Saturday, March 16, 2013

Café Vasco da Gama

This place is right beside my job, like RIGHT beside it... so I was bound to go at one point or another. I guess I was a bit scared to go in what with all the serious business people coming in and out of the café.

For those of you who don't know, Vasco da Gama (or DE Gama), was a count and a Portugese explorer. One day, my dad and I made a lunch date and since we'd been to pretty much all the restos around my job, we decided to go there. It was quite nice. Quite nice indeed! Anyhoot, the place itself is quite long and narrow and has about 40 seats, most of them, very low... which is a tad weird at first but you get used to it. There was some spanish-y portugese-y music playing...  ;) Oh and I loved the tiles on the floor! Reminded me of Portugal :) The whole place was really pretty.

Basically, you go up to the counter, you pick what you want and then you sit and wait for your meal. People that work there are friendly, quick and efficient. They have to be because there are lots and lots of people eating there and getting food to go. The choices: there weren't as many salads as I'd wanted and the paninis were really overpriced. I will NOT pay 13$ for a panini, even if it has duck in it.

I ended up having three salads: beet salad, lentil salad and somekind of niçoise salad. All quite tasty I'd say. Tastier than they looked anyway. This was served in a long plate with 2 pieces of bread with some olive oil. A nice addition to the plate, I found.  I didn't write down all the little details about the three salads. I just know that the beets were a tad undercooked (I HATE that!). The niçoise: lots of green beans, not much tuna. The lentils were actually very tasty, with somewhat of a citrus sauce. Quite tasty indeed! It was a very nice mix of flavors: the earthy-ish taste of the lentils and the punch of the citrus sauce.

I have nothing to say about the service. It was good and it was quick. They're used to the table turnover, you can tell. I also took the rest of my lunch in a doggy bag and the waitress came back with it in 2.5 seconds (I swear!).

And now, the scores.

Food: 7/10 I mean, we're talking salads here
Service: 8/10

A good place to go for a quick lunch or if you want to take something to go.

ps: They also cater small and big parties!
Café Vasco Da Gama on Urbanspoon

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Great place. I go there every week for brunch. Try the duck confit sandwich with a beet salad.

Marie said...

a tad above my lunch price but I'll sure try it once! Thanks!