• About / Contact
  • Work With Me
  • Food & Drink
    • asian —>
      • chinese
      • indian
      • japanese
      • korean
      • malaysian
      • taiwanese
      • thai
      • vietnamese
    • brunch
    • coffee and tea
    • dessert
    • fusion
    • happy hour
    • italian
    • greek
    • mexican
    • pub
    • seafood
    • steakhouse
    • vegetarian/vegan
    • western
  • Travel
    • Canada ->
      • Kelowna
      • Sunshine Coast
      • Victoria
    • Japan ->
      • Himeji
      • Kamakura
      • Kobe
      • Kyoto
      • Osaka
      • Tokyo
    • Mexico ->
      • Cancun
      • Isla Mujeres
      • Playa Del Carmen
    • USA ->
      • Las Vegas
      • Los Angeles
      • New York City
      • Seattle
    • Europe ->
      • London
  • Beauty
    • beauty events
    • body
    • eyes
    • face
    • costumes
    • hair
    • lips
    • nails
    • skincare

Curiously 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. photo (42)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.
1Whenever 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.
2The 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!
photo (43)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.
photo (44)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

Amato Gelato Cafe on Urbanspoon


Filed Under: food & drink, italian, romantic Tagged: caramel, cheesecake, coconut, dessert, froyo, frozen yogurt, gelato, ice cream, italian, rolo, sobert, urbanspoon, vancouver

The Keg Steakhouse & Bar – Burnaby location

February 13, 2014

Hi readers!

Going to The Keg is a pleasure and treat for my family and I. It’s a treat that we all enjoy, and we usually have a great experience seeing that all three of us are steak lovers. This time, I surprised the boyfriend and he joined our family as well (he had no idea where we were going until we arrived at the parking lot! my surprise was a success!)

It was also his first time ever at The Keg, which was pretty surprising for me, but I’m glad he finally tried it and was able to share that experience with my family. My parents and I noticed that the dishes this time around were not as great as they were before, it seemed as if The Keg had cut down on their quality and quantity of food. That said, it wasn’t bad, just not as good as we had before.

The location we went to was in Burnaby, right beside the Costco. They have an ample parking lot, and also lots of street parking. We had a reservation at 7:30 and arrived on time, but we had to wait around 15 minutes to actually get seated.

We were seated at a booth at the far end corner of the restaurant. It was a good seat as it was quieter in that area than the rest of the restaurant. Our server was prompt to greet us. Right off the bat, he informed us that they were running low on prime rib that night, and to tell him if we were planning to order that so he could reserve it for us. After about 10 minutes, he returned and told us that he reserved some for us and took our order. Here’s our dinner!
DSCN0778This was the complimentary sourdough bread that came with our order. We were disappointed because last time we came here, there was a variety of bread in a bigger basket. The Keg really cut down on their bread, which is a disappointment.DSCN0779I really liked the quality of their strawberry margarita. I thought it was blended perfectly, and the strawberries tasted really fresh. I enjoyed the texture and the taste of this drink a lot. It was a pretty big glass too!
DSCN0781Granville Island Winter Ale.
DSCN0785Mom’s 12oz prime rib medium rare with twice baked potato & onion rings. It was too big of a portion for her, she regretted ordering a 12oz because she felt too full. Ended up packing the twice baked potato. She thoroughly enjoyed her prime rib though. It was very tender and soft.
DSCN0786Dad’s 12 oz prime rib with stir fried vegetables, medium well. I don’t think he enjoyed this as much as before. Said it wasn’t juicy enough and felt dry. I think he was a bit disappointed, he would have probably liked it done medium or medium rare instead!
DSCN0791
The boyfriend’s New York Striploin with Keg Fries. His striploin was noticeably more juicier than our prime ribs. You can tell by the second picture how juicy it was! It wasn’t as tender as our prime rib, making it have a tight texture and a bit of chew, but that’s to be expected since it’s a striploin.

He thoroughly enjoyed his dish, except for the fries. The fries were extremely, extremely, salty to the point where I could’t even handle it. It was coated with so much salt that we couldn’t eat it! That was a bit disappointing but overall, the NY striploin itself was great!
DSCN0787
My 10 oz prime rib with garlic mashed potatoes. I thought this was pretty delicious. The meat was really tender which is a sign of great preparation and cooking. It was seasoned perfectly as well!

I remember last time we came here, the prime rib came with four different sauces so I was disappointed it only came with two this time. Overall, it was good and I liked that it was soft and tender. The garlic mashed potatoes were done perfectly and delicious!
photo (9)For dessert, we ordered the mini fudge brownie with a side of vanilla ice cream. I can’t even begin to tell you how delicious this was! For starters, we were really surprised when this came because it looked pretty big. We thought the server accidentally brought us the full size.

The chocolate brownie was delicious. On the top was melted dark chocolate, and the brownie itself was really warm and decadent. What made the vanilla ice cream stand out was the caramel on the top. It brought out all the flavours of the dessert perfectly, and balanced the taste of the brownie. Details like this is what I really appreciate and look for when I write my food reviews. We mixed each bite with the brownie and ice cream, and it was like heaven on earth. It was really the cherry on top of a great meal.

-Carmen

The Keg Steakhouse + Bar on Urbanspoon


Filed Under: food & drink, romantic, seafood, steakhouse, western Tagged: beef, beer, brownie, burnaby, delicious, dessert, fine dining, food, food review, gourmet, ice cream, margarita, prime rib, restaurant, sirloin, sourdough, spices, steak, the keg, urbanspoon, vancouver, winter beer

  • « Previous Page
  • 1
  • …
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5

Hello!

Hi and welcome to Curiously Carmen! I am Carmen, the girl behind the blog. You can read more about me here!

Recent Posts

  • H&P Noodle House Burnaby
  • Travel: Harry Potter Studio Tour (Watford, UK)
  • Travel: The Resident Soho Hotel, London UK
  • North Noodle House
  • Grand Crystal Seafood Restaurant

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Partnerships

View my food journey on Zomato!

Archives

Theme Design By Studio Mommy · Copyright © 2025

Copyright © 2025 · Young Blush Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in