Acqua & Farina (Roma Termini)

First thing you do when you get to Italy? Well, you look for food. Italian food. Duh. Pasta or pizza, I seriously didn't give a flying f*ck. You know, those kinds. 

On our first day, my travel buddy Em and I were walking, trying to find our way to the Colosseum, where hundreds of thousands of gladiators and animals fought, thousands of years ago. You know, the usual day. As we were going down the via (street) Principe Amedeo, our nostrils flared up and we turned to see tasty looking pizza in this tiny restaurant.

Basically, they make rectangular pizza, and they cut the piece that you want. You then pay by weight. Peeerrrfect. I'll have a whole one please. We went there twice. We would've gone at least 6 times, but we kind of lost track of where we were... and got lost more than once. Ugh. How annoying is it to get lost whilst looking for your true love? True love being this yummy pizza, of course!

The first time, we both had a pizza that had just been taken out of the oven: the zucchini pizza. Our first thought was this: 'well, let's just have the freshest one'. But then, it became so much more than that. Watch out, sh*t's about to get deep. Basically, they cut it, they fold it, you eat it. We had a pizz-gasm on our first bite, for shizzle. Em and I looked at each other and were like daaaang we going back fosho. The crust was perfect: not too thick and not too thin. The zucc was almost buttery and melted in your mouth with cheesy goodness. Ugh... I'd like to go back right about now. Just look at it up there. And say hello.

When we went back (after trying to find it for what seemed like an eternity), we both had the mushroom pizza. This wasn't a normal run-of-the-mill mushroom pizza! No, no. Sliced thin, the mushroom had that woodsy, almost meaty flavour that we oh so love. OK, this sounds like a love story. Well, it IS. 

I think we would've continued going back every day, for as long as we could have. That pizza was a revelation, man. A damn revelation. You think I exaggerate? Then go. Just go to Roma Termini, take a left and then another left (or was it a right?).

And now, le score!

Pizza: 9.5 ONLY because the second time, they didn't have the zucc one, good and ready

It's obvious that I'll be going back next time. When in Rome, am I right?

No. 900

I bike passed No. 900 pretty much every day on my way to work. And every damn time, I tell myself I could go for a good pizza. Yes, even at 7am. I'm like that, you know. SO, the other day, when Val called me to tell me she was there and needed someone to share her pizza with, I was like mmmya j'arrive. I mean, I gotta say I was going more to see my girl, but a bit of pizza would also help. Hahaha. Pizza ALWAYS helps.

I left my house quite quickly, and I was interrupting a very chill session watching somethin' on my computer, so I got there in jogging pants and a sweatshirt. Ya, that happened. I mean, it wasn't a chic place by any means, but come on, girl could've made a bit of effort. Yes, I'm talking about myself.

All pizzas are cooked in a wood fired oven, for 90 seconds, at 900 degrees. dang that's hot. It's also why it's called No. 900. They so smart! BTW, there are, like, 120 No. 900 in Québec. I exaggerate. I believe there are 18. That's a lot of dough. A LOT of dough. It also makes for very quick service, which is what everyone wants. Show me ONE person that likes slow service. I dare you.

Val had ordered the caclocavallo and porchetta pizza. These pizzas were quite big and, in my head, obviously not made to be eaten by only one person. Let's face it, people, it's for one and a half person. I was more than happy to be the half person in this case. On top of that lovely meat, this pizza had pecorino romano, fior de latte, parsley oil, and roasted mushrooms.

With the pecorino AND the fior de latte, it was veeeery cheesy, veeery lactose intolerant non-friendly. Hahaha! But who gives a sh*t. Cheese is so good, I was just going to suffer the consequences later. The crust, even if it was super thin (just the way I likes my crust), it wasn't falling apart like cray. The mushrooms were charred to perfection, and the pesto was quite a great addition. Who knew parsley could be so good?! To make it even better, you know what you dso? You put some spicy oil on yo pizza. For me, that's pleasure X 100. Our hands were all oily and nasty by the end. And then, you know what we did? We licked those hands. YASS!!!

Service was great! I got there, sat down in my stupid jogging pants, and the waiter came by, asked if I wanted to order food or drinks. When we said that we would share, he brought me an extra napkin AND a plate. Oh, and much needed water (that oil was a bit a on the spicy side!).

And now, les scores!

Food: 9
Service: 8.5

Oh ya, I'm going back.

Tête Carrée

I love it when someone invites me to try their restaurant. I love it even more when they send me a nice email to go along with it. Tête Carrée is a food stand opened from Thursday to Sunday in Marché Jean-Talon. I visited last week with my homegirl Isa.

So you get there and immediately, friendliness oozes from the place. The girl and the two guys are extremely nice and smily. I like smily people. They have samples of their pizzas (mama loves her samples--which is why I also love going to Costco) for the passers by to taste. I quickly meet the dude that is the instigator of Tête Carrée, and I love his enthusiasm. I also like the way he thinks: we were going to get most of the menu to be able to rate more thangs for my blog. Lovin' it. He actually was head chef at Le Garde Manger (hello, I'm a HUGE Chuck Hugues fan. I may (or may NOT) have followed him during one of his visits at ITHQ when I was a student there.

What's cool about this place is that hey, they are actually located IN the market. Right smack IN it. So they get to cook the hell out of fresh veggies and what not. Oh and the chef created this mix between a nan bread (heeeello!) and a flat bread to make sure the bread never gets stale (ok, I realise 'never' is a big word here), can get re-heated without changing textures AND can be put in the oven without browning. It was fluffy goodness, that's what it was. Very savoury and well balanced. Oh, and they sell it too. What.

The place itself is, well, tiny. It's a booth for Heysus' sake. But they are making the most out of it, making it look really darn cute and welcoming with hanging plants and a table at the back. Oh, and they change the menu every so often, when produce become in season. I LOVE that.

After sitting, we had a refreshing lemonade because it was hella hot. Unlike today, when it feels like winter might be creeping back extra early. They had two kinds: lemon and rhubarb. Hello, I'd be a fool not to have the rhubarb one. Although it was not a bad drink, it didn't taste anything like rhubarb. Don't get me wrong, it was tartness all the way like rhubarb is but that was it; just the tartness transpired. As I said, not a bad sip-o-juice but not a rhubarb lemonade kinda taste.

Yes! Lunchtime! We were uber happy to be able to taste 4 pizzas! Pizza? What! FOUR pizzas? Whaaaaat!

Let's start with the asparagus one. Or the 'Jean-Talon' they called it. May I just mention that i arrived a week too late because they made this with fiddleheads the week before and I would have loved to taste THAT. I loves me a good fiddlehead. Come to think of it, I haven't eaten one of those bad boys in the last year. Gosh. Back to dem asparagi! They were DEEEE-licious. As fresh as can be, charred on the grill, per-fec-tly. Ok, that's it, I'm going back NOW. Did I mention there was homemade ricotta under there? Yep. Homemade. This was so worth messing with my lactose intolerance. With a bit of oil, it was the perfect summer bite. It could have used a tad more salt tho... y'all know how I feel about salt.

Tomato basil (or the Little Italy): the basil was nice and very fragrant and there was this wonderful little garlic oil, made in house (or in booth?) that I wanted way more of. What? I loves my garlic! The tomato was under seasoned and a bit bland to be honest. Not my fave.

Smoked salmon, capers, onions (or the Mile End): this, we felt, was all-around unoriginal. I mean, OK, Mile End bagels... I totes get it. But as ingredients, these are go tos for many a-people. MANY. Everyone. I wanted more originality. Apart from the lack of excitement, it was good, but it was missing something like lemon perhaps. Something to bring out the aromas.

Pulled ribs (or the Quartier Latin): this was a very busy piece-o-bread. A busy bee one might say. OK, no one would say that except me. The meat was very savory and had a great BBQ taste to it. The coleslaw on top was oh-so-fresh, adding just what was needed to round out that dish. The chipotle mayo was a nice little surprise that my taste buds very much appreciated! It was hot and tangy and paired awesomely with the meat. The whole thing became a bit wet though under all those layers of ingredients. But who cares right? It was just so happy in ma mouth.

The dessert pizza. Or the holy-shit-this-is-amazing-and-freaking-heavenly pizza. Fresh Québec strawberries, maple syrup, pecans and lemon balm. It tasted fresh and just sweet enough. As a base on the bread, there was lovely labneh, which equaled out the savoury and sweet. It was the perfect base for this. I would like some more please!

Service was awesomeballz. The owner came and sat with us and explained his ideas and recipes. He also explained why it was called Tête Carrée. Well, we all know why, right? It's pretty much the french equivalent of calling french people 'frogs'. Food arrived in what seemed like only a couple minutes while we were happily sitting at the table, enjoying the sun.

And now, the scores!

Food: 7
Service: 10

Next time I'm in the market, I'm fosho passing by. I would love to see them branch out and do something else than pizzas and salads tho. Hint hint ;)

 

Vicolo

Like Rachel in Friends once said: 'I think there was a restaurant... I know there was wine.'

I was invited to try a new Italian restaurant called Vicolo a couple weeks ago! And everyone knows that getting invited by Jillian Zrihen of Tracy Brooke PR means one thing: it'll be a party! And a partay it was, but I'll get to that later!

First off, I just want to mention how ridunculous it is (really!) to have an opening on a weekday evening. Why? This only means I'll get to work hungover the next day. I mean, make it a Friday, and then I don't care what I look like or how dizzy I am the next morning :p

We were welcomed by all smiles and DJ Abeille Gélinas, who has been at all the openings of recent. Good vibes and good people! We waited a couple minutes to give our coats and then, we were off upstairs to the dining and bar area. The place looks really good, with leather booths and lots of wood on the walls. There was also a huge bar, which is always important! Hehehe.

Wow, the place got full at around 6:30 and OH-SOOOO-FULL as in I-can't-move-a-bit at around 7.

We obviously (uh, duh!) headed straight for the bar because I just knew it was going to fill up real quick. We had their signature cocktail of the evening, Il Vicolo, which is gin, blood orange, lemon, egg whites, orange flower water and soda. It was...alright. Not really my cup-o-tea (or my cup-o-gin?) Too gin-y for me. I mean, I can handle too vodka-y or too rum-y but too gin-y? Nah.

OK, so basically, the evening was to be composed of free drinks, free food (tiny versions of  their plates) being passed around by waiters, a tiny cheese, bread and meat buffet type thang and a pizza etc table. That pizza etc table was really diddly damn good!

Alrighty, let's talk food, shall we?

The cheese, bread and sausagy buffet. It looked really good! It looked so good that I wanted to put everything in my mouth at once, but let's face it, my mouth is way too small :p The olives were, what's the word, oh-so-good! Mmmmmm, they pretty much melted right in my mouth (yes, apparently olives can melt). Some bread was a tad too hard but some was soft and yummy! Same with the cheese, some was soft and tasty and others were on the harder side, but good nevertheless. The only thing that really disappointed me were the little sausages wrapped oh so carefully in paper: they were so hard, I thought I was going to break a 5th tooth (mmmmya, I don't have the best teeth). Plus, my guest, Lea, found them way too spicy.

First thing that was offered to us by the waiters was this butternut creamy goodness heavenly thang. It was hot, which is not the norm when soup is served, especially during an opening, and so soft and unctions! I could have eaten about 11 of those. Just because.

This was a hit! Burrata atop an olive tapenade and crushed tomatoes on a crouton. The crouton wasn't too hard, the cheese was just lovely and surprisingly, the olives weren't salty at all. As I said, a hit!

This was also wonderful! Beef carpaccio with fleur de sel, parmesan, and truffle oil. I thought, like in many cases, that the oil was going to overpower the dish but it just added what was needed to complete it. The beef melted in your mouth and it was just goodness all around.

Ze calamari. Not squishy, thank the looooord! They were rather crunchy with a nice little mayo. Very pleasant!

The pizza bar! I think we hung out next to it for at least half an hour, just eating our way through every single pizza. There were meaty pizzas and one mushroom pizza which was to dssssiiiieee for! All were thin crusted and wonderful and oh-so-cheesy! And I don't say that lightly because I AM a pizza enthusiast.   

We also tried their mushroom risotto with a bit of parsley. It was nice and creamy but a bit too hard for my taste (FYI: risotto is not supposed to be soft, it's actually supposed to have some crunch to it).

 

Now, for the service! Seeing as the place was full or 'plein à craquer' as we say, service was actually on par (and the door dudes were really cool---I even gave one of them a plate of goodies :) There was a huge agglomeration at the bar and they were quite fast giving out drinks! At some point though, they stopped giving out free drinks :( That's alright, we became fast friends with the drunkered owner, so we paid for half of our future drinks. Hehehe. And then, like magic, everything became blurry....From what Lea told me, we hung out with the owner and a hot girl (hello!!!) for some time when everyone was gone. Oh and I woke up with her card on my night table AND in my jacket. I dream of a threesome, mmmkay? Hahaha. We ended up getting our pic taken in the Vicolo photo booth at the end, looking ridiculous, in good Marie fashion.

 

And now, the scores!

 

Food:8

Service: 8.5   

 

We had an excellent time, although the morning after wasn't so excellent! I'll go back for sure to have the REAL Vicolo experience!

Il Focolaio

Flash review alert!

My dad and I went there a couple weeks back for our weekly lunch! Man, this place is so busy and crowded!! Seriously, I don't even know how the waiters smoosh in through the tables... because they are pretty much all touching!

We were obviously going to have pizza. They have over 65, yes, SIXTY-FIVE, kinds of pizza on their menu and then they have some à-côtés like caeser salad.

We had half a pizza and half a caesar salad each.

Caesar salad:
-kind of blend
-nothing special
-caesar salad!

Pizza:
-Grilled veggies were excellent
-Great spices
-Great crunch

Service was fast and efficient. Water was at the rendez-vous and our waiter was a smiling little dude.

And now, the scores:

Pizza: 8.5
Service: 7.5

Very busy place... located in Square Phillips. VERY busy during lunch with all of dem business people!

Pizza Navona

One of my friends' bf just opened up a pizzeria on Sherbrooke and whaaaaat... it's RIGHT in front of the Mcgill Roddick gates (in my time, we used to call them the erotic gates...ah, good times!)! Nice! It's a tiny place with about 10 seats right now and a counter with some yummy looking pizza displayed. It's very cool how the whole place is opened up to the street, you can't miss it! It was so sunny inside! Very nice :)The only thing that you must keep in mind is the fact that this place is ultra new. Therefore, you'll find a tv in the corner but instead of mounted on the wall, it's sitting on a table. Also, the two tables at the back make up their office for now with papers and a computer. The owner assured me this would be gone very soon.

'Les folies sont les seules choses que l'on regrette jamais'

They also have salads and paninis which actually look quite good. But I was there for the pizza! And pizza I had! I had me a piece of vegetarian pizza and a piece of garlic and spinach pizza.

Pesto oil, spicy oil, veggie pizza and cheese, garlic and spinach pizza!!

First off, I have to say that the crust is perfect. Perfect. The two owners worked on this crust for a while to get it to that perfectness, and I give 'em props! Semolina and sesame seeds were very present AND much welcomed! OH and there are 2 oils you can put on your pizza: pesto oil and chili oil. Just adds a good oumph!

Alright...so for the cheesy spinach and garlic pizza: very nice and tasty crust. I tasted some lemon in there but apparently there wasn't any! Garlic was goodness in my mouth (ps: I am a BIG garlic fan) and there was a great crunch to it! I could have done with more spinach though!!!

As for the veggie pizza, I believe SERIOUSLY that it's one of the best veggie pizza I've ever tasted. People will say I'm biased and to that I say pffff! Just go and try it! It's so fluffy and has a great texture. Also, I don't know if it is but it tastes like the veggies were roasted before going on the pizza and into the oven. It just adds that 'je ne sais quoi'. There's also loads of cheese on there which makes it all the more yummy.

Service was excellent: the owner asked every customer which oil they wanted on their pizza and was very attentive to their needs.

And now, the scores!

Food: 8,5
Service: 9,5

I will definitely go back to try more of those tasty pizzas. Perhaps even tomorrow....mmmmyes!

Pizzafiore

After Isa came back from Barcelona, she was QUITE tired. So, we decided to make it easier on both of us and just go out to a nearby restaurant. She chose Pizzafiore.

I don't think this restaurant is that old but it looks old when you're inside. And not 'good' old. It looks a bit like how my grandmother would have designed it. Meh. Oh but the good thing is that there are two, yes TWO terraces. It's more of a family restaurant. I would never in a million years go on a date there.  There's about, I'd say 150 seats ISH. Oh, there's also this huge wood burning oven when you come in, which makes you think your pizza will be better than average. Oh can I please also mention that there are Christmas lights up permanently and they are full of dust. Second 'oh': there's a freaking tv in the corner. Why???? I'm sick of restaurants with tvs. I want no more tvs. NO MORE.

The waitress came as soon as we sat down, in the almost empty restaurant and offered us some water and the menu. We knew we were going to share a pizza (it IS named PIZZAfiore after all... you don't go there to eat spaghetti) and we decided to share onion rings as well. It had been a while for me and onion rings. Maybe it should have stayed that way (more on this later). We also decided to have some sangria even though at some point Isa said 'wait, did we already order sangria here and did not like it?'. Well turns out yes. But it had  been a couple years since our last visit.

Here's the breakdown. The onion rings were dry and over fried but it was

still a good size portion for the price. But hey, I say make it smaller but better! We had the Parmigiana pizza mainly because, well, who doesn't love bacon on their pizza? It was tomato sauce, pepperoni, bacon, olives, parmesan cheese and mozzarrella. The bacon added saltiness to the pizza
which was nice but the crust was nowhere near perfect. Actually, it was only partially cooke din the middle. Meh. And then the other half was too hard. It was not worth the 17,95$ we payed for it. At least the oil with hot pepper flakes made it a tad better. The sangria was yet another disappointment: it was clearly store bought and lacked flavor.

The service started off really nicely: she welcomed us, brought us water very rapidly, took our order quickly. Then, she started talking to the other waitress and it was like a tiny little party. OK, I'm exagerating but come on!!! If you want to talk to your fellow waitress, go somewhere where the clients won't see you! That shiz is just impolite!! Pffff...Some people!

And now, the scores!

Food: 5.5

Service: 7

Not a great experience. I guess you can order some pizza (they deliver) and hope it's better than the one we had but I think next time, if I want pizza, i'll just go buy it across the street!

Barbie's Bar & Grill

Note: This post will be one of my shortest. This restaurant is not worth my time!

During Christmas vacations, there was this huge snow storm that left us all stranded in Lachine at my mom's place. Anyhoot, we decided to eat out for dinner and well, Barbie's is a 3 minute walk so we went there. Bad, BAD idea.

Anyhoot, apparently, my cousin (who eats at good restaurants...) has been there a couple times because her and her husband have friends that live in Lachine. She never warned us :p

I won't go into details. We were all, I believe, disappointed. We ordered a pizza and the crust was not cooked through. The nachos had a tiny amount of store bought guacamole and salsa. Also, the ingredients leave a lot to be desired. Everything is frozen and thawed instead of being fresh. And it's not like they don't have the clientele!!! That place is pretty much always at least half full!!! And with the deck, they have at least 100 to 120 places in there. It's unfortunately quite the institution! Weird. 

The service was not much better. The water took a while to get to our large table. The food also. The waitress was also quite on the impolite side of thangs and obviously that was not appreciated! I'm sorry if you had a bad day, that sucks. But smile when you get to my table por favor!

Anyway, now, the scores.

Food: 4,5
Service: 5

Even if you're in Lachine (or Dorval), just please spend an extra 10$ and go to one of those nicer restaurants along the boardwalk  :)