Italian Kitchen To Go is hard to spot but after the Kobe meatballs, you’ll find your way back
Mia Stainsby
Sun
Chris Tesar shows off some of the food selections at Italian Kitchen To Go. Photograph by : Ward Perrin, Vancouver Sun
I couldn’t figure out why Italian Kitchen To Go was so exasperatingly hidden. It turns out they actually don’t want to be easily found.
Italian Kitchen To Go is the babykins addition to the much more substantial Italian Kitchen next door. The “to go” counter came about in a deal with the landlord — the parent restaurant was able to get additional space for the kitchen if they provided a take-away counter for the tenants in the building.
No one’s going to wrestle us to the ground and throw us out should we go in to get some breakfast or lunch at Italian Kitchen To Go, but you’ll understand the reason for the poor signage. When I contacted owner Emad Yacoub on the phone, I put in a request for an Italian Kitchen To Go for my office building, too. It’s svelte and the food is good!
The small counter sells pizzas cut into bands, panini, wraps, salads, soups, baking but, alas, no pasta.
The clincher is the Kobe meatballs. The kitchen is making a thousand meatballs a day for both facilities. At the take-out you can get them as meatballs, period, or in a baked focaccia sandwich, which was delicious.
The pizzas aren’t the blanket-of-cheese type. They’re thin crust and nicely, lightly seasoned. The mascarpone cheese, sage, baby potato and roasted garlic pizza was delicious. The staff are still green — I pointed to the aforementioned pizza and asked if it was pear and blue cheese and the reply was yes. Imagine my surprise when I bit into the potato. Another dish I tried, the spinach salad was floatingly light, crisp and lightly dressed.
Yacoub has just signed with another space on Alberni Street which he says will become a seafood restaurant. When they have that larger kitchen up and running, Italian Kitchen To Go will go bigger and be open longer, he says. This is one of many ventures of his Glowbal Restaurant Group — they include Glowbal Grill and Satay, Coast, Sanafir and Afterglow Bar.
Another Italian Kitchen is in the works on Fourth Avenue. “My managers keep pushing me,” he says. “They want to invest.”
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ITALIAN KITCHEN TO GO
1037 Alberni St., 604-687-2890
Open 7:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. weekdays, closed weekends.
© The Vancouver Sun 2008
