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| - I had been eyeing this place for some time now when I finally decided to give it a try for Hubby's and I birthday dinner.
We came in on a Friday night a bit after 7pm and the place was packed. FYI they don't take reservations. We were kindly welcomed in by a host who informed us it would be a 20 minute wait but we could have a seat at the bar which offers the full service dinner menu and the waiter would grab us when our table was ready. We decided to wait it out on the bench by the front as we watched more and more patrons come in. 20 minutes later true to his word our table was ready and the wait time had increased to 40+ minutes.
We were led through the dim lit restaurant to the last table against the communal tufted black leather banquet that ran along both lengths of the restaurants. I particularly liked this table as it felt much more intimate as there was no one seated to the left of us and we had great views of the bar, kitchen, and entire restaurant.
Our bubbly and friendly waitress came over to greet us and went over the entire menu with us and was super informative giving us honest opinions and helping us choose between dishes.
We started the night with some crisp and refreshing pinot grigio that came served in a funky jug with a rooster on it. We were then brought over some complimentary bread with olive oil and lupini beans - which our waitress described to us as the Italian version of edamame.
To begin our meal we shared a salad.
Rucola E Fungi - Organic baby arugula, wild mushroom, goat cheese, toasted walnut, diced radish, lemon-balsamic vinaigrette
Very fresh tasting, I enjoyed the tangy dressing against the spicy arugula with the creamy goat cheese and crunchy toasted nuts
For our mains we decided to share two entrees and a side
Rigatoni Bolognese - Slow cooked veal, pork, beef ragu, reggiano
Very large portion of pasta cooked to a perfect al dente. My only complaint was the lack of meat. I was expecting a rich chunky meat sauce but there was only a few crumbles of meat through out the huge bowl of pasta which was mainly coated in the san Marzano tomato sauce which was still delicious.
Lamb Costolette D'Agnello - Fire-grilled, marinated lamb chops, rainbow beets, roasted brussels, garlic rapini, rustic herb potato, nebbiolo-demi
Cooked to a perfect medium rare the lamb was so succulent and flavourful! Again another large portion, 4 chops sitting on a bed crushed potatoes and a gorgeous array of winter vegetables. It was definitely the highlight of our meal.
Blackened Brussels, shallot, maple-cider
I adore brussel sprouts and always have to order them whenever I see them on the menu. These were particularly good with a yummy sweet and tangy glaze lightly blackened and with still a bit of crunch to them - I ate every last one!
I was super stuffed by the time we finished our mains but who am I to ever refuse dessert especially when it's your birthday!
Chocolate Torta Cioccolata - Warm Flourless chocolate torte, artisan vanilla gelato, white-honey, crushed nuts
I'm a sucker for a warm chocolate cake especially when paired with gelato. What I really liked about this cake was it was more of a dark chocolate flavour and leaning towards the bitter side of chocolate which was great after all that rich food and it really complimented the sweet and creamy vanilla bean gelato. I scraped every last bit of my dessert off the plate.
Tiramisu - Classic Italian tiramisu made with fresh mascarpone
Hubby loves tiramisu so he had to order this. Of course I got to snag a couple large mouthfuls and it was also to die for! Just the perfect take on this popular Italian classic.
I can truly see why this place is soo packed the service here is just amazing. Our waitress was soo warm and friendly - she surprised us with candles in our desserts and all the waiters wished us a happy birthday as we were leaving. The food came out in perfect timing with wonderful flavours and hearty portions, and the ambiance here makes you not want to leave. One downside to this place is that the tables are pretty tiny and it was circus trying to juggle all the huge plates of food. The servers were really great at clearing plates when you were done and trying their best to make everything fit. We were lucky we had no one beside us as we were able to stretch out and have more space. It's definitely worth checking out but make sure you stay away from the centre tables along the banquet as they are really squished together.
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