Caffé La Tana

We had a great time at Cafe La Tana. We also love Pepino’s so we were thrilled to learn that you can order from both menus. The pastas and salads were delicious and you CANNOT miss this tiramisu. Honestly almost ordered two. The ambiance is great, the service was lovely, and the food was really yummy!

Came here as Pepino’s next door had a long wait. You are able to request items from the Pepino’s menu as they’re sister restaurants.I have attached photos below of my order. I do not recommend the pizza, the Italian godfathers of pizza would be furious if they had a bite of that pizza sorry. Everything else such as the appetizers and pastas are fine.

Must try her homemade pasta if you miss authentic Italian food in Vancouver

Our family was fortunate to have gotten seats on a busy evening. Turned out to be a delightful dinner experience, with special thanks to staff who extended superb & warm service throughout our stay. Last night's spread was excellent, especially their freshly made pasta selections with delicate & well-developed flavours which we all savoured bite after every bite. La Tana and sister restaurant Pepino are Commercial Drive's hidden gems worthy of a spot in our top 10 fave list. Reservations recommended.

The food was absolutely exceptional!! Each dishes are so delicate and special, I would love to go back 3 times a week just to enjoy how well and amazing they taste!Every dish was done with details and thoughts, from the presentation to the texture and blend of everything together.The taste is simple, but mixes so well together.Wonderful palette experience.

We came here on a whim after going to a show at the York next door and wow. I feel like I’ve stumbled on a Vancouver hack with this place?! The restaurant is super nice and clean, the staff are incredibly friendly and efficient but the FOOD. When I go to a place that calls themselves a spaghetti house, I order the spaghetti. And let me tell you, this spaghetti was the best I’ve ever had. No exaggeration. The portions are huge (I’ll get at least 2-3 more meals out of what I took home) and the flavour in all of their dishes that we tried was out of this world. If you go to their wine bar side where we were, La Tana, ask for Morgana. She took care of us so well and was an absolute pleasure. We will be back, and be back soon. Make a reservation though - this place fills up!!

Our journey to La Tana was a little accident - we were actually looking for a place that has crepes, and somehow ended up looking up La Tana thinking they may have it. We were wrong, but we are so glad we tumbled over here.Living around Seattle, our trip to La Tana is always about 3 hours to get here. Is it worth the trip? The early morning wake up, the drive, the border crossing? Yes.This place makes food with love. We once saw Chef Vish come out to the table by the window to take a photo of a dish he just created, and then asked us how that same dish tastes (we were eating it). He then would go on to say how wonderful to cook with those mushrooms he had available, as it was the season for it, and how wonderful it was that they were available within the area. Instantly, it clicked to us that he is serious about his craft.The place is an ordinary looking neighborhood cafe, it sells many merchandise of small items, bread, imported goods, pasta noodles, coffee, serving like a cafe. Then you have tables and kitchen ready for patrons to dine in on their food, albeit the place is on the small side.The food, however, is anything but ordinary. It is extraordinary. We came here more than 10 occasions over the span of 3 years traveling back and forth between the border, and they never disappointed us.They have wonderful selections of food to choose from, their specials change every week and they bring out seasonal dishes to try, we highly recommend them.We always felt greeted and welcomed, that feeling of belonging there and having a good time enjoying the food was always there, it is remarkable. Often at the level of dining and food you would experience from La Tana, you can often experience some level of formality, or standard procedure sort of dining experience. Not here. We felt like we lived right next door, popping in for our weekend brunch fix.So if you live nearby and do not have to travel 3 hours to come here, you are lucky. La Tana is a gem that any neighborhood would be lucky to call it a local place. Give them a visit.

Very unique cafe in an old building serving tasty Italian foods. Service was great.

TLDR; Get the takeout pasta, tiramisu or splurge on appies, but of our 2 pasta mains, one was overcooked and the other undercooked :( service is top-notch though.My first visit, we bought some fabulous takeout handmade spaghetti.Unfortunately the take-home fridge was empty as they had sold out (5pm on a Tuesday!) But the server was fantastic and got two portions from the kitchen, and the chef out came to advise us how to cook it.His advised 4 minutes made some perfect al dente pasta and it felt decent value at about $6 / $9 with tip.But then we came in to eat. The radiatori was overcooked and not Al dente. The stuffed tortellini was too hard around the edges. Tomato vodka sauce was good but nothing to write home about. Same with the sage butter, which I felt was a bit lighter on the sage/could have done with some crunch to offer textural contrast.However, for appetisers the crostini/whipped ricotta was lovely as was the crispy artichokes and mortedella with generous morels (take 2 pieces of bread, not 4 as we did - it was really too much! Shame the crostini is the same as the focaccia side though)Turned out the homemade pasta dish we made with their in-house spaghetti was much better than the in-house experience, at a fraction of the cost. Nice cocktails and fantastic service thoughWe paid about $200 with tip for 2 drinks, 2 appetisers, 2 pasta mains and a shared small tiramisu (which was rich, golden and custardy - great rendition).I'll take the $9 homemade stuff any day!! Would return to try the happy hour.I feel Casereccio in Kits is much better value and quality (though the tiramisu here beats their version)