Italian Cuisine

Alfonsetti's Allegro Casa Salvati Da Sergio Flying Piggy's Il Garage Giovanni's Gusti Il Vagabondo Italian Dressing Mama Mia Mini-Italia Romano's Salvatore's Trattoria Italia Trattoria Zingaro Zola's

ALFONSETTI'S - 5830 HAZELDEAN RD, STITTSVILLE - 831-3008 I must state at the outset that my wife and I do not eat meat nor crustacean, such as lobster, shrimp, etc.., so my input is only based upon fish, other than crustacean, pasta primaverra, and salads for the most part. We have eaten at Alfonsetti's a few times in the last three years. Based upon the above "disclaimer" or "criteria", the food and service was very good, in our opinions. The Caesar salad is fairly authentic Italian, i.e. it is not covered by the creamy Kraft dressing nor for that matter by the dressing served up at the restaurant known as Le Saint O on St. Laurent Blvd. where it was pointed out that the creamy Kraft-like dressing was in fact authentic French Caesar salad dressing. The Ceasar salad at Alfonsetti's is made so that the dressing incorporates the tastes of the true ingredients of the dressing, such as anchovies. The gnocchi and pasta, sans meat, were quite good. Date: Fri Apr 12 14:17:56 1996 From: as668@FreeNet.Carleton.CA (Ronald J. Kesten) TRATTORIA ITALIA DINING LOUNGE AND CAFE - 236-1081 I have eaten there only once and would rate it at 7.5/10 The food was not bad but I found the place a little crowded. I liked the accordian player that comes to each of the tables. But from a value-for-your-buck perspective I would prefer to pay 10% more and go to a really ritzy place. Date: Tue May 7 07:47:08 1996 From: by646@FreeNet.Carleton.CA (Stephen Thuswaldner) CASA SALVATI - 705 GLADSTONE AVE - 234-6362 Service was attentive, the sauce on my chicken and the sauce on someone else's veal were both imaginative and tasty, the caesar salad was appropriately garlicky. Still searching for the best Italian restaurant that doesn't cost an arm and a leg. If I were spending the same amount again, I might head for Romano's on the Richmond Road. Four months later, my clearest recollection is of the decor: ceiling plastered so thickly it looked like a cave with stalactites. Date: Tue May 21 22:19:16 1996 From: aa816@FreeNet.Carleton.CA (Frances L. Tanner) IL VAGABONDO - 186 BARRETTE ST., VANIER - 749-4877 One of Ottawas first fine dining Italian restaurants, Il vagabondo, still does not disappoint. I had excellent home made caneloni last night with cheese sauce and my SO had fettucini with rose sauce and grilled chicken strips made to order (not on menu). I was pleasantly surprised at how good they manage to remain after all these years. Especially with pasta, which by its simplicity, seems to be one of the more difficult dishes to make really well. Date: Mon Jun 17 08:15:29 1996 From: ak917@FreeNet.Carleton.CA (James Cohen) DA SERGIO - 338 PRESTON ST. - 230-3652 Jim Roy asks: What's the place like these days? I was thinking of suggesting it to a dining group I'm involved in for a future outing. I went to this Preston Street restaurant a couple of years ago, and enjoyed the fare, but I'm wondering if anyone has been there since it reopened. Answers: I was there a couple of times in late 1995 and found it quite good. Excellent service, good meal, reasonable price. Date: Fri Jun 7 07:47:33 1996 From: bb089@FreeNet.Carleton.CA (Al DeVito) I go there once every few months and have been very satisfied. Now summer is here the patio is the place to be. Date: Fri Jun 21 21:20:13 1996 From: bn435@FreeNet.Carleton.CA (Richard Goodman) SALVATORE'S - 388 BOOTH - 233-4731 Give Salvaore's on Booth a try. It's only a couple of streets east of Preston, just north of Gladstone. Recently been taken over by new owners and the food is even better than before. The veal dishes are wonderful, the mussels and calamari appetizers the best in town. With wine, appetizers, main course -- their specials are served with soup or salad -- main course and dessert (we tried the zabaglione, only made for two but well worth forgetting those extra calories) - plus half litre of house wine, total bill about $60. Date: Mon Sep 2 09:36:17 1996 From: cq983@FreeNet.Carleton.CA (Helen Rossiter) IL GARAGE - PRESTON ST I'd bumped into this place over the last year while playing at charity casino's. When I was first there, it was literally a garage, complete with oil on the floor. Over the year the decor improved little by little until it was a pleasant little cafe. A couple of weeks ago I was nearby and dropped in hoping to have a cold brew on a hot summer eve. Surprise - it was now a cute little restaurant, checkered table cloths et al. No license though, so after a hello with Tony, and wishing him luck in that competetive area. Dropped in last nite with friends to test it. The attentive, friendly waitress had no problem with dividing our 3 orders on 4 plates so we could all sample a variety. Seafood calzone - excellent (but I'm no expert) Pasta dish with a zip - choice of pasta. Veal dish - we said 'go for it' in unison when the sauce choice of an olive/caper blend was suggested. It was great. All in all.... friendly, above average food, interesting menu, and very competetive prices. We'll all go back. (license is on the way - 2 weeks??) Date: Wed Sep 11 15:48:31 1996 From: ac444@FreeNet.Carleton.CA (Sandy MacTavish) ITALIAN DRESSING - 434 1/2 PRESTON ST A group of us from the office went to Italian Dressing at 434 1/2 Preston to fete a co-worker. It was the worst dining experience of my 3 years in Ottawa. There are nice beers on tap (I had a Kilkenny). But nobody liked their food orders. I had their veal sandwich. The contents were enclosed in this heavy-as-lead dough which I suppose passed for bread. I left it on the side. The veal was wafer thin, dry and tough. There was a side salad of greens in a vinaigrette that was blah city. The word has been spread around the office about the place. None of us plan to go back. Date: Mon Nov 11 08:49:42 1996 From: ar100@FreeNet.Carleton.CA (Denis Belton) ROMANO'S - RICHMOND & CHURCHILL We went there with friends on Saturday night. Good selection of wine - not enough Canadian though. Service friendly and helpful. Decore - warm and peaceful. Food - lots of choice. Specials were good value. Italian and the Caesar Salad were nicely and not over dressed. Shrimp fetuccini was very good with nicely spiced sauce. Liver was wonderful. Wished I could have eaten two entres as I would have loved to try the Veal Lemonie (sp) as well. Desert was light and coffee slightly strong. Only one problem and I did not get to raise it with the owner - Not sure where the boundry of the smoking section was but the two tables closest to us were smoking and we caught the smoke. We may have been on the edge of the non-smoking but this was the only downer and then next time I'd makesure I was well within the non-smoking area. A nice experience and we'd certainly do it again. Romano's - just east of Churchill on Richmond. Date: Wed Dec 4 05:03:15 1996 From: bb128@FreeNet.Carleton.CA (Roger Wilson) Trattoria Zingaro TRATTORIA ZINGARO - 18 BEECHWOOD AVE - VANIER - 744-6509 Our M.O.L.E.'s group (Mellowed Out Luncheon Explorers) went to Tratorria Zingaro a couple of weeks ago to check out what's referred to as Tuscan cuisine (an Italian cousin, apparently). Don't know how authentic the cuisine is to what goes on in Tuscany. It was a bit 'nouvel cuisinish' with lots and lots of artsy presentation, but the bottom line is that every thing we tried came through in the taste end of things in an exemplary fashion. Translation: quite good. :-) We experienced the lunch end of things that all of our group was happy with. If you order the soup from the lunch menu, don't order anything else as the soup, with the bread accompaniement, will be plenty for lunch. One of the group went back for dinner and was just as pleased with the food and the service. Date: Fri Nov 27 15:30:53 1998 From: bu932@FreeNet.Carleton.CA (Jim Roy) GIOVANNI'S - 362 PRESTON ST. - 234-3156 I had the pleasure of dining at Giovanni's on Preston a couple of days before Christmas and must say that it was brilliant. The restaurant reminded me of the upscale tavern/restaurants in places like Syracuse and Albany. Great food, owners on the premises, good company, just wonderful. Date: Mon Jan 4 14:27:23 1999 From: ar577@FreeNet.Carleton.CA (Daniel Shields) MINI-ITALIA - 261 CENTREPOINTE DR., NEPEAN - 723-2465 The best italian in Ottawa has to be Mini-Italia in Centrepoint. It's very small and reservations are necessary and may have to be made well in advance (I'm talking possibly days!). Kenny the chef has a small menu of his best creations and also posts daily specials that change always. Our favourites have been his Spicy Chicken Parmigian over Alfredo Sauce and linguine or his cannelonis. His creamy sauces are delicious! I've enjoy his seafood chowders as well. Prices are reasonable. Date: Sat Jan 9 23:03:34 1999 From: eg269@FreeNet.Carleton.CA (K C Sumner) My group tried out this restaurant last week and found it to be a 'keeper' in our list of places we've gone to and would like to return to in our luncheon explorations. The luncheon menu is not extensive, but there are daily offerings posted over what is listed on the menu and the seafood chowder, the mussels and the pasta special of the day were all delicious. The place is small and already popular so if you want to be sure to get in, reservations are a good idea. There were a few spaces left on the day we went, a Thursday. Date: Mon Feb 1 21:18:17 1999 From: bu932@FreeNet.Carleton.CA (Jim Roy) MAMA MIA - 1460 MERIVALE RD. - 226-8282 I went to Mamma Mia's on Merivale Road (where the old Red Lobster's used to be and Loblaws still is). They had a special for Sunday Buffet Lunch for $4.95, so I thought...let's give it a try. The price goes up to $7.50 for the lunch buffets and $9.95 for dinner. Mostly disappointing I'm afraid to say...I realize they are new so I'm willing to give them another try in about a month. It's supposed to be an Italian buffet....but most of the foods were bland and uninteresting. Other points to consider...they didn't replenish their food fast enough, their famous garlic bread was nothing more than half a bun with some butter on it, dessert was one kind (half a muffin with some icing on it) but they did have 6 different kinds of ice cream. One thing I found nice but a little bland was the stracciatella soup (a traditional egg soup in Italian cuisine). Soft drinks are $1.95 with free refills. I was planning on bringing a big party there next month but I can't unless things improve. They did have a nice variety..that's the good part but they need to make it a little more interesting and a little more authentic. But for $4.95, I guess I can't really complain.... Please let me know if things do improve....thank you. Date: Mon Jan 18 15:44:07 1999 From: bj248@FreeNet.Carleton.CA (Dora Parisi) My group of six went to Mama Mia's on Thursday for lunch and found the fare generally good for the price. It's certainly not Italian haute cuisine but reasonably tasty. I had a mussels chowder as the soup and I don't know how authentic it was, but I found it tasty. There's even one steam table of oriental selections, possibly appropriate since the Chinese claim they donated the pasta idea to Italy via one of Marco Polo's visits. If you're not used to the more authentic restaurants of the Italian variety and are just a Canadian paesan, you'll probably like what's offered. While we were there, freshly prepared items were brought out regularly. Our group would return based on this one experience. Date: Fri Oct 22 18:27:15 1999 From: bu932@FreeNet.Carleton.CA (Jim Roy) GUSTI - 268 PRESTON ST. - 565-2164 We had lunch last week at Leo Gusti's on Preston St. The food was very good, service friendly and helpful and prices reasonable. Recommended. Date: Fri Feb 5 07:56:55 1999 From: ak367@FreeNet.Carleton.CA (Craig Milne) ALLEGRO - 422 PRESTON ST. - 235-7454 We visited Allegro, on Preston St. the other evening. It is small and was very noisy, even tho not full, when we began, but being a week night, it soon quieted down. Everyone enjoyed their meals. I tried the calamari which I found had a bit too much batter for my liking, and some were burned on the bottom. My pasta, however, was excellent, as were the other dishes I sampled. The tiramisu was the best I have had in a restaurant, including the ones we tried in Italy! The prices for the main courses were reasonable, although the antipasti and dolci were a bit pricy, perhaps. All in all, quite good. Buon appetito, Date: Fri Feb 19 20:53:35 1999 From: ak367@FreeNet.Carleton.CA (Craig Milne) ZOLA'S - 194 ROBERTSON RD. - 721-0227 Zola's in Bell's Corners in the same plaza as the Lapointe fish store (if, guys, you can get by Hooter's a half block before you get there). It's a place where pasta is made on-site, so it's no surprise their pasta menu choices are inevitably all excellent. My personal favurite is a hideously rich smoky sauce with gorgonzola cheese over fettucine. Try, try, try to resist having more than one of their unbelievable fresh rolls which arrive by the basketful about the time your first drink is served. Date: Tue Oct 26 21:28:41 1999 From: ae965@FreeNet.Carleton.CA (Michael DiCola) FLYING PIGGY'S - 1665 BANK ST. - 526-4900 They advertise on the sign out front that they have the same menu as the Ritz did. I, along with a party of 8, had lunch there a couple of weeks ago. You cannot get a table without a reservation... many people tried while we were there. Food was great, I had the grilled italian sausage sandwich... very spicy and tasty. Various selections around the table (including a vegetarian-compatible ravioli) were well received indeed. Date: 7 Jan 2000 03:16:49 From: ae782@FreeNet.Carleton.CA (Jay Lawrence)