By Sherman Chan,
Special to The Post

We began with the Bruschetta featuring house-made focaccia topped with sun dried tomato, basil, olive tapenade and white balsamic gastrique. I had to take another bite right away.  However, the bread was too dense and wet.  Next, we tried the Arancini Balls stuffed with provolone and served with arrabiata and preserved lemon.  I enjoyed the firm exterior, but it was too thick.  Inside, the risotto was firm and cheesy. However, it needed more rich flavours and sauce.
With large pieces of Humboldt Squid and house-made sausage, the next appie also featured roasted eggplant, olives, tomatoes, lemon and parsley. There the right amount of smokiness. The sausage was juicy and flavourful.  We had one of our 3 pizzas being the Funghi with white sauce, mushrooms, arugula and roasted garlic.  The pizza itself was quite good.  It was properly seasoned with ample toppings.
I tried the Gnocchi on a bed of smoked chicken and mushroom ragout accompanied by pork belly and crispy celery root. Beautifully seared until golden brown with a crunch, the gnocchi were soft, but retained a certain bite.  It was a delicious ragout of tender chicken which had a light smokiness combined with the Earthiness of the mushrooms.  The Ravioli of butternut squash dressed with brown butter, sage and walnuts was over fried. It was too firm and almost crunchy in spots and had too much acidity.
The Spaghetti Marinara with meatballs and grana padano was largely forgettable.  These were burnt in some spots.  The mealy and crumbly texture of the meatballs was off-putting.  They were seasoned  but crumbled when I ate them.  The spaghetti was al dente, yet the marinara was barely there.
We got the Prosciutto and the Muffuletta.  Initially, I found the prosciutto rather salty , but it tasted more balanced as I continued to eat it.  The muffuletta also had plenty of meat (soppresata).  Overall, we liked the pizzas and a few of the other dishes.  Some items could definitely use more refinement such as the spaghetti and meatballs.
Sherman Chan is the #1 ranked food blogger on the Vancouver portal of Urbanspoon.com. Read more of his reviews at www.shermansfoodadventures.com.

Grotto
1725 Davie Street, Vancouver, BC

The Good:
• Pizza crust is thin, crispy and nicely seasoned
• Reasonable pricing for Downtown

The Bad:
• Service was good, but the pizza incident was not handled correctly
• Hit and miss