Epicurean Caffe Bistro

Love, love, love the Pizza Buongiourno here! I will drive across the city for this. Service is great too — very personable, authentically Italian, family-​run bistro. I recommend them wholeheartedly.

My friend and I were in the area and came across this place for brunch. We got there just in time for a table as it was busy throughout the time we were there. People were lining up to get seated. Food was good and different. We got there as people were starting to order lunch so was also able to see what kinds of food they served. It all looked very tasty.

This place is a gem of a find! I originally went here one Monday with a friend who suggested we go for coffee and the other coffee shops were closed. So we popped in here and were delighted.
The coffee prices were quite unexpectedly inexpensive. And although it’s a small café it’s extremely busy! Despite how busy they are the service is beyond what you would normally expect in Vancouver. I think the owners are Italian and seem to have a sense how coffee should be made and served.
Their food offerings are surprisingly extensive too! Although I don’t normally have much more time for a long meal on a break, their kitchen is extremely fast.
If you’re near the area this place is a must! It will remind you what service should be like!

Went here for a quick brunch to cure my hangover last week.
Service was great! The décor is really European, you almost feel like you are sitting somewhere in Paris. There’s a huge selection of coffees and teas, and they have different menus depending on the time of the day. And very good prices too!
The downside is that it feels a bit crammed inside, and that I now know a lot about this one lady’s love life, because I could hear her through the whole room. Trust me, you don’t want to hear details about her single status due to her dating a married man…
Anyways, I had a thin-​crust pizza with proscioutto and arugula, and my companion had a roasted pepper-​bacon panini. Both were good but not outstanding — so I wouldn’t tell my friends to go and try their pizza for sure. My chai tea latte was very nice too, and the cute cat picture in the foam of the coffee made my day. Did I mention I was hung over? ;)
Overall, great experience and a really nice atmosphere in the neighborhood.

European flare café with a good size patio. Food is above average for casual café… nice to watch be watched sitting outside.

Microwave Madness
Ordered a meatball ‘panini’ and a veggie minestrone soup.
Had a good server and the place had nice décor and vibe.
Then the beeping started… no. Microwave? Nuking my meatballs? Yup.
Four micros. Lined up in full display. Should have seen that right away. Nuke nuke nuke. Time to eat!
First the soup. Burned the hell out of my mouth because of the microwave. Flavor and texture were completely gone. Like I was eating water and mush.
Then the meatball. So sad. The presentation was nice, but again the nuke crushed any flavor. I mean… I will wait the extra 10 min to heat up or cook it in a pot/​pan. It’s ok.
What a shame. Beef should never be nuked. It was obvious locals enjoy the company and it’s a cute place. But have a little respect for the food.

This really is a hidden gem ! Great food, great price and great service — a rare combination that you can find at Epicurean. The café has a very European feel to it, and the outdoor patio in the summer is great to sit and people watch.
The pastas are delicious ! Although, not homemade, they use a really good quality of egg pasta (which they also sell in store). The half portion of the pastas (usually ¾th) is good enough to fill you up and at almost $ 8.50 its not a bad deal !
The desserts here are also amazing, the perfect amount of sweet ! And all priced between $ 2 — $ 4.
This place is a great spot for lunch if you are in the kits beach area — do check it out !

It Doesn’t Get More Italian in Vancouver
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Nor does it get much better. This cozy little place run by an Italian family is one of the pearls of Kitsilano.
The coffee and food are superb. The service is extremely friendly and accommodating.
Order one of the pastries with your first cup of coffee. It’ll be a great start of your brunch. There is ample choice of brunch menus. The Roman Breakfast is great for those wanting a lighter meal (specially if you got one of the huge and delicious pastries and decided to get a second one), the breakfast pizza is amazing, … It’s really all good.
I always leave this place wit a big smile.

The service was a little slow and the place is small — gets very busy and packed with people — but the coffee is just like I had in Italy. So it’s worth the effort when it is busy.

This is a lovely place for summer time romance and watching the kitsilano day go by. Feels like Italy — in kits. I love this old world establishment. It feels so other worldly.
Beautiful lunch menu items and table service on the patio. Home made food. love at first bite.
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We had breakfast here once. I think you have to time it right when you go as it is a small space and can be very busy. Luckily we were early so had no trouble getting a table. The service was a bit slow but friendly. The coffee is excellent. The breakfast wasn’t anything special but it was good and I would definitely go there again if the circumstances were right.

We stopped in at this café today for lunch. It was full when we arrived, clearly a popular place, and the manager accommodated us at the bar with drinks for a few minutes while we waited for a table to turn over. (didn’t have to wait long!)
The menu had a number of great paleo/​veggie options. I had the gnocchi, which was just ok.
Wait-​staff were attentive and accommodating.
Is a bit crowded so not much room if you have small children that like to stretch their legs or move around without blocking aisles.
Staff is great, but was a bit cramped and food was just all right, but I would come back and try again

Disappointing lunch and server. We felt like our chairs were going to be stolen from our table constantly by an elderly gentleman who, from the amount of time he spent in the barista area, was an owner or something. It was busy, but waiting 5 minutes for the rest of our party to show was marked by a rather unpleasant feeling like our table would disappear if we took our bums off our chairs.
Service was slow and careless. Our female server would have to be asked for drinks twice, and didn’t seem to understand that YOU KEEP OFFERING THINGS. Drinks were empty for most of the meal, and we had to ask for dessert, which was really the whole point in going anyway. We had been told that the tiramisu was amazing, but since there was none, we had some really odd jumbleberry pie which was mostly over spiced apple with a few cranberries. Soggy bottom bland crust. It was sad as I was really looking forward to it, dessert is what it’s all about anyway.
Our salads were bland and small and tiny in comparison to the same prices items our companions ordered.
All in all I felt cramped, ignored, underfed, and sad by the time we left. Good thing the friends were wonderful or it could have run the risk of ruining my Sunday.

Food: ⁵⁄₅
Service: ²⁄₅
Ambiance: ³⁄₅
Go for the patio. Stay for the food.
I used to work here back in the day. This lovely European style deli is run by a sicilian family. As you can read below the old patriarch of the family isn’t the friendliest of characters to either his guests or his employees, but it’s best to accept him and laugh at his curmudgeon behaviour.
It’s an authentic Italian experience!
The food is something you can’t get elsewhere in Vancouver and that’s why this place, regardless of it’s flaws, remains somewhere I stop to get a coffee, a pastry or a seat in the sun to have a delicious meal. The coffee is a special blend and tastes delicious.
About 5 years ago this place underwent a renovation transforming from a warm community style restaurant to a sparse and cold upscale café. The purpose? To move more people through and increase business.
There is a lack of service. Your empty drink will not illicit a query from the average employee, go up and ask for another. It’s a symptom of the management style and the lack of space in the place.
Don’t miss this place: It’s best for a warm summer morning or afternoon on the patio for delicious authentic italian food and coffee.

Tucked into the corner of 1^st & Cypress, Epicurean does a lot of things very well. There are essentially three different menus: Breakfast, Lunch/​Dinner, and Daily Specials. All of them are delicious.
For me, a highlight of the breakfast menu is the eggs benny, served on a tasty focaccia bread with crispy fried pancetta, but it’s hard to go wrong with anything else either.
I think it’s probably too hard to pick a single highlight of the lunch/​dinner menu; the thin crust pizzas are fantastic, the «Heavenly Trio» open-​faced sandwich will make you and your tastebuds very happy, as will the panini’s, the pasta’s, the… well, I could go on for a while. Again, it’s hard to go wrong here so just go with what you’re in the mood for and you’re unlikely to be disappointed.
Finally, the daily specials are generally a pasta creation of the kitchen and come in either half or full orders but the full order is only a few dollars more.
Topping everything off is some great coffee which, like everything else on the menu, can be taken to go as well.
If you decide to stay and eat, service at times can be a little «casual» but is always friendly. Lunch times during the week can get quite busy so your best bet is to either show up before noon or make a reservation if you have more than a few people with you.

I miss the meatball from this place so much, I may shed a tear. I even miss my server, a nice young man who had just come back from visiting Italy. Friendly, professional, knew and knew the menu like he wrote it. Pleasant outdoor seating.

Service is somewhat Mediterranean laxidaisacle, accompanying the relaxing quiet atmosphere, and the food will be a party in your mouth. Whether or not you drink wine or coffee, the pasta and amazing sandwiches are what I come here for. This authentic family run, Italian caffe was established in 1993 and offer a full breakfast, pizza, and lunch menu. The chicken soup is a must have.
The only draw back here is the alpha papa owner who can be a grumpy pants at times… Pss just ignore him…
In the sunshine, the outdoor seating with its vine covered wall on a street corner, and tables under the Cherry blossoms SO Rocks !!

Despite all the eateries in the area, it comes as no surprise that Epicurean has still managed to hold its own. The food is delicious. Using fresh ingredients, the Italian-​influenced menu consists gourmet standard deli fare. Enjoy the remaining days of summer with an omelette topped with a creamy béchamel sauce over focaccia out on the patio or welcome fall with a tall café mocha.