italian Archives - Page 4 of 6

Food: Famoso Neopolitan Pizzeria – Revisit

February 9, 2018

Back in 2014, I tried Famoso and blogged about it here. Since it’s been 3.5 years since my last visit, I thought it was time I write an updated post!

It seems that they changed the ordering style, I remember that we had a piece of paper that we would write our order on. This time around, our server came by and took our order.

Italian ham & crushed pineapple, $15.35: The pizza was nice and fresh, the dough was good. It came with a generous amount of pineapple but the ham slices were quite thin. With thicker ham slices or even just a bit more ham would be ideal.

Roasted Cauliflower, $15.95: Maki decided to get the smaller size of the pizza but it came with a salad. Her roasted cauliflower pizza roasted also came with toasted almonds, honey, house made chili oil and a lemon wedge. Definitely a very unique pizza! She didn’t have any complaints about it.

Custom: The boyfriend created his own pizza – mozzarella, caramelized onions, and beef. He really enjoyed it!

Salted caramel gelato: I remembered that the gelato was delicious last time, so I treated myself to one this time too! As expected, it was delicious and creamy 🙂

If you’re craving Neapolitan pizza, or just wanting a healthier alternative pizza, Famoso is a solid choice!

Yay!

Zefferelli’s Spaghetti Joint

May 30, 2017

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

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

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. 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

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!

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.

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