italian Archives - Curiously Carmen

Zefferelli’s Spaghetti Joint

May 30, 2017 Leave a Comment

It was Lager’s birthday and a celebration dinner was in store! Zefferelli’s was chosen and being the considerate and good friend Sangria was, she called to check there were dairy free options for me before placing the reservation.

After knowing there were dairy free options, I was quite excited to try it out! It has been at least two years since I’ve ate Italian food out due to my dairy restriction. Italian food kinda loses its charm once you can’t have dairy.
Zefferelli’s is located on Robson Street, on the second floor. Immediately walking in, I loved the cozy and classy atmosphere. It reminded me of having a fancy dining party at a rich person’s mansion.

The front has wide windows that overlook the trees on Robson, which were still lit up. It felt like Christmas again!

Also, check out that impressive wine wall!
Penne con salsicce, $19: Although our very friendly server told me that all the pastas were able to be modified with a non-dairy sauce, I decided to not make any custom requests. Since I don’t eat Italian food often, I wasn’t sure if changing a sauce would complement the flavours.

The penne con salsicce already comes dairy free, with roasted peppers, tomato sauce, and italian sausage. The penne was cooked al dente and there was a decent portion. The roasted peppers added some sweetness to it and tasted fresh.

However, the sausage was very salty and I found myself constantly drinking water. Luckily, each table had their own big glass of water!
Spaghetti carbonnara, $19: The boyfriend’s spaghetti carbonnara came with bacon, egg yolk, black pepper, and cream topped with a copious amount of parmesan. Since I would have died a dairy death from this, I didn’t try it.

The boyfriend said it was alright, nothing too special but nothing horrible about it either. He ended up adding lots of chili flakes and regretted it afterwards because it was too spicy. For our table of 10, we drank most of the water and were the ones asking for it to be refilled! Whoops.
Linguini al salmone, $19.50: Sangria’s dish looked very tasty, although I might be bias because I love salmon! This came with BC smoked salmon and spinach in a pernod cream sauce. I learned from writing this post that pernod is a type of French liqueur.

She had no complaints about her dish. The portion was pretty big and she ended up packing some of it home!
Penne Michelangelo, $19: Lager’s pasta came with chicken, sundried tomatoes, peas, and cream. Again, I didn’t try it but it looked really good, and he had no complaints!

Service throughout the night was amazing! Our server took note of my dairy restriction, and made sure that my dish would not come into contact with any dairy. He answered all of the questions from the others as well.

While I normally don’t eat Italian food out, it was nice to try Zefferelli’s and I enjoyed the atmosphere, service, and food. It was a very nice change from my usual food and I would definitely recommend this place for date nights or celebrations.

Yay! (Especially for romantic dates)

Virtuous Pie (Vegan Pizza Joint)

January 8, 2017 1 Comment

Vegan eating has been something that I thought was disgusting, but now I have grown an inkling towards it. Well, it started with cutting out ALL dairy from my diet due to health issues. Lately, I’ve been thinking about sustainable and conscious eating as well.

After much thought, I don’t think I could become 100% vegan for many reasons, but I do appreciate vegan eating and am open to it. I love going into a restaurant and not having to worry about dairy products, or getting social anxiety from asking a bunch of questions and being judged (although this second reason I don’t really care about anymore, I do what I want ok).

Virtuous Pie is a new vegan pizza/ice cream parlour that opened up in Chinatown. One thing I’ve really missed is pizza, so I knew I had to come here!

It is conveniently located in the middle of Chinatown on Main Street, Vegan Buddy and I took the 22 bus from downtown and walked a few steps over. I was in love with their design, minimal yet sophisticated. It was also bright and spacious!
After placing your order and paying, you can see the pizza being assembled in front of you. Each pizza is made fresh to order, and baked in the oven.
Fennel & sausage, $12: I really wanted to try this because of the faux sausage! I am a big meat lover, and other meat alternatives like seitan just do not cut it for me. With that said, the sausage tasted really legit and I was really impressed!

This was my favourite pizza because I liked the generous portion of sausage, and it was nice and garlicky.

I do wish there would have been more cashew mozzarella though. The cashew mozzarella had a very light taste to it so I didn’t taste much, but the cheesy texture was there.
Stranger Wings, $12: Stranger Wings was the most raved about on Yelp, so we had to try it. It is a vegan take on buffalo chicken, where they use cauliflower as a substitute.

Because I am not a fan of barbeque sauce, this was my least favourite. As well, cauliflower just does not replace chicken but the buffalo flavour was definitely there!

I liked how creamy the blue cheese drizzle was.
Superfunghi, $12: I really liked this pizza! It was a bit different than I was used to because they use a mashed potato sauce in place of your standard tomato sauce. The potato was nice and garlicky, and so delicious!

There was a generous amount of juicy mushrooms as well! The two of us ordered so much that we ended up packing a lot back home, but we were glad we got to try three flavours. My only complaint would be that their cheese lacks the regular cheese taste so I didn’t get that part of my craving satisfied. =(

Overall, I really enjoyed my visit to Virtuous Pie. Their pizzas are like a healthier, non-oily/greasy, lighter version of Pizza Hut or Dominos. You can really see and taste the quality of their ingredients, and you won’t leave feeling guilty or greasy.

I am already thinking of my next visit back and ordering the fennel & sausage pizza!
Yay!

Rocky Mountain Flatbread Co.

August 26, 2015 Leave a Comment

Sometimes, the boyfriend and I are in the sudden mood to try out a new restaurant. More often than not, we will already have a list of restaurants we want to try together so it is a matter of deciding which one. It is a task that might not be as easy as you think! On one particular warm sunny evening in June, it was Rocky Mountain Flatbread that we decided to finally check off our dining list.

There are two locations in Vancouver, we went to the one on Main Street. Main Street will always be one of my favourite neighbouhoods, the area is always buzzing with energy and there are a plethora of restaurants to pick from. I should make it a goal to try all, if not most, of the restaurants here!

Walking in, the atmosphere was fantastic and really set the mood for the rest of our visit. The patio was open, with the sunlight graciously pouring throughout the mid-sized restaurant. There was also a live band playing in the corner of the restaurant, featuring an amazing acoustic singer. The ambiance here was very warm, as well as the friendly service.

To start, we ordered the homemade iced tea and lemonade. Both were not very sweet, I would have preferred my lemonade to be sweetened a bit more because it tasted like concentrated lemon water (which I know is essentially what lemonade is… but more sugar would be nice). It was definitely a drink where you take occasional slow slips because of how sour it was.

I ordered the ‘parma’, which came with organic tomato sauce, mozzarella, Parmesan, cured ham, arugula, mushrooms, and mango. Perhaps the most interesting topping on this was the mango, but I was very intrigued and had a good feeling that all the flavours would go well together. Was I correct?

A million times yes!! Everything was really fresh, and the mango gave it a bit of a ‘spark’ to an already awesome flatbread. The sweetness of the mango enhanced all the other flavours, this dish was just brilliant. 12/10 would order again.

The boyfriend ordered the Italian sausage, which came with pesto, mozarella, Italian sausage bits, and spinach. Again, this dish was executed very well and we enjoyed it. The ingredients for both flatbreads were very fresh, while the dough was soft and chewy but crispy on the outside.

I am really glad that we finally tried this place out, and I feel like we would come back here again. From the ambiance, to the service, and the food, everything was simply wonderful and we had a great time. I would recommend coming here with a group of people, so that you’re able to try more of the flatbread varieties they offer.

Ludica Pizzera – Board games & pizza galore!

June 21, 2015 Leave a Comment

Hi everyone!

I love playing board games. And food. So when my coworker told me about this magical place with over 600 board games to choose from, AND you can eat great pizza while playing, we knew we all had to check out Pizza Ludica!

Pizza Ludica is located in the Tinseltown area, a quick walk from downtown or you can easily get there by transit. I’ve passed this place a few times before, but had no idea that it was a board game and pizza shop!

Customers are advised to make an online reservation, as it can get pretty packed – especially on Friday & Saturday evenings. Unfortunately, all the reservations were full when my coworkers and I tried, but decided to come pretty early to get a table reserved for walk-ins.

I’m glad we came early because the place got pretty packed around 6:30-7pm on a Friday evening! I came back here again a few weeks later with my friends, it was a weekday evening so we did not have any trouble making a reservation.

I forgot to take a photo of the board game shelf but here is one I found on Yelp. They have their whole selection of board games online, divided up into different categories. The shelf is also divided up into alphabetical and numerical sections, making it easier for customers to find the game.
We split three pizzas among the four of us. Their pizzas are made fresh and baked in front of you in a stone oven.

Pictured above is the snorta pizza, which came with ham, bacon, pepperoni, sausage and mozzarella. Basically a meat lovers paradise.

This was one of the specials that day, the chicken pesto pasta! Again, this was really tasty and I really enjoyed the dough. There was a nice and strong pesto taste, and the chicken was moist and flavourful as well. You can also see that we were playing Clue while eating this! =P

I ordered this one with friends when I came back again, but found it to be extremely oily that time.

I forgot which pizza this was, and I couldn’t find this on the website so it was probably one of the specials that day. Sorry! 🙁

All in all, the pizzas here are pretty good! The dough is nice and chewy, with a thicker and crunchier crust.

When I came a second time, they had a ‘game ambassador’ working that night. The game ambassador is a genius in all the board games that they offer, and can teach you how to play or give you recommendations. He was very friendly and gave us really good instructions and game recommendations! I really appreciated this extra touch of service 🙂

To finish off this post, here is a picture taken by my friend! The game ambassador recommended a game called Hokkaido, which we enjoyed playing!

Pizza Ludica is a great place to hang out and play board games with friends and eat delicious pizza! The service here is really friendly as well! If you love board games, check out this place!

What is your favourite board game? 🙂

Thanks for reading!

-Carmen

Al Porto Ristorante

December 8, 2014 2 Comments

Al Porto Ristorante is an Italian restaurant in the heart of Gastown, located in the basement of one of Gastown’s many beautiful historic brick buildings. Al Porto had a fancier feel to the restaurant, but I wouldn’t describe it was fine dining. It is certainly a restaurant that to go to when you’re not in a rush. I thought that this place would be great for romantic dates, but after reading a few reviews and hearing some stories from friends, seems like this place gets quite noisy in the night time and it’s hard to hear the person across the table from you.

The main entrance to Al Porto is located off the side of the building, towards the train tracks. There is a sign out front with a big arrow, so it’s pretty hard to miss the entrance. The picture above is the entrance to their second floor loft. I came with a few of my coworkers for lunch. The restaurant was pretty empty when we arrived, and were seated quickly. I liked how we got one of the round tables for the five of us, it made conservation easier and it was nice to see everyone without having to lean forward or anything like that. I wish more restaurants had circular tables =P Like Chinese restaurants!

Right after we ordered, our bread came! If I was going to be picky, it would have been nice to have the bread warm, but oh well. I’m not sure what the bread on the left was called, but it was very doughy and chewy, with subtle garlic and herb tastes to it. I liked how it was chewy and I am a big fan of herbs so this bread was an obvious winner in my books. I wish I could say the same about the right one, but unfortunately I found the outside to be rock hard and bland tasting.

My side of caesar salad was better than I expected it to be, which is always a great surprise! That, or I normally don’t have great experiences with side salads. The lettuce was very crunchy, as were the croutons (and not in a bad way like the complementary bread above). It had a great garlicky flavour to it. Everything tasted really fresh and tasted like what a delicious caesar salad should taste like! There was also bits of crushed pepper, which added more dynamic and a hint of spice to the salad.

Soup of the way was a white bean, tomato and basil soup. It had a thick texture to it, and was a bit starchy due to the potatoes. However, all of the flavours in the soup complemented each other really well and I didn’t find the soup to be extremely salty (I’m looking at you, Olive Garden). I try to stay away from soups at Western restaurants because I find them to be very salty, but this wasn’t the case. I added a bit of pepper to the soup to give it a bit of a flair too. Yum!

For myself, I ordered the tagliatelle buongustaio ($10.95). Tagliatelle is the type of pasta, which is a flatter and wider noodle. My plate came with chicken, sweet pea, and mushrooms in a garlic cream sauce. The tagliatelle was cooked al dente, and had a good bounce to it. The sauce was delicious as well, it was very creamy without being too heavy, and had a subtle garlic and butter taste to it. The chicken chunks had a slightly grilled and smoky taste to it, and was juicy. I love my pepper, and requested for extra in my plate which completed my dish perfectly. I sprinkled a bit of Parmesan cheese, which melted a bit due to the warmth of the everything else.

With all that said, one thing I found a bit off was their service. The service wasn’t bad or rude… it was just a bit off. I wasn’t feeling well that day and had a cold, so I asked for a warm honey water to maybe give my sore throat a relief, and so that I was actually able to talk with my coworkers because I was about to lose my voice. She seemed very confused about it and looked a bit annoyed… I didn’t understand what was so difficult about that request. The rest of the time, I felt bad and uncomfortable asking her for more water, which I don’t think a server should make you feel especially at a restaurant that is known to be a bit more upscale. So I sucked it up and took Halls like there was no tomorrow. =

When another person came around with our pastas, he asked if we wanted freshly ground pepper and he was one of those people who talk so fast, that you barely get a chance to speak back. Now I’m sure he didn’t mean to be like that, maybe he was just highly, highly, highly caffeinated. He was also gone in a flash before I could ask for a tad more pepper because I felt like there was only a tiny sprinkle of pepper in our pasta which is definitely not enough if you are a fan of pepper and spicy things! I’m pretty sure he could have spent more than one second on each of our plates, because the restaurant was no where near busy so I’m not sure what happened there… or maybe they’re stingy about their pepper, who knows.

Going to a restaurant is not just about the food, it is about the ambiance, service, and overall atmosphere. Al Porto really hit the points high with their food, but I think their service could use a bit more work, or maybe the two staff were having an off day. I don’t think I would come back for dinner since I know it gets pretty busy and is a popular tourist destination, but I wouldn’t mind coming back for lunch (if there is better service).

-Carmen