romantic Archives - Page 5 of 6

Milestones (Yaletown)

July 6, 2014

A birthday celebration was in order two weeks ago, and Milestones was the location of our dinner. We have been to this Yaletown location before, it is tradition for Smores to hold his birthday dinner here every year before going dancing 🙂

However, we had slight management issues which I will explain down below. This location offers a semi-private room that seats 30 guests. It is in the back of the restaurant, right before the kitchen and washrooms and is closed off on all three walls, except for one wall which is completely glass where you enter from the sides. Even though it is covered off, you do not feel completely isolated but it’s nice when there is a large party, and you guys want some privacy. There were many plates of food, beer, and wine that were ordered, but I decided to only focus on the food that I actually tried that night!
For starters, my two friends got the baked goat cheese and slow roasted garlic flat bread. It came with cranberry relish and fig jam as well.

All of the flavours of this dish complemented each other tremendously well. The bread was extremely soft and warm as well. Definitely a great starter dish!
For myself, I ordered the California burger which came with avocado, salsa, and bacon. I fell in love with this burger the last time I got it, and this time was no different either. I loved the inclusion of the avocado, and felt that all the flavours worked really well together much like the flat bread dish. The fries were pretty standard and came with freshly ground pepper as well.
The boyfriend ordered the stacked burger. Prime rib, Montreal smoked meat, bacon strips, cheddar cheese, plus more goodies. This is the epitome of an indulgent and guilty meal, but it was delicious.

The Montreal smoked meat was very tender and juicy, along with the mushrooms. Burgers like these are to die for, but important to have them in extreme moderation because they are definitely not calorie or fat friendly!
For drinks, I ordered the Sombersby cider which I got the day before at Elephant and Castle. I just took this picture from that previous post as I forgot to take a picture of it at Milestones.

My friends decided to share a pitcher of sangria. It was made with Sombersby white wine (same company as my cider), and was absolutely delicious as well! There were many fruits in it, making it super refreshing.

Now for the management issue: We had buy one get one half price entree coupons, which I think the management was upset at, so they told us that we needed a minimum charge for the semi-private room. We suspect that they had just added that policy that night due to the coupons. My friend has had his birthday here for the past six years and they have never mentioned that “policy” before.

We thought it was a bit rude and unprofessional for the restaurant manager to suddenly barge in during our dinner, and ask to talk to the birthday boy. Other measures could have been taken that were less invasive and awkward. There was no fine print on the coupons nor restrictions, so we weren’t breaking rules nor was it our fault; they should have specified the limit of one per table or something like that if they were going to be upset about it. We also ordered alcohol and appetizers, so it wasn’t like we were there just to solely use the coupons. Apart from the management, our servers were very friendly and attentive.

-Carmen

Bella Gelataria Handcrafted Gelato

June 26, 2014

Back when I did not have a blog, I came here with my friend who was stopping in town from Japan for a few days. Prior to him landing in Vancouver, he told me that he had to try this place before leaving, because apparently this place is very well known in Japan. Well damn, if people across the ocean raved about this place, it must be one good gelato place!

We ended up loving our gelato, but to be honest, I don’t remember much of the gelato itself as I was too happy that I was able to reunite with my friend living halfway across the world after a year.

So, half a year and one beautiful sunny afternoon later, I decided to stop by again and enjoy some delicious gelato after a delicious meal at Kintaro Ramen!

Bella Gelatria is located on the main floor of the luxurious Fairmont Pacific Rim, right by the water. There was a line up out the door, and almost around the corner the day we went. In total, we waited about fifteen minutes in line.

The staff working there are very experienced in heavy volume traffic, so they had a pretty efficient system going. There are also awards and framed newspaper articles lined up from top to bottom, so you definitely will not get bored in line.
Of course, if you do not want to read their framed articles, you can take the time to decide what flavour you want to try. I was craving strawberry that day, but unfortunately, the worker told me they didn’t have it. She was then interrupted (in a friendly manner) by the owner and master gelatier, James Coleridge as he informed me that they only make strawberry when in season.
After much debate, I settled with the chocolate belgian brownie. I was in love at first bite. The chocolate was extremely rich, smooth, decadent, and soft. I fell in love with how well-rounded the chocolate flavour was, and how creamy it was.

I have never had gelato, or ice cream, as creamy and rich like this before. You could really tell the difference in quality. Typing this post is making me so hungry now.
Next up (no, I did not order three all to myself, incase you’re wondering) is the Thai coconut milk gelato. Just like my chocolate one, this one was extremely creamy as well. There was a strong and delicious coconut taste. It came with little slices of fresh coconut as well, which added to the freshness of the gelato.
This was the mint chocolate gelato, but I didn’t get a chance to try it. Delicious is actually just an understatement for Bella Gelataria.

Honestly. I’m not the only one that thinks so, either considering that Bella Gelataria has won numerous awards in Italy for their gelato and their rating on Urbanspoon.

-Carmen
PS. Here is a picture of the outside, with their big sign. This picture was taken at my first visit in chilly November (read first paragraph above), hence the jackets.

Tap and Barrel, Olympic Village

May 19, 2014

Summer is quickly approaching and we took an opportunity last week to enjoy a patio dinner with a great view. Tap and Barrel offers a huge selection of craft beer, which in my opinion tastes a lot better than your regular beers.

So, before you say you hate beer, give craft beer a try. I’ve been here two other times in the past but never had a chance to try their dinner menu. Here’s how it went!
We came on a Friday evening, so we expected a long line up since it was a warm night. Fortunately for us, they had a patio seat right away! The patio was buzzing with energy and chatter, almost all the seats were taken!

I loved the decor of the patio, it was very simple and had a west coast contemporary feel to it. The tables were wooden, and all the chairs were red. As the night progressed, we came to realize that the glass wall on the patio was very thick and sturdy. It was a bit windy but we didn’t feel a breeze or cold at all, even when it got dark.
We ordered two beers. I got the Phillips Chocolate Porter and the boyfriend got the Vancouver Island Brewery Summer Ale.

The chocolate porter was rich and dark, with a smooth chocolate finish. If you are craving a smooth and dark beer, I would definitely go with the chocolate porter. As for the summer ale, it was light and refreshing with tropical fruit notes.
We had no idea what to order since we’re used to only coming here for beer! I was a bit disappointed because I saw a few menu items on Urbanspoon that looked really good, but unfortunately weren’t on the menu that day.
For appetizers, the boyfriend wanted deep fried pickles ($5.45). The deep fried pickles were cut very thick, and the batter was very crispy. I found these to be quite oily, but was very tasty. I was also impressed at how big the portion was. The dipping sauce was a mix of sour cream and dill, which went really well with the pickles.
We also ordered the shrimp and salmon ceviche ($11.95). I was a bit disappointed with the portion, as I expected it to be bigger (minus the tortilla chips). But nonetheless, there was an abundance of shrimp and salmon in the ceviche. The boyfriend squeezed the life out of the lime, so it was pretty sour to the point where it didn’t accentuate the taste.

Yes, I know that’s not the restaurant’s fault but just be careful of how much lime juice you add into the ceviche, especially if it’s a small bowl. But when you used the tortilla chips to top off the cevice, the sourness was a bit diminished.
For our main dish, we finally decided on their “Maui Wowie” pizza. All their pizzas are hand stretched, hence it being a bit unsymmetrical, and baked in a wood stone oven. It came with tomato sauce, mozza cheese, pulled bacon, and cayenne roasted pineapples. It was pretty average, but I liked how doughy the pizza was and that it wasn’t too greasy. The pineapples really saved the dish, otherwise it would have been really bland.
We also decided to order their mac and cheese, with pulled pork for an added $3 ($15 total). This dish was a total disappointment to us as it lacked any cheese flavour and was lukewarm. We felt that we could have made this better at our own house. The only saving grace about this dish was the pulled pork, but there wasn’t that much to the dish.
By the end of our dinner, the sun had set and the city lights were slowly coming to life under the night sky. It was beautiful, we ended up staying a bit longer just to enjoy the view. Tap and Barrel offers a great and delicious selection of beer, but their food options are a a bit hit and miss. But when an establishment’s specialty is beer, and they do that right, you can’t really complain.

It was a pretty busy night, so our server was quite busy but she tried her best to talk to us when she could, which we appreciated. I can’t say I’ll be back for the food, but definitely for patio drinks!

-Carmen

Amato Gelato Cafe, Olympic Village

April 29, 2014

Funny fact, I always thought this place was called Mario’s Gelato until I tried to Urbanspoon it, and there were no results! So I decided to add/suggest the restaurant to Urbanspoon, and it showed me that a place known as “Amato Gelato Cafe” was already at this location.

After some research, Amato Gelato Cafe is the retail gelato shop owned by Mario’s Gelato. We noticed that with our latest visit, our gelato pints came with their company logo on it, while previous times, there was nothing. Weird. Anyways, after our mediocre and semi-disappointing visit to Ramen Sanpachi, we were feeling like dessert so we stopped by here. Before writing this, I was reading up on other reviews from this place. A blogger mentioned that she got in trouble for taking pictures in the store, which didn’t happen to me. That’s very strange, especially in our day and age where a significant portion of a restaurant’s marketing comes from their own customers. Perhaps they changed their policy.

Speaking of policy, Amato does not accept credit cards. There is a charge to use debit, so cash is the way to go! You also pay for your ice cream prior to choosing the flavours. There are also two more gelato display cases which aren’t pictured, which forms a bit of a “J” shape.
Whenever we come here, we always get the “to go” tub because we feel that it’s a better value. For $9, you get a lot more ice cream and you can bring it home to enjoy! I believe you can chose from 1 L or 500 ml, we went with 500 ml.

You can also pick up to three flavours, which is what we usually do. It always takes me a long time to decide which flavour I want, and the staff are generally really patient with sampling.

However, I do find that they do not really know their products well, because when you ask them questions, they look really confused.
The first flavour we decided on getting that night was the rolo! It came with a caramel gelato base, with rolo chocolate chunks inside. We were hoping to get white chocolate raspberry, but they didn’t have that flavour that night so we settled with this.

There was a light caramel taste, nothing too strong. It was not as rich and sweet as I expected it to be for a gelato. The star of the show were the rolo chunks inside the ice cream, which had caramel inside!
The second flavour we got was the strawberry cheesecake. Please excuse my ugly pictures, it was tricky trying to capture it properly since it came in a pint! This one was my favourite out of the three flavours we got that night. It was very rich and indulgent, which is what I’m going for in gelato. There was a strong, thick, cheesecake flavour to it. It would have been nice to have included some actual strawberries in there, but I enjoyed the richness and creaminess to this gelato nonetheless.
The third flavour was the coconut, one of the boyfriend’s favourite! We order this flavour every time because it tastes so good and rich. There is a strong coconut taste to it, but also very, very rich and creamy. The coconut gelato has a very smoother texture to it, more so than the other flavours.

From what we’ve tried from our multiple visits, Amato offers decent gelato at a decent price. The flavours we tried had a smooth texture to it, and was very soft and nice to scoop.

-Carmen

Trilussa Pizza & Pane

March 1, 2014

While browsing on Urbanspoon, I came across Trilussa Pizza & Pane. I knew I had to visit this place due to it’s 97% rating and 271 (and counting!) votes! And boy, am I glad I discovered this place!

Their pizza dough is made fresh everyday with quality ingredients. Luckily enough, I made a reservation just in case it would be busy. To our shock, when we arrived, they were completelyout of pizza dough and actually saved us the last two pieces of dough! I’m pretty sure they only stayed open to serve us, or they could have just used their dough and close early, but nope, they actually waited for us!

Talk about great service. Although it was our first time here, the workers made us feel right at home and made conversation with us while we enjoyed their fresh, and authentic Roman pizza. I felt as if we were regulars here and had a really great experience.

The exterior of the restaurant doesn’t really stand out from the rest of the numerous restaurants along Main Street. Half my childhood was spent around the Little Riley/Main Street area and I was really shocked I’ve never noticed this place until I came in. Right away, we noticed a cute little handwritten sign that apologized to customers that there was no more dough. When we walked in, they knew my name right away and said, “Carmennnn! Hey!” like I was a old pal.

The interior of Trilussa is very cozy and warm. On one end they have the pizza bar, espresso machine, and till, and the other side consists of the booths. There were little coat hangers on each booth which was a nice and convenient detail to this place. Trilussa is pretty small, but very comfortable.
You can see the oven in the back that is used to cook each order individually, which adds to the freshness. Normally, the area with the glass pane would be lined up with pizza waiting to be cooked (if they had dough left!).

We patiently sat, with our tummies rumbling while the oven brought the anticipated pizza to life. Overall, it took about 8 minutes for our pizzas to be done cooking. They only have two ovens, so I wonder how they manage when it gets busy! I would imagine that there are really long wait times during peak.
Behold! Our pizza! It came on a pretty long wooden paddle, I wonder how many unfortunate people have had their pizzas knocked off the table by other customers. We ordered the Milano (prosciutto cotto & mozzarella) and Garbatella (sausage & mozzarella).

I fell in love at first bite. The crust was thin and very crunchy on the outside, but soft and chewy inside. The mozzarella was very stringy and rich. The pizza had a bit of oil on it which didn’t really bother me, because I knew from their sign (scroll up) that it was extra virgin olive oil. This was enough for two people and we left extremely full and happy.
Here is the closeup of the Milano. You could have more toppings but we opted for mushrooms only. I wished that there was a bit more proscuitto, but the freshness and quality of their ingredients make up for it (quality over quantity!). I preferred this dish over the Garbetella because it had more meat on it.
Here is the Garbetella. Again, I wished that this had more sausage pieces on it. However, you can see the generous portion of stringy, melted cheese.

After doing some background research, I found out that the owner of Trilussa was born and raised in Rome, Italy which explains why the pizza tastes as lovely and authentic as it does. Normally, I would that really bloated and gross feeling after eating pizza, but due to the freshness of their ingredients, I felt great! I would love to come back to Trilussa, so glad I discovered this little gem.

-Carmen