rev:text
| - You won't go wrong inviting out-of-towners to this place, or hitting it up if you're nearby--the Yelp reviews are overall correct. BUT if you expect a little sumthin extra special for a place with $17-23 entrees (which one CAN get in Toronto), you may be underwhelmed.
This was a small hike north from Eglinton Station. A lot of the right notes were hit for us: friendly, thoughtful servers, sufficient number of Italian-stereotype movie posters, dark enough lighting to suppose your food is rich and your date is handsome :)
The food came slow despite ordering before a rush. And it wasn't amazing, which is not an indictment, just anti-climactic. Probably, we had the wrong expectations. None of our dishes tasted like handmade pasta (maybe they weren't supposed to be)--just perfectly cooked boxed pasta. The sauces, across 3 dishes (lamb meat sauce, tomato and a cream blend), tasted like they might not really have had the time to really diffuse their flavours properly. The pizza--we shared a quattro stagioni, was tasty, but there was no signature to it.
This place does the job for the finicky who just want a nice pasta dinner. For the Torontonian who has had serious, hair-pullingly, lapels-shaking full-bodied Italian, I wanted a reason to keep coming back to The Old Lady.
|