with Tahitian-vanilla cream and fresh berries ($3) flip a coin for palate dominance against almond croissants filled with cream and topped with toasted almonds ($3). Customers propel food rafts to their port of call with mochas made from Pemberton Valley Coffee Co. beans ($3.50) or with a wide selection of Namasthé teas ($2).

Tutto Bene's experienced chef blends Italian cuisine with French culinary influences to craft a menu of seafood, pasta and meat offerings made in-house. A crispy crab cake's cilantro-red-pepper tartar primes mouths for making conversation and playing the piccolo ($12) before teeth sink into a choice of first courses, including prawns, mushrooms, and crispy pancetta nestled between ravioli and topped with a smoked tomato sauce ($17). Chefs craft house-made black linguine, weaving the pasta between sautéed prawns and scallops, and then coating their tasty creation in a saffron sauce ($17). Taste buds stick around for second courses, including roasted duck breast served with madeira jus ($26) or sablefish marinated in grappa, a fermented schnapps, and dressed in the fashionable ensemble of crispy shallots, parsley-cilantro pesto, and tomato confit ($24). Large windows shine natural light across the cozy tables and hanging wall art that outline Tutto Bene's dining area, creating a perimeter penetrable only to salvos from meatball catapults.

Pastameli bequeaths to hungry Vancouverites succulent pizzas and pastas fashioned from time-honoured family recipes. Circular appetites can indulge while dispelling their fears of sharp edges with New York–style pizzas, such as the tangy barbecue chicken ($10.65–$27) or the mouth-melting Inferno, topped with specialty-made Italian sausage ($13.35–$33). Mollify lunch munchies with a Genoa salami panini layered with strata of veggies, provolone cheese, and pesto dressing ($7.75), or play mouth-croquet with the contents of an italian meatball sandwich ($10.95). The dinner menu highlights pasta options from earth and sea in a mélange as diverse as Pangaea's alter egos. Twirl the Neptune Classic's jumbo shrimp, sea scallops, and fettuccine around oversize forks ($14.95–$18.95), or use them to gingerly open the meaty ravioli bolognese's edible envelopes ($12.50–$16.50).