It seems a bit silly to be writing a review of La Dolce Vita... a bit like writing a review of the Roman Colosseum... it's been around for so long that you just can't imagine that someone hasn't already been there once or twice. Also a bit odd when the food of a restaurant is completely upstaged by its Chef and owner... in this case Franco. It's REALLY hard not to like Franco... and it's hard not to come away feeling like you're absolutely special and part of The Family (add the 'Badda Bing' here if you like) and Franco has been doing this since forever. As far as the restaurant goes, it's completely old school Italian.. the kind of place that your Nonna and Nonno probably still go to for a 'fancy dinner'. It's also HUGE! Like, you could cut the place into four stand alone restaurants and probably still have room for a wedding some place. It's that big. Food wise, I can say that I've never had a bad meal at La Dolce Vita and quality of ingredients is superior (Franco lives in the Bridgeland 'hood and you can spot him from time to time raiding the gardens of his friends in the neighbourhood for something that shows up that evening on the menu). If you're willing to trust the Chef, Franco will simply cook dinner for you. So with all this, it pains me to only give 3 stars... probably more of a personal bias against Calgary's 'Grande Dame' restaurants (read: La Chaumiere; Caesars; La Caille on the Bow - pre reno). While very good, it would be difficult to call the food 'inspired' or 'innovative' or even 'clever' and when I'm spending TOP dollar (and really, you are at La Dolce Vita... it's not inexpensive) I want to feel like standing and clapping at the end of dessert. This said, it's difficult to be tooooo hard on a restaruant that has lasted so long or with a Chef/owner who is so hospitable (or could get me whacked) . If you want to take your parents out for dinner somewhere and you don't mind spending a bunch of money it would be hard to go wrong with La Dolce Vita.