Pagliacci's
A downtown Italian room with long-running Victoria familiarity.
Forty-seven years of literary pasta, live jazz, and no reservations.
Howie Siegel and Alan Di Fiore opened it on Broad Street in 1979 with Di Fiore's mother's recipes, and Siegel's son Solomon has run it since 2014. It is loud, elbow-to-elbow, and proudly anti-franchise, the kind of room where the pasta dishes are named after movies and books and the focaccia is dangerous. There has been live music most nights since day one, which they will tell you no restaurant in Canada can match. This is where locals go, not the cruise crowd.
The move
Order the Hemingway Short Story, the tortellini regulars have ordered for decades, and do not skip the homemade focaccia or the Broadway-style cheesecake. Come for the Sunday jazz brunch or grab a late dinner while a band plays.
Go when
They take no reservations, so the line is part of the deal, but it moves fast. Go on a weeknight for music after eight; skip a packed Friday unless waiting is fine.
“I wanted to please you, I wanted you to love the soup, and then talk about the price.”
Howie Siegel, founder, in Capital Daily
Known for
Perfect for