Emilio Finatti Pizzeria in White Rock came highly recommend by some old co-workers, Latte, and online reviews. Latte and I had plans to get takeout for a picnic, but the weather was cloudy so we went to Pho Sunrise and Mink Chocolate Cafe instead. We tried to come again a month later (with the fiance as well because it sounded delicious to him too) and it was a success!

Emilio Finatti Pizzeria is located in White Rock, a few minutes drive from the beach (but it would be a hard walk due to the steep hills!). The restaurant itself is very small and a bit hole in the wall inside.

Mr Chu Tea and Coffee is across the street too, so you could also get some bubble tea while you’re here. Review coming soon!

They usually have a couple small tables but due to the pandemic, no customers were allowed in. There were a couple tables outside but you’d be better off enjoying the pizza at the beach instead.

While writing this review, I wasn’t too sure what Silician pizza was. After looking it up, I learned that Silician pizza is usually thick crusted and prepared in a rectangular fashion. However, Emilio’s advertises themselves as thin crust. Not that I’m complaining though, everything was delicious as you’ll soon find out!

Roma pizza: The 3 of us shared 3 small pizzas, which proved later to be too much but leftover pizza in the air fryer is delicious! The Roma pizza came with marinara, cheese, genoa salami, red onion, green bell pepper, roasted red bell pepper finished with parmesan.

It was love at first bite! All of the ingredients in the pizza were extremely fresh and great quality. The perfect thin crust pizza. They were quite generous with the toppings too.

Mama mia: The second pizza we ordered was the mamma mia. This pizza came with marinara, cheese, meatballs, green olive, green bell pepper, hot banana peppers, finished with cheddar cheese, parmesan and herbs, Italian parsley.

This pizza was delicious as well! The thin crust was perfect too and the ingredients on top were very fresh. I haven’t seen a pizza with a whole banana pepper before. My only complaint for the Mamma Mia was the olives, because I’m not a fan of olives. 

The meatballs on top of the pizza were seasoned well and tender too. You could really taste the quality of the meatballs!

Pepperoni primo: Last but not least, the pepperoni primo! The pepperoni primo came with marinara, cheese, ham, pepperoni, genoa salami, mushroom, artichoke, finished with roma tomato, parmesan, greek pepper garnish.

This was my favourite of the day! The pizza was full of such fresh ingredients and was so good. There were so many toppings on top. I really liked the fresh sliced tomato that was added after. The parmesan dusting rounded out the pizza and elevated the deliciousness even more.

We all really enjoyed Emilio Finatti. The quality of the pizza and the toppings were top notch. A lot of reviews mentioned that the prices are a bit higher than usual, but it’s no mystery why when you taste the quality ingredients and freshness. I would love to come back here during my next trip to White Rock.

Water Street Cafe is a cute restaurant located in the heart of Gastown, right across from the famous steam clock. We came here with Sangria and Lager for a much needed catch up dinner!

Walking in, I really enjoyed the ambiance of Water Street Cafe. There was a romantic, classic New York City feel to it… as if you were stepping into the crisp pages of a chick lit novel and the protagonist was about to have their first date. The ambiance was spectacular but the food was lacking unfortunately, as you’ll soon find out.

Social distancing and sanitation protocol were at place here, and it felt clean and safe. Although, we did tell them that we would be sharing, our server didn’t bring out serving utensils and plates until we asked.

Bison carpaccio: To start, we ordered the bison carpaccio to share (we had serving forks and knives). No complaints about this dish. The parmesan and capers went really well with the bison.

Mushroom gnocchi: After finding out that they make their gnocchi in-house, we decided to share this as well. Personally, I found it to be underwhelming. Truffle butter was advertised but there was no taste or scent of truffle at all.

It was also made with goat cheese so there was a strong gamey taste, which the fiance was not a fan of. We would not get this again.

Pappardelle bolognese: After a great experience at Ask For Luigi, I decided to order the same thing to see how it compared since Water St. Cafe is also a fancier restaurant. Again, this was underwhelming and disappointing.

Lager noted that the tomato sauce tasted like grocery store canned pasta sauce, which I agreed with. In addition, there were strange pools of oil at the bottom of my plate.

I could have made better pasta at home for 1/4th of the price since this tasted like canned pasta sauce anyways.

Meatballs and pappardelle: The fiance’s pasta sauce was the same as mine, and he also found it to be lackluster and disappointing.

The meatballs were very tender, but he found the dish to be pretty forgettable and meh.

Seafood pasta special: Lager ordered the daily special, which was a seafood pasta in a lemon butter dill sauce. This was far more delicious than the fiance and my pasta dishes. The sauce was buttery, while the dill gave it a nice aroma.

However, the seafood was extremely overcooked. The clams were rubbery and the scallop had shrunk and was overcooked.

Braised beef short rib: Sangria had perhaps the most satisfying dish out of all of us. The braised beef short rib was tender and fell off the bone nicely. It was marinated in hoisin sauce which was unexpected for a Western restaurant, but it worked well.

There was live music playing on the patio right next to us which was nice, but the singer was belting out ballads and it was too loud and hard to hear our own conversation at times. It was nice when he was singing softly or just playing instrumentals though.

All in all, the dishes left little to be desired and was disappointing. While the ambiance and service was great, the same can not be said about the food.

Disclaimer: In light of COVID-19, I just wanted to say that I am doing my part and social distancing. This is a review based on contact-less delivery.

I know that you may want to go out and have fun, but it is crucial that we distance ourselves to slow the spread of the virus and flatten the curve before it gets worse. Yes, you may feel fine but you could be passing on the virus to someone who is immunocompromised or elderly that may not survive this virus.

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This year’s anniversary was a lot different than we expected, aka we did not expect there to be a pandemic! This did not dampen our plans though, thanks to delivery. Our original plan was to order Miku’s delivery platter but we realized a day before that Miku was closed on Sundays.

After looking around on Yelp, I suggested Ask For Luigi as it’s been on my list for many years now! This place was also highly recommended by friends and other food bloggers so it’s about time I tried it out.

Ask for Luigi is located off the beaten path in East Vancouver by the industrial area just before DTES. You would not expect a delicious, intimate Italian restaurant with homemade pasta here.

Admittedly, we are no pasta or Italian food experts. After Googling most of the terms on the menu (and playing the game of ‘is this a cheese, noodle or meat?’), we placed our order.

Penne bolognese, parmesan: I decided on the penne bolognese with parmesan but substituted with pappardelle noodle instead because I was craving wide and flat noodles that day.

My bolognese was so delicious. I could see what the hype about Ask For Luigi was after my first bite. The pasta was so cheesy and creamy with a delicious tomato sauce. There was a generous portion of beef inside as well.

The homemade pappardelle was cooked to a perfect al dente.

Pappardelle, boar rago, and pecorino: I’m not sure if the fiance or I had boar before, but it was similar to pulled pork with a slightly gamier taste.

Compared to my bolognese, the fiance did not like his dish as much because it wasn’t as cheesy or creamy. The cheese had a sharper taste to it. After a quick Google search while writing this, pecorino is a type of hard sheep cheese so that explains why (I looked up all the other dishes except this one because the fiance had decided on this already).

If he knew that this was made from sheep milk, he wouldn’t have ordered it. But if you’re a fan of gamey food, I’d recommend this dish.

Overall, we were quite impressed with Ask For Luigi. The quality of the homemade pasta noodles and dishes overall was evident, even in takeout boxes without the romantic Italian atmosphere.

I can see why this place is so popular and I’m glad that we finally tried it!