Where: 1879 Powell St., Vancouver

When: Dinner, Tuesday to Saturday

Info: 604-895-4233 | nerotondo.com

The name holds the key to the soul of this restaurant. Nero tondo, the namesake vegetable, is a Spanish black radish with unhandsome, coarse black skin and an initial taste akin to snorting fire. Not on many chefs’ dance cards.

“It’s a vegetable with a difficult personality, but it is a vegetable and that’s what our cooking revolves around and what we’re all about,” says Devon Latté, owner and chef along with Lucas Johnston. In their ninja thinking, they embrace the “extremely difficult ingredient” for its vegetableness.

“It needs some love,” says Latté. Typically, they’ll marinate, roast and sear it at high heat.

Their vegetable love doesn’t exclude animal protein but it’s most

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