I found the restaurant by accident… while chatting with an artist in Gastown, he mentioned that his wife had determined their household was “gluten-free” and there was a gluten-free friendly Mediterranean restaurant on Davie Street that came highly recommended. A quick peruse of Yelp and a 15-minute walk found me sitting in Laziza reading their menu.
According to the server, the chef’s wife suffers from celiac disease, and after many many frustrating experiences in Vancouver’s restaurant scene, the couple decided to start their own restaurant. This is one of the first (and probably only) food aware restaurants I’ve eaten in in Canada. Care and quality are apparent with each meal.
Instead of serving bread, the restaurant serves home-made salsa with chips. This is not a huge thing, but welcome. It’s frustrating to sit in a restaurant, tell the server that you need a meal that doesn’t contain wheat — only to have bread deposited on the table minutes later. It erodes confidence.
Also pictured below are the scallops (seared and drizzled with orange reduction) and the chicken shish taouk.
Added 3 more photos. This is still one of our favourite restaurants. We’ve yet to have bad food here.
I was at Laziza on Tuesday and the service was terrible. Great food, distracted employees!