Sherman Chan,

Special to The Post

 

There was a period of time when a new Neapolitan pizza restaurant was opening almost monthly in Vancouver. This trend has slowed down now, but the Vancouver food scene remains somewhat of a copycat city. Certain fads, such as ramen, macarons and donuts, seem to explode over a short period of time. 

Recently, Pizza Carano opened on Fraser Street, in what is suddenly becoming a hot spot for eclectic establishments. We decided to try some Neopolitan pizza at Carano with the kids. We started with the Kale Caesar. The kale was fresh, tender and not overly chewy. The dressing had big flavours, with a nice amount of pepper to complement the Parmesan. We loved the crunchy mung bean bits that added lots of texture to the salad.  

On to the pizza. First, we tried the Margherita. The crunchy crust gave way to a tender centre. There was a lot of colour on the bottom of the pizza, which provided a nice nuttiness to go with the well-seasoned dough. The tomato sauce was muted in acidity while the light drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and fresh basil added nice    aromatics.

Next came the Sausage and Roasted Fennel pizza. This normally comes topped with arugula, but the restaurant ran out of it that night. We were not sure if this omission impacted the final product as it was quite mild in flavour. Both the fennel and sausage lacked in impact, but the pizza itself was still enjoyable due to the solid crust.  

Lastly, we tried the Seafood & Chorizo with spiced tomato sauce, tomato, onion, scamorza, prawns, chorizo, corn, and cilantro. This was our favourite pizza of the night. There were a multitude of flavours, including a sweet pop of corn. The spice from the tomato sauce in addition to the chorizo made for impactful bites.

Overall, we found the pizza at Carano was very good. 

 

Pizza Carano

4241 Fraser Street, Vancouver

604-877-1270

 

The Good:

• Crunchy and chewy crust with a nice tender centre

• Nice people

 

The Bad:

• Small place, gets busy, and you need to serve yourself

 

Sherman Chan is the #1 ranked food blogger on the Vancouver portal of Urbanspoon.com. Read more of his reviews at www.shermansfoodadventures.com.