Ho Yummy

Victoria and I popped over to Sciue the other day for a quick dinner. It is billed as a bistro featuring Roman street food. When I was in Rome a few years ago, I couldn’t get enough of the pizzas and sandwiches for sale at the various stands and shops so I knew I had to try Sciue and see what it was all about. It is located in downtown Vancouver at 800 W. Pender St (by Howe).

Once inside, we quickly discovered that the restaurant was similar to Bread Garden or Cafe Artigiano in that there was a counter full of food that you can order and it seemed to be prepared fresh daily.   Although they also have a variety of soups and salads, their featured items are the Roman-style pizzas…

…and panini sandwiches.

Victoria and I decided to split a mushroom pizza and the Emilia panini, which had prosciutto, mozzarella, tomato, and mixed greens.  The pizza is prepared in long thin rows and the portions are cut by the server and then weighed to determine how much to pay.  We asked our server to cut enough for one person and he heated it up in the oven for us.

I found the pizza to look much better than it tasted.  Perhaps it was because the pizza was prepared earlier in the day, but the crust was very hard and difficult to bite into.  The mushrooms were also a bit soggy, although there were lots of them. 

Similar to the pizza crust, we also found the bread of the panini to be too hard and dry.  The items in the panini (tomato, mozzarella, greens, and prosciutto) seemed like they should go well together, but did not seem to form a cohesive unit in this sandwich.  I felt like this would have tasted very good if it was made fresh, which was not the case for us.

All in all, the concept of Sciue was pretty interesting but just didn’t work for me this time around.  It is unlikely I will come back for dinner, although I may give it a try for lunch sometime.  Most of the items they feature would work best if made fresh and just wasn’t meant to be saved for the end of the day.  :)  They also have a selection of Italian sodas, coffees, and desserts (including gelato!).

Details:
110-800 W Pender St, Vancouver
Tel: 604-602-7263

Summary:
Food:
Service:
Price: $