Press & Awards

Latest Article About Lombardos.   Published in Minkei News On Line Vancouver, June 14, 2011

An Italian restaurant ‘Lombardo’s’ （1641 Commercial Drive, Vancouver, Tel: 604-251-2240）celebrates 25th anniversary. They mainly serve hand-made pizza and pasta. They are planning to have anniversary event.

An owner Patti runs the restaurant. It is located inside ‘IL Mercato’ Mall along Commercial Drive. 65 seating is widely placed at 1,500 square feet restaurant. A big monitor is set at the back of it.

Patti says, ‘We always use the best ingredients we serve at the restaurant.’ All pizza and pasta are home-made. Pizza （Medium 30 cm = CAD 15, Large 45 cm = CAD 25） is baked by Italian traditional way with wood burning oven from the opening. ‘Half & half,’ where each half topping can be chosen from the menu, is also available. They allow people to enjoy various kinds of taste.

Patti opened the restaurant in August in 1986, right in the middle of ‘EXPO86.’ She looked back at that time, ‘In those days we might have been the first restaurant in Vancouver to serve pizza with wood burning oven on Commercial Drive.’ She talks about the difficult thing to run the restaurant for 25 years, ‘We spent very difficult time at first. We had no customers because everyone was at “EXPO86.” Shortly though, we had some good reviews in the newspapers and the business started to grow. As the local developer ran out of money at the opening, we had no choice but to place us inside the building. We thought we would have a market environment where we could run restaurant business easily.’

Patti’s three daughters help the restaurant now. Patti also says, ‘The restaurant is family oriented. We are very proud to be able to say 25 years. That is our huge accomplishment. We also have wonderful staff and great customers. We thank them all, especially the community. They are our important critics.’

As 25th anniversary, they have lots of prizes given away on the website. They will have a big ‘birthday party’ on August 15th and plan the event to give away a CAD 1,000 travel voucher. They will serve the original menu from the opening with those old prices.

（Translated by Hiroko Shioda）

Best Gourmet Pizza …Top 10 Best Pizzerias
By Mike Shubic, Mike’s Road Trip, 
October 1, 2010
“For a city that celebrates its culinary prowess, Vancouver seems to lack any decent pizza places, that is however except for Lombardo’s.”

Best Pizza In Vancouver
By Neal McLennan, in Vancouver Magazine, May 1, 2010
“We’re celebrated for our diverse and accomplished culinary scene. But can we muster up a decent pizza?”

Neighbourhood Restaurants Thrive in Vancouver
By Judith Lane, Mike Usinger, Stephen Wong, and Tara Lee
 in Strait.com, September 24, 2009

Awards

Vancouver Magazine, Best Pizza – numerous years
Vancouver Sun, Good Eats, 2005
Where Magazine, 2004, 2005, 2007
Zagat Guide, Excellent
News 11:30, Best Pizza, Listener’s Choice
Georgia Straight, Best of Vancouver, many including 2007 & 2008.
Vancouver Magazine, Honourable Mention,  Best Italian Casual, 2006 & 2007