Pagliacci's - Victoria

Pagliacci's has been around since the 1970's and has quite the following. Every time we've visited Victoria, we've seen long line ups outside the restaurant; for this reason, we've avoided it, but this time we decided to try it when we went for dinner with Shane's dad. Being from Victoria, Shane had tried the restaurant before, but not in a long while.

Luckily, the weather was clear the night we decided to go, so the wait wasn't too bad even though the line was really long. However, the restaurant was well aware of this and brought us each a beverage as we waited. We thought that was pretty great and quite rare for a non-fine dining place.

The interior of the restaurant was filled with knick knacks and bright yellow walls. The space was really small, and tables were jammed into the restaurant with very little room for people to move. We were probably six inches from the next table. It was a little uncomfortable.

The complimentary foccacia  bread was amazing and unique. It was flaky, buttery and utterly rich. It was really irresistible.

Demsey's Lasagna ($14), touted as a favourite of Bob Dylan's, was surprisingly delicious. The handmade pasta was still slightly chewy instead of the usual mushy stuff that you'd normally get. The meat sauce was delicious and had a wonderful basil flavour. On top of that the whole thing was really cheesy, and you had decadent strings of cheese as you portioned it to your mouth. It was probably one of the best lasagna's I've had. Would I order this again? Yes and yes.

Shane had "The Heart of Saturday Night", which had artichoke hearts, capers, olives, red peppers in a tomato sauce over fettucine ($14). The pasta was well cooked, but the sauce lacked punch. With those ingredients, you might expect assertive, briny flavours, but the whole dish tasted really bland. The tomato sauce lacked the freshness that the lasagna had, and even the olives and capers imparted no flavour. In fact, we had to add a bunch of salt to this dish to make it palatable.

I've thought of the lasagna many times since this visit and can't wait to return. I had my doubts about this place before I went, but I now understand the long line-ups!

Pizzeria Prima Strada - Victoria

After reading Andrew Morrison on Vancouver's lack of authentic pizza, we put pizza on the list of things to eat in Victoria (also check out Foodosophy's informative review). Who can pass up Prima Strada's Neopolitan pizza and their authentic ingredients (including flour from Naples, local artisanal cheese, and house made charcuterie)?

We arrived during the lunch hour and the place was packed; however, we were lucky enough to get the last booth that was available. The decor of the place is clean, stylish and comfortable. Of course, the star of the space the large brick wood-fired oven in the middle of the restaurant. Apparently the temperature in the oven is about 700 degrees.

To start, we ordered the 'Antipasti Misti' ($13), which consisted of prosciutto, salumi, various cheeses, olives, chickpeas, nuts, and bread. Although we were a little disappointed by its size, the ingredients were stellar. The olives were especially good. Our only complaint was that it only came with three slices of bread. Really? That is not nearly enough bread to eat with the salty ingredients.

Our first pizza of choice was the Margherita ($14.50) which consisted of tomato sauce, mozzarella cheese from Fairburn Farms, basil and sea salt. The pizza was impressive. The dough was crispy yet soft at the same time, and the pizza had great flavour. The tomato sauce tasted very fresh, and the basil was especially good on the pizza.

The second pizza was the Rucola e Crudo ($16), which is tomato, parmigiano and mozzarella pizza topped with fresh prosciutto and arugula. This was great. The saltiness of the prosciutto and parmigiano gave the pizza great flavour, and the freshness and bite of the arugula contrasted nicely with the hot crust.

We thoroughly enjoyed this dining experience, and will definitely be back. You can definitely taste the care in preparation and the quality of the ingredients. Bravo!

Anton's Pasta Bar

Last week we decided to go to the Hastings area, because it was an area we haven't explored that much. Originally, we had wanted to have lunch at Bombay Bhel, but it happened to be closed for lunch that day. So we headed next door to Anton's. We'd never been to Anton's before, but have heard lots about it--namely their extremely large portions and longer line ups.

The place was full, but we didn't have to line up at all. The atmosphere is minimal, but friendly. There were lots of families and young couples. Even though the place was pretty full, the service was quick and warm.

I ordered the Linguine Alla Siciliana ($10.99), which was linguine and anchovies, red peppers, capers and olives in a tomato sauce (similar to a puttanesca sauce, I think). This was great--I love the saltiness and briny quality of the sauce, and the noodles were fresh and slightly chewy. I wasn't expecting to find homemade pasta here, so this was quite a surprise. There wasn't too much sauce, but there was enough to coat each noodle. I liked it a lot.

Shane had the Linguine alla Cabonara ($10.99), with pancetta, egg and cream sauce. It's actually one of my favorite dishes, but I couldn't stomach ordering a whole bowl of it myself. I did have an extensive tasting of Shane's dish though. Obviously, it's very rich, and good. My only criticism is that it could have used a tad more salt, but Shane was okay with it.

Even though we got only the lunch portion (the dinner portion is $14.99), both of us managed to eat only half of the bowl. It's very filling.

I was surprised at how much we liked Aton's. I was expecting some cheap, out of the box pasta, but the dishes were surprisingly well done. We would definitely come back here, especially to try out the dinner portions.

Cumpari's Gelato & Caffe

One night after dinner, we decided to pay a visit to Cumpari's, a gelato and dessert place. The building used to be the old Burger King, but this place opened a few years ago. Somehow it still feels like a Burger King place to me (ah, the memories), even though the interior has been transformed.

Cumpari's did have a great many flavours to choose from. We got a couple of small gelato cups ($3.75): pistachio, and hazelnut. Normally pistachio flavour is our test of a good gelato, and it's also one of our favorite flavours. Unfortunately, this version has very little nutty taste--it could have been any flavour, for all we knew. The hazelnut was a lot better, however, although I had a few old congealed milk bits on my tongue.

We also tried the cannoli. It was okay. The pastry was more chewy than crisp, and the ricotta filling was a tad heavy and dense. One good thing about it was that it wasn't too sweet.

We probably wouldn't come here again, but I guess for the area, Cumpari is an okay place if you're in the mood for gelato. It is definitely not in the same league as the ones in Vancouver, however.

Golden Boot Cafe

When I was growing up in Coquitlam, I used to pass by The Golden Boot Cafe every once in a while, but I never actually tried the food there. We always flocked to Vancouver to eat out, 'cause it was...Coquitlam, you know?

Anyway, we finally paid the Golden Boot a visit. I'd heard that the place was family-run, that the food was good, but that it was really small. Apparently it's deemed to be pretty authentic, with everything handmade.

The restaurant is located right in the middle of the nowhere, on a side street parallel to Austin Avenue, right across from the Safeway parking lot. The atmosphere is friendly, with the baseball game on the large screen TV and wooden tables and chairs. According to the website, the restaurant expanded earlier in March to make the space a lot bigger.

Arriving at 6pm, we were seated right away. It became a lot busier later on that night, especially on a weekday. We also saw a handful of people get take out. There seems to be quite a few regulars there as well.

After we sat down, we were given a basket of warm, toasted foccacia bread. There were bottles of balsamic and olive oil on the table, so we were able to make a little dip. After we were done, we were even asked if we wanted some more bread. Even though we declined, I thought that was really nice of them to offer.

We decided to share the Antipasto Salad ($18), which was a huge platter filled with Genoa salami, proscuitto, mortadella, prawns, olives, roasted peppers, marinated artichokes, goat cheese, bocconcini, and Parmigiano cheese. Under all this was a bed of lettuce. This was large and tasty. The meats and goat cheese were the highlight. We were sort of full after this platter.

We shared the mains. This is the large Pizza Modenese ($14), with proscuitto, Parmigiano, and arugula. The pizza really reminded me of the pizzas I had when I was in Italy--thin crust, and really straightforward toppings. The pizza tasted really good--the proscuitto gave the pizza a nice saltiness, and the tomato sauce was fresh tasting. The arugula gave the pizza a nice fresh bite. The only minor thing was that the crust could have been a little bit more crispy.

We also shared the large size Spaghetti alla Carbonara ($13). I swear, this was the most delicious Spaghetti Carbonara I've ever had. It was really rich, cheesy and creamy, with a prominent proscuitto flavour. Every bite was sinful and luxurious. And the pasta! The handmade spaghetti had a beautiful texture: cooked but still a little chewy. It felt good in your mouth, if that makes any sense. It truly emphasized the differences between fresh pasta and store bought ones. It was a revelation. We both loved this.

We were quite full after all this, and even had half a pizza to take home. I was so happy when we left, because it was one of those moment where you're full of the most delicious food, and you feel like you've made such a discovery. It makes you wonder what other treasures lie in your own backyard.

We will definitely come here again and again. It is a heartbeat of a restaurant.

Anducci's

It was a Friday, and we were a little too tired to cook, so we pulled out an old Entertainment book coupon that was to expire at the end of October, and visited Anducci's in Burnaby. I'd eaten at Anducci's over the years quite a few times, but the restaurant had disappointed us in some recent visits.

The restaurant itself is located on Cameron street, right across from Cameron library, and a few minute's walk from Lougheed Mall. The decor is a little strange, with really weird, concrete walls with concrete 'meringues' jutting out. The tables used to be this wrought metal with cut-outs, but these had changed to faux marble plastic ones. It seems that they have toned things down, design-wise. The menu too, had a new, sleeker look.

We were debating about whether to get appetizers or not, but they all sounded terrible, especially the Asian-inspired ones (why do restaurants DO this?), so we just opted for a couple of pastas.

Once we ordered, we were asked whether we wanted some house bread. We said yes, and were prepared to be charged. Once upon a time they offered free bread, which was brought to your table, but then they stopped giving free bread and started charging customers. I was pleased to note that we weren't charged for the bread. The bread is exactly as I'd remembered--slices of toasted focaccia drizzled with balsamic and olive oil, and sprinkled with parmesan. This was good: so warm and crunchy, with a nice tartness. Shane mentioned that he would have preferred to dip the bread himself, but that's not how they do it here.

The restaurant charges quite a bit for its pastas--it used to be a better deal when the portions were overwhelmingly huge, but the sizes have gone down over the years. The canneloni were $4 off that night, so Shane chose the spinach and cheese ones (these are normally $16). This came in a set of three, bathing in tomato sauce. However, the top and edges of the canneloni were dry, and the filling unfortunately tasted really bland. Shane described it as "tasting like a good microwave dinner," and I couldn't agree more. The filling was dry and tasted like playdoh. No fresh cheeses here, I'm afraid. The tomato sauce was unsettingly sweet for some reason.

I have enjoyed Anducci's pasta in the past, as they apparently make their own noodles, and I ordered a dish which has rarely failed me, the seafood pasta in cream sauce ($17). The good things about this dish were the noodles, and the seafood. The scallops were tiny, well cooked, and the shrimp were crunchy. Unfortunately they either failed to drain the pasta well or reduce the sauce, because the sauce was watery, and didn't coat each strand of pasta as it should have. It was also a bad sign that I had to reach for the salt shaker a few times.

We've given this restaurant quite a few chances over the years, and their inconsistency has been irksome. This visit was the last of a handful of disappointing ones. Given the price of the dishes, more care should have been taken over the quality and preparation of the food.