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Cinque Terre refers to Cinque Terre National Park, five towns on the west coast of Italy. The towns are connected by hiking trails, and there is nothing better than hiking along the Mediterranean coast for a whole day and then dining at an authentic Italian trattoria for some fresh seafood and home-made pasta.

It was in Manarola that we discovered the best food we would have in all of Italy. We randomly walked into this restaurant for lunch – the restaurant was no different from any of the other dozen restaurants along the street, except that it was quite busy – which is usually a good sign.

Service was quick (by European standards) and friendly, and soon we were served with a large deep-fried seafood platter with calamari, prawns, squid, and anchovies.

The seafood could not have been more fresh, the batter was light and did not soak a lot of oil, and everything was fried to perfection. The squid was unreal.

I had a trofie with sea bass in tomato sauce. The trofie was definitely made in-house, perfectly chewy. The sea bass was tender and delicious, and my only complaint was that there wasn’t more of it. The tomato sauce was somewhat inspired, but this was honest to goodness Italian home-cooking, straight-forward and uncomplicated. » Read the rest of this entry «

trü has been in London since late 2004, but it’s presence has only been felt in more recent years. I’d been to trü before for recruiting events, and had always been impressed by the quality of the finger food and attentive service. However, now that I have gone for dinner, it turns out that it was all a big tease.

When I walked into the restaurant, I was ignored for the first few minutes. After my party of four was seated, I asked about the soup of the day, and our server mumbled something awkwardly after a few seconds and ran away. “What just happened?” I asked my friend. “He seems new, but shouldn’t he have been given some training?”
A new server appeared without introducing herself to answer my soup question. I was confused, was she here to answer the soup question or was she going to be our server? This confusion lasted throughout the meal; our table seemed to have two servers, but neither of them were to be found for most of the night.

My friends were more satisfied with their entrees than mine, for good reason. My Five Mushroom Risotto was undercooked and over salty. Risotto isn’t easy to do well, but if they had wanted me to wait longer, they could have warned me so when I placed my order, and I would have gladly waited¹. The mushrooms were good, but including “three onion” in the name for having leeks, shallots, and chives was overkill. (My pictures came out blurry because I was using a friend’s camera and it couldn’t focus for some reason.)

The Duo of Duck is considered to be one of their specialties. The skin was crispy and the sweet potato puree was delicious. Unfortunately, the duck breast was not tender, which takes away most of the novelty of eating duck as opposed to chicken.

The Casarece pasta was probably the most successful dish, also the easiest. The beef tenderloin was somewhat tender and well-done. The pasta itself was a little soft for home-made pasta, but you could hardly notice it with the inclusion of mushrooms and vegetables. In reality, the Cambazolla cream made the dish, and I think the beef actually interfered with the taste of the cream sauce; I would have preferred this as a vegetarian dish.

It took eons for the server to notice us when we were ready to settle the bill. In the meantime, I checked out their bathroom, which unfortunately reminded me of bathrooms in common bars. Not at all in the vein of “New York posh,” supposedly the inspiration for the rest of the restaurant. If trü aspires to be part of the creme de la creme of restaurants in London, it has a long way to go.

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1. When I’ve ordered risotto at other places, I have always been warned of the wait time. [↩]

Bar Italia is one of many Italian restaurants in Little Italy of Toronto. This is what I love about Toronto – how far do I have to travel for authentic Italian food? Not far at all.

I arrived at the restaurant early and before I knew it, I was waiting at the bar with the most aromatic coffee I have ever had, on the house. Although this restaurant was more modern than homely, Italian servers almost always end up treating you like kin no matter where you are. Service was impeccable.

When my friends arrived, it took us a long time to order, but the server’s interruptions were well-timed and warranted. It took a while for everything to come after we ordered, or maybe that was just my hungry stomach talking. The cold, awkwardly-sliced bread with olive oil and vinegar was barely enough to share at our table and not nearly appetizing enough for me.

We shared an antipasto plate to start, which I forgot to take a picture of. The cured meats were average, the marinated vegetables a little over-marinated, but the bocconcini was quite nice.

When the food finally came, I knew I had ordered exactly what would satisfy me on this cold winter night.

The rigatoni was, of course, made in-house, and it was quite firm and chewy, although slightly over-cooked. The rose sauce was perfect, not too strong and not too bland. The sweet sausages were heavenly, and the portobello mushrooms complemented every ingredient. I was unsure whether I would enjoy the rapini, but they turned out to be all right. There was a nutty flavour to it that contrasted with the sweetness of the rest of the dish, and only a hint of bitterness. The portion size was just right, and I enjoyed every bite.

One of my friends ordered the Roasted Chicken Breast, which was aromatic in an entirely different way from my dish.

The chicken breast turned out to be more of a chicken quarter plus breast. The skin was glistening, golden, and lightly crisp. As always, my complaint regarding the chicken was that it was too thick. While the meat under the skin and around the bones were tender and flavourful enough, the rest of the white meat was bland. The peppercorn jus was a very interesting complement. Roasted vegetables were well-done, and lightly flavoured. The mashed potatoes had clumps in them, which is how I like them, but no hint of garlic.

Our other friends ordered the Insalata di Bresaola and Capellini. No complaints there, although the Capellini seemed a little bland. It was basically a salad sitting on top of capellini, with barely any sauce. (No, olive oil is not a sauce.) Am I the only one surprised that this is even a dish?

For impeccable service, not kicking my friends out even though we lingered far beyond what would be considered polite, and my satisfying Rigatoni, I would definitely recommend this restaurant. Not sure how I feel about the Capellini, but there are certainly plenty of other great options on the menu.

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