Eat Me!

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Italian Kitchen

1037 Alberni Street
Vancouver, BC V6E 1A1
Tel: (604) 687-2858‎

Service: Interior Atmosphere: Pricing:

A bustling contemporary Italian restaurant located just a block from Burrard Station has excellent staff and atmosphere. Glasses were always filled, and the hostess offered our group some complimentary bruschetta while we were waiting for a table. This place is packed during dinner times and its highly recommended that you make reservations. The lighting inside was quite dim, so it wasn't easy to take photos of the food.

Italian Kitchen:

Italian Kitchen: Bruschetta Sampler
Bruschetta Sampler $12
chick pea, pesto burrata, tomato basil
This was interesting, to have so many different flavours on the same bread. Personally I liked the tomato basil flavour, but others liked the pesto burrata more. This was pretty yummy, and a very good appetizer to share with others .

Italian Kitchen: Crispy Fried Calamari
Crispy Fried Calamari $11
spicy sicilian tomato sauce
I was not impressed with this, the photo makes the bowl looks smaller than it actually is because the portion size was quite generous. The texture of the squid was quite soft and easy to chew, but the taste was very normal (peppered batter) resembling the deep-fried squid you can order at dimsum. In fact, they tasted so similar that I wouldn't have noticed if they replaced each other, but the price certainly is not the same. The sauce is the only thing that makes them different. (It even looks the same...)

Italian Kitchen: Kobe Meatballs
Kobe Meatballs $1 !
We had a coupon that entitled our table to these complimentary kobe meatballs. These were quite tasty, and spicy, but didn't really taste spectacular or anything. The tomato sauce gave it a kick but other than that I did not find these memorable except for their size since each of them were around 2" in diameter.

Italian Kitchen: Hand-Rolled Gnocchi
Hand-Rolled Gnocchi $16
roasted tomato, basil cream
The photo makes the bowl look small when in reality it was quite large. Overall good gnocchi.

Italian Kitchen: Pepperoni Pizza
Pepperoni Pizza $14
oven dried tomatoes, mozzarella, oregano
This hearty pizza packs a punch in taste. Crust was good and the yellow tomatoes were a nice touch.

Italian Kitchen: Quattro Formaggio "Bianco" Pizza
Quattro Formaggio "Bianco" Pizza $14
caciocavallo, fontina, asiago, buffalo mozzarella
Yummy yummy yummy! They did not skimp out on the four cheeses as you can see this pizza is loaded! It totally melts in your mouth at each bite and if you like cheese, especially mozzarella, then this pizza is for you! It's just delicious! You must try this!!

Italian Kitchen: Pappardelle Lamb Sausage
Papperdelle Lamb Sausage $16
cabbage, potatoes, peperoncino, olive oil
Pretty good pasta where the lamb doesn't taste too gamey. The potatoes were a surprise since they're not usually found in pasta like this.

Italian Kitchen: Caprese Salad
Caprese Salad $13
buffalo mozzarella, amorosa tomatoes, basil
I totally did not expect their caprese salad to look like this, with barely any basil. In Italy, all the caprese salads/panini have ample basil with the buffalo mozzarella (bocconcini) in thick circular slices. Here as you can see, the cheese is all mushy and there's barely any greens. With that said, this salad still tasted good but could have been perfect if it had more basil (at the very least have 3 or 4 leaves..) The red and yellow tomatoes were especially yummy, fresh and juicy. The olive oil they used was also exceptionally good too. Overall, I enjoyed eating this but the lack of basil really disappointed me. Otherwise I the taste was good enough to bring me back to my days eating in Italy.

Italian Kitchen: Vanilla Gelato
Vanilla Gelato $7
amarena cherries, chocolate biscotti
Doesn't it look pretty? Reasonable portions for delicious gelato! The biscotti was pretty good too.

Italian Kitchen: Tiramisu
Tiramisu $7
mascarpone mousse, espresso soaked lady fingers, mocha crème anglaise
Light, fluffy, and soft, this was probably the softest tiramisu I've ever had. The texture is in between that of whipped-cream and mousse. The taste was not too sweet or bitter, making this cake effortless to devour. Yummy yummy!! It's probably one of the best tiramisu I've had in Vancouver.


Others' Input:
Italian Kitchen on Urbanspoon

1 comment:

Tia said...

yum! that bruschetta looks so good. and the checkred paper brings me back to my days working in a cafe. lol

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