22 - Wednesday, March 8, 1989 - North Shore News Dishes prepared with inspiration at La Cucina LA CUCINA ITALIANA RESTAURANT, 1509 MARINE DRIVE, NORTH VANCOUVER, 986-1334, VISA, MASTERCARD AND AMERICAN EX- PRESS ACCEPTED. ENTRANCE WHEELCHAIR ACCESSIBLE BUT WASHROOM IS NOT. OPEN FROM 5:30 P.M. DAILY. CLOSED SUNDAYS. GRAND NORTHERN Italian culinary gusts continue to blow through La Cucina. Established in 1980 by head chef Hans Roth and dining room maestro Tiberio Faedo in what was a iast food outlet, La Cucina opened with an impressive roster of exotic and-authentic northern Italian dishes prepared with in- spiration and meticulous eye to detail. Dishes such as [nvultini Ripieni (Veal rolls stuffed with bread, bacon, sultanas, pinenuts and Parmesan cheese) seemed in- congruously complex and cosmopolitan on the banks of the culturally bankrupt Marine Drive strip. But £a Cucina made an ins- |, tant and lasting first impression on North Shore diners who took a chance on the small, mauve res- taurant with the trellised grape- vine. la Cucina has continued to build on that opening and is now well-established as cn2 of the North Shore’s best restaurants. it is alse included in the recen TIMOTHY RENSHAW table hopping published 1989 Litt Report, a survey of over 1,000 Canadian res- taurants compiled from the cri- tiques of several thousand amateur dining gourmets “‘who paid for their own meals.” Egads! what a precedent to set. Litt contributors rate La Cucina‘s food and service as ‘very good’ and its decor as ‘good’ — both astute conclusions. La Cucina’s current menu offers an extensive lineup of elegant and complex pastas (Penne All’ Arabiata, $9.25, looks intrigu- ing: a sauce Cansisting of Zesty tomato sauce, Onion, bacon and tlaked hat red pepper), scatop- pines (the classic with sweet Mar- sala wine is $13.25) seafoods and red meat dishes all prepared with that dexterity and flourish peculiar to the best Malian foods, and char- acterized by a marvellous and passionate Italian marriage of oils, vinegars, herbs and spices. Entrees are in the $9-to-$16 range with the majority between $10 and $15. The restaurant's wine list features primarily Italian selec- tions, which rarely disappoint. My wife and I kicked off our evening in La Cucina’s close Htalian hunting lodge decor with a Brolio Chianti Classico ($18.95), good, reliable company with any meal. Our table for two, lodged against a pillar at the foot of the restaurant’s second-floor staircase, was not the best, but it provided us with an interesting and enter- taining view of ascending and de- scending stairway traffic, which increased in entertainment value NEWS photo Mike Wokefield LA CUCINA head chef Hans Roth presents plates of roast duckling and See First-rate sauteed shrimp. The North Vancouver restaurant is one of the best Page 23 Italian food locales on the North Shore.