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| - I found Il Boccalini after moving to St. Laurent from the south shore where I lived for 15 years. I was in search of a nice place to celebrate Mother's day 4 years ago. Although I love to cook and entertain for friends and family I decided to have someone else do the entertaining at least this time. I remember being wooed by the excellency of their dishes, but I cannot recall exactly what I had. All of us who dined were impressed enough to want to go back the following year. Somehow we did not, but last year we returned keen enough to make the pilgrimage for 2013!
If I have any criticisms, I will get them out now. I try to understand that indeed it is a busy night given the celebratory mood, but there were some annoyances that must be known. First, the servers bringing our meals were not the same who took our orders. So not only was service slow, but one of our mates had their dish taken away only seconds after delivery to be brought to a different table. Then a few minutes later, the meal that was ordered was delivered...the exact same that was taken away! The other flaw would be a spaghetti and meatballs dish that arrived minus the meatballs. This omission was mentioned to our initial waiter who took our orders, but by dinner's end, still missing the balls. This was finaly 'solved' by a take home package of meatballs. I have one more to mention, but that will be later, so now let's move onto why we WANT to dine here.....the delicious offerings of food!!
I started with a ceasar salad, call me lame, but I LOVE a great ceasar salad and like always, it hits the mark, at least for my liking. A perfect amount of lettuce, not to much, just the right amount to start your meal. The dressing was mild devoid of a harsh garlic essence and perfectly spread with croutons that stayed crunchy right to the end...magnifico. The bruscetta that is on every table was just a devine.
One of our mates enjoyed the perfectly fried calamari with aioli and marinara dipping sauces, the latter was lipsmaking perfection, such a fresh flavour perhaps just slightly warmed enough to maintain a fresh, raw tomato essence.
As for my main dish, Linguine Alla Gigi arrived, I now remember why I wanted to come back to this restaurant. This decadent harmony of linguine pasta, creamy rose sauce, parmesan cheese, ham, long green onions and sauteed mushrooms arrived piping hot. Within a few fork fulls, the few prior mentioned frustrations were soon out of mind. The portion of this dish is HUGE! Just like last time I shamelessly took home the remainder of what I could not finish, but could not stand the thought of it not being enjoyed a day or so later.
However, if one issue remains, it is the markup of the wine, at least for the house selection. We were a party of seven, with one minor, that left six of us sharing a 1 litre of 'house red' that is in fact, Citra Montepulciano D'Abruzzo. Since I was treating on the wine I would have wanted to buy another as we could have polished off that as well. but considering this wine retails for just over $10 at the SAQ, the princely markup of $28 was more than enough to just enjoy our glasses as we could.
I would like to celebrate Mother's Day 2014, I just hope we will not be in a position where we wont have to worry about how our orders will be delivered as requested in a reasonable amount of time. We want to enjoy scoffing their delicious offerings, enough to recommend to to thers who we may feel will appreciate authentic, cucina italiano!
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