Date: August 28, 2011
Location: 2405A Yonge St. (2 blocks north of Eglinton)
Meal: dinner
My thoughts:
This is a quaint, cozy Italian restaurant in the bustling neighbourhood of Yonge and Eg. My companion and I arrived around 5:30 and were greeted by the host. We were seated promptly and our waiter came to greet us and gave us menus. Our waiter was very friendly, but we waited for about 30 minutes and still he had not come to take our order. Finally, we had to signal him over. He informed us that he didn't know that we were ready to order because our menus were open, so a tip to all of you out there: if you ever think your waiter wants you to leave you starving and drooling over dishes being served to your neighbouring tables, it might actually and simply be because your menu is open ;)
Anyway, my guest and I each had a glass of house red wine, which, I cannot lie, is like most other red wines I've had in the past (I'm no wine connoisseur), but it was a nice complement to my meal and it added to the romantic ambiance of the restaurant.
I ordered the Linguini Calamarati, which our waiter informed me was the chef's personal favourite. This is always a good sign for what's to come, of course, and I admittedly had quite high expectations for my meal. According to the menu, this is a seafood linguini and includes a variety of seafood items including calamari, mussels, shrimp and rapini (a leafy vegetable) with a garlic-olive oil-white kidney bean-based sauce. My companion ordered the Pizza Vegetariana, which as you may have guessed, is Vegetarian Pizza; he opted to omit the cheese.
While we waited for our food, which was not a very long time, the restaurant filled up very quickly. I was actually quite surprised, seeing as how it was a Sunday night. Anyway, our food arrived in a very timely manner. When it was placed in front of me and I caught a delicate whiff of it, I immediately regretted not having my camera on me simply because I knew I was going to write a lengthy review. Also, of course, visuals always make written material so much more interesting to read! Returning to my linguini, upon having the first taste of my linguini, I was quite literally blown out of my mind by all the intense deep sea flavours. It was flavourful without being salty. It had a good amount of seafood chunks without it overpowering the pasta; this is important to me, because I love my pasta i.e. carbs! My dish was well-presented, and the portion size just right - I was contentedly full and needless to say, I was very pleased with my selection.
As for my friend's meal, I did not try his pizza. But I was told that it was very good. I'll have to try it next time to give you my take on it!
To top everything off, we shared an order of mango sherbert. It was very light and not very sweet - a nice finishing touch to a hearty meal.
In a nutshell, intimate ambiance, great service and even better food. I highly recommend this restaurant. Two thumbs up!
