Casa Italia Pizza and Pasta - Nanaimo Ferry Terminal

What?  I was desperate, leave me alone.  Yeah, I went to a pizza-by-the-slice place in a ferry terminal, I have no right to complain, but if the pizza sucks, the pizza sucks.  I haven't found many places that serve decent pizza-by-the-slice, the only one I like so far is Romano's or Pie R Squared.  This place will not be on my list of places to go.

The pizza here was semi cold and the cheese had already hardened into a greasy mass that separated from the pie all to easily.  Add this to the list of crummy places at the ferry terminals.  Frankie's Barbeque is another place not to waste your dollars....unless you like boiled hot dogs.

Italian Tomato Revisited

Last week, one of my pals from work Simon had his last day and transferred to a different department.  We had a little get together after work for him, and it was the perfect excuse to go eat somewhere we usually don't go.  This time, I was armed with decent lighting and a better camera.....photography skills still suck, but hopefully you will enjoy these images more than the pics from my last review of Italian Tomato.

There were a lot of dishes ordered, but I stuck to the Napoletana.  It's baby shrimp, baby clams, fresh garlic, lemon zest in a white wine cream sauce, absolutely glorious.  I probably could have finished it, but I felt like saving some for lunch the next day, haha!

Simon figured there wasn't enough food so he ordered a plate of chicken wings.  I never thought of ordering any appies at this place, but they were surprisingly good. 

Italian Tomato Continues to be one of those places that I'd not go to for a casual dinner. The quality of the food is great, the service is pretty good too, but the prices are just a tad high for me to go there frequently. I know the portions are massive, just like with Anton's, but it's also a lot pricier than Anton's.  I think they're trying to go for the fine dining experience, but the restaurant itself will always be 'Dem Bones to me, haha!

Anton's Revisited

I was at a workshop last weekend and a few of us went to Anton's that evening.  Well, I think I'm going to have to keep going back to Anton's till I figure out how to take some proper pictures of the food there.  The last time I was there with this camera, I ended up with a pile of orangy blurry pictures, same thing this time around.  Maybe I'll just cave and use the flash next time.  And I completely forgot to order something different insteand of the Tondi Don Vincenzo.

 

 I barely touched the comp bread this time....guess I was still pretty full from lunch.

 My buddy Rob ordered a martini with extra olives, so he got extra olives.

 I got a scotch with my meal...I know, doesn't really pair well with pasta, but I'm not much of a beer drinker and I hate wine.

 Some sort of risotto.  I had a sample of it, and it was pretty good.

 My Tondi Don Vincenzo, good as always, but I wish I ordered something else just to take a picture of it.  Next time, I promise.

 Rob got this, and he barely touched it.  It was his first time to Anton's and he was originally going to order apps, garlic bread, and pasta.  Overestimating his foe, he was sent home packing.....literally with about 90% of his meal untouched.

Another colleague - Dina, ordered the cannaloni.  It doesn't look like much, but those two strips were pretty filling.  I had one bite and I knew it would cause damage.  Of course, I tasted it about 10-15 minutes after she got her dish because it was piping hot (fresh out of the oven).  By the end, she only got through one of the two.

Gotta go back and order something different, just for my reader(s), haha!

Boston Pizza - Coquitlam

Boston Pizza - pasta out of a can. Welcome to the world's worst pasta.  You can't get much worse that Boston Pizza when it comes to pasta, and their pizza isn't all that great either.  When I say worst, I mean dine in.  Chef Boyardee and Kraft Dinner can probably take the title of worst pasta in the world, but as far as dine is concerned, this award goes to Boston Pizza.  

I went there a few times in high school and college, but back then, I really had no idea what good eating was all about.  Back then, I thought that because I was eating in a restaurant (any restaurant) with some friends, we were high-rollers. 

 

Let's start off with what I ordered.  The Baked Seven Cheese Ravioli, but it only tasted like three.  Mozzarella, Cheddar, Parmesan (probably Kraft) and who knows what else they claim there was in it.  Must have been the cheapest cheeses known to man, no smoked Asiago or Balderson's 6 yr aged cheddar here.   The cheap cheeses aside, let's get down to the ravioli.  I really had nothing crappier to compare it to at the time, but a few months later, I tried Chef Boyardee's canned beef ravioli for the very first time and I found the connection.  I am not exagerating when I say that they tasted exactly the same to me.  I was shocked because to me, the Chef Boyardee is desperation food, when I'm just too lazy to pack a lunch.  If it goes ding in the microwave after two minutes, that was my meal.  Anyway, for $0.98 a can, it's not a bad deal, but plated for $15.89???  Either this dish is really that bad, or the kitchen ran out of the real stuff and cracked open a can of Chef Boyardee and suffed it in.

My friend had the ribs and they were boiled for about 20 minutes with a little BBQ sauce. 

 

Doesn't this just look classy? 

I can't tell you how badly I felt ripped off.  There are no words to describe my  anger in the fact that I handed over $15.89 (even more expensive than say, Anton's - which has inredibly good pasta) for them to open a can of ravioli and pass it off as grourmet pasta.  Yes, the words on the menu actually says "Gourmet Pasta" but it wasn't even close. Of course, I have no one to blame but myself for believing it, but it really is false advertisement at the same time.  Boston Pizza is ripping people off by the masses, and to me, it's an act of God (an evil, malevolent God) that's keeping this place in business.

Boston Pizza really needs to close it's doors.

Italian Kitchen

When I first heard of Italian Kitchen, I thought to myself that it was just another trendy, overpriced pasta place in the heart of downtown Vancouver.  It's true that it can be considered pricy for most people, but judging by the clientele, I don't think money was an issue for most of them.  There's no dress code, but most people were wearing their best designer dress shirts and dresses.  Ok, I admit, I felt a little out of place in my bag-o-shite outfit consisting of jeans and t-shirt, but once I got past appearances, I was able to relax.  The staff were very friendly and our server made us feel very comfortable and quite at home. 

For starters, we orderd the most amazing pizza to share.  The Roasted Squash Pizza ($15) was topped with butternut squash, double smoked bacon, pistachios and some sort of creamy garlic cheese spread. 

It was a share dish, but I had way more than my fair share.  The crust was just thin enough, perfect consistency, the toppings really complimented eachother, and it really was good enough to bring me back again.  I think the ingredients are simple enought to try at home, except maybe the spread

My caesar was a little lacking compared to some other places but overall not bad.  I really like it when the restaurant is generous with the olives when I ask for olives instead of the bean or celery.  As you can see with the single olive, I was a bit disappointed, it still tasted good overall and talking about it really just sounds like wining.

$24 - Spaghetti with Spicy Kobe Meatballs.  Getting a little close to my all-time favourite $26 Keg Size Prime Rib price point....

$29 per person (min 2) - Pesce Piatto - crab stuffed prawns wrapped in pancetta, wild salmon, seared scallops, italian bean ragout, lobster tagliatelle

$22 - Linguine with Jumbo Prawns ~ oregano, capers, roasted tomato aglio olio

The lobster tails were seasoned with garlic and butter and the meat was very tender and moist.  It's so easy to botch lobster, and a lot of steak places always overcook it, but Italian Kitchen had it perfect. 

The wild salmon was pretty good as well, cooked perfectly.  Salmon's another item that's easy to overcook, but it's a non-issue at Italian Kitchen.

I didn't get to taste the prawns, but I heard they were good.  We'll get to the scallops later.

...back to my spaghetti and meatballs....

As I said, our server was incredibly accomodating, and very friendly.  Here she is grating up some parmesan cheese for us.

I like a lot of cheese on my pasta, but to be quite honest, my spaghetti was perfect the way it was.  Our server said that Italian Kitchen was famous for their Spaghetti with Spicy Kobe Meatballs.  When our server recommended it as being really good, she wasn't kidding.  I was very, very impressed with it.  The pasta was cooked perfectly al dente, and the incredible flavour of the truffle cream sauce was infused in the noodles.  The herb ricotta sitting on top of the noodles was a perfect topping, and I tried to get a bit in with every bite.  Awesome pasta.....simply awesome.

The spicy kick of the meatballs was a bit of a harsh contrast, and quite honestly could have been toned down a bit.  They tasted great on their own, so it could easily have been two seperate dishes and I would have been quite happy with just the pasta on it's own and had the meatballs served as an appie.  The fact that they used kobe beef didn't really make much of a difference to me.  When you take fine kobe beef and grind it up, it may as well be AAA Alberta beef and no one would really know.  I see a lot of places doing this now, using kobe beef in meatloaf, in hamburger, and now meatballs.....kind of a waste really.  It would be like taking the finest toro sashimi and canning it.  But still, I was still happy with my order overall, and I'll probably order it again the next time I go.....I'll just seperate the meatballs and consider it a seperate dish.   

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Saying the prawns on the linguine were jumbo would be an understatement.  They were massive things, big enough to be compared to what some places call mini lobster tails.  They looked really good and from what my pal told me, it was a pretty filling meal. 

The scallops.  The scallops were the size of filet minon or a baseball steak, seared perfectly, a little crispy around the edges, very moist and tender on the inside.  It's easy to end up with rubbery scallops (boiled) so it's important to have high heat when you're cooking them.  It's quite obvious that Italian Kitchen knows seafood as well as it does pasta.

$18 per person (min 2) - Pasta Platter - Spaghetti and spicy kobe meatballs with truffle cream, braised veal cannelloni with wild mushroom cream pappardelle with lamb sausage, cabbage and potatoes, rigatoni, pomodoro.  Someone else's food, but it looked so good I had to take a picture of it.

I ordered another caesar and the bartender must have read my mind because this time around, I got two olives.  Three would have been nice, but whatever, I still liked it.  It had a nice healthy does of salt and pepper around the rim which is a plus for me. 

So, would I go to Italian Kitchen again?  Defintely.  Probably not that often because I'm not quite in the same tax bracket as most of it's clientele, but I'd make it a point to go there once in a while.  The food is great, the service is great, the atmosphere great.  I look forward to my next visit.