Food for Pleasure: salads

Showing posts with label salads. Show all posts

Saturday, 22 March 2014

THE EXPRESS ITALIAN EATERY WESTDALE

1034 King Street West, Hamilton, On., (289) 389-2008, Sun. - Wed. 11:30 - 10:00 pm, Thurs. - Sat. 11:30 - 11:00 pm

Went to the Express, in the Westdale Village in Hamilton, early on a Saturday evening for a light dinner. It is a relatively new establishment in Westdale, that serves wood oven pizza in an open kitchen, panini, soup, salads, pastas etc.. It is licensed and the house red was only $6 a glass.

It has a quaint bar area

and a variety of seating, including a window view of the village.

There is a wood oven and take out service.

I checked the menu.

I chose the Muffaletta panini. It included salami, mortadella, prosciutto, arugala and provolone and came with a soup or salad for $12.

The soup was prosciutto and potato, it was rich but quite salty (because it contained large chunks of prosciutto).

The panini was crisp and quite thick with rich meats.

By the time I was finished the restaurant was filling up.

All in all it was a nice meal. The service was efficient, the food was tasty (albeit very salty) and the prices were reasonable. There is another much larger Express located at the other end of Hamilton in Stoney Creek on Grays Road.

http://www.expressrestaurant.com/

Sunday, 16 March 2014

FAMOSO NEAPOLITAN PIZZERIA (the annex)

386 Bloor St. W. Toronto, On., (647) 748-2333 Mon. Tue. and Sun. 11:00 to 10:00, Wed. - Sat. 11:00 to 11:00

Five of us decided to try Famoso for dinner on a cold Saturday in March. It is located in the people friendly annex area of Toronto. I decided to call for a reservation earlier in the day and I am glad I did because this place gets very busy and is very popular in the area.

When we arrived we were greeted right away by friendly people that arranged a large booth for the five of us near the back.

There is a long open kitchen and an imported pizza oven in plain view as you walk through the restaurant. These ovens cook pizza quickly and perfectly crisp.

We were ushered to our table and the unique ordering process used here was explained by our waitress. We decided what we wanted for appetizers and mains (pizza) and I took the order to an order counter. The rest was done by the waitress assigned to our table. This seemed rather cumbersome, but it worked very well and was very efficient. We ordered two bottles of reasonably priced valpolicella to get us started.

We began with some unusual but very tasty prosciutto wrapped mozzarella balls that were immersed in a wonderful light tomato sauce, they were accompanied by seasoned flatbread.

We each ordered a half salad (great idea), four of us had the caesar with prosciutto crisps, grana padano and house made caesar dressing. They were a perfect size and great.

Katie had the Napoli salad which included field greens, red onions, chick peas and balsamic dressing. She really enjoyed it.

For our mains (they only serve pizza here) three of us, my wife, Mark and I shared the Capricciosa pizza. This included italian ham, roasted mushrooms, artichoke hearts, kalamata olives, extra virgin olive oil and pecorino romano. It had a wonderful combination of flavours and ingredients. This was a great pizza. It was light, flavourful, not greasy and perfectly cooked.

Katie and Thomas shared the Abruzzo pizza, which included oven-roasted italian sausage, slivered red onions, roasted mushrooms, fennel seeds, smoked mozzarella and pecorino romano. They both really liked this combination.

All of us really enjoyed our evening at this restaurant, from the friendliness of all of the staff, to the efficiency of our waitress and to the wonderful food here. We will definitely return and highly recommend this restaurant for its all round experience!!

Well done!!

http://www.famoso.ca/

Sunday, 4 August 2013

SARCOA

57 Discovery Drive, Hamilton On. (905) 528-5757, Lunch, Dinner, Late, Tuesday to Sunday, Dinner only Monday

After giving this restaurant time to settle and get over the hype of it's entry to the Hamilton restaurant scene, we decided to go for dinner on a beautiful Sunday evening in early August. This restaurant has a wonderful large and complex patio, consisting of various table arrangements, and seating configurations including couches and pods. It is worth the visit to sit on this patio, even at the large bar that anchors it.

Since we did not have reservations, we had to wait for a while in the bar area until a table became ready, so we had some wine and watched the boats go by in the bay. It was a beautiful evening to be on the patio. My son Mark (http://www.markallen.ca/) had a rum and coke, a perfect bar drink for a sunny evening.

The bar tender serving us was friendly, efficient and made us feel comfortable as did all the staff at this restaurant!! When our table became ready, we took a look at the menu.

We ordered a nice Chianti to share.

My wife and I decided to start with the Caesar salad. It was absolutely delicious with a wonderful balance of real smoked bacon, lemon, croutons and Parmesian.

Mark, my son decided to start with quinoa fritters with romesco and quacamole. They were scrumptious, with a lot of flavour.

For our mains my wife and I decided to have the pasta special. It was the house made fettucini with roast chicken and parmesian, tomatoes and sprouts in a light sauce. It was outstanding and we both enjoyed every morsel. We would order this again if it was on the menu.

Mark ordered one of his favourite combinations, not often seen as a main, seared scallops and pork belly, with sweet pea puree and rhubarb-daikon slaw. It was very good.

My wife and Mark decided to try a desert. My wife had the cheesecake. It was heavenly - though a little small.

Mark had the vanilla gelato. It was sweet and tasty.

It was a wonderful meal on a beautiful evening.

If the weather or the season changes there is a beautiful interior to this restaurant as well.

The food, the service and the location make this restaurant worth a visit. We will definitely return.

Well, we returned exactly a year (August 2 2014, approximately 7 pm ) later. The attitude had changed. There was a snotty girl receptionist who told us there was no way we would be able to get in without a reservation (which we tried to make about 3 o'clock the same day). This was such a different attitude from just a year ago, when we were allowed to drink at the bar until a table became ready!! We saw many empty tables both inside and out!! So, we went to Spencer's in Burlington (a far superior restaurant by most standards) and were welcomed with open arms - they too were very busy but made an effort not to turn us away. We had a wonderful table on the patio overlooking the lake and spent a lot of money there!! Sarcoa needs to get back to the attitude they previously had, sooner or later it will lose patrons!!!! I have seen tweets and stories of patrons who will not return because of the attitude here!!

http://www.sarcoa.ca/

Monday, 29 July 2013

RADIUS CAFE AND URBAN CASUAL DINING

151 James Street South, Hamilton, On. L8P 3A2, (905) 393-1658 Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner 7 days, Late Night Fri. Sat.

The Radius is located in one of the nicer areas of the downtown area, surrounded by a variety of restaurants and pubs. It is a relative newcomer to the area and is a large and fabulous space. It consists of two venues, one side is a clean and comfortable space for dining.

There is also a very large series of patios on the outside of the building, including a large street side patio and an elevated rooftop patio.

We began by trying to have our drinks and food on the street side patio but the weather was not cooperating so we went inside.

We reviewed the menu and decided on our selections.

I ordered warm olives to start. They were delicious and very hot. We all shared them.

Katie decided to order the taco trio. They consisted of pork belly, chorizo, Lake Erie perch and some seasonal toppings($15). They looked good and tasted even better.

Tom ordered the Hamilton Burger which included pancetta, potato crisps, sweet corn relish, aged cheddar, sriracha mayo, fried egg. It was delicious and very messy (the sign of a good burger). It was accompanied by a small bowl of mustard and a small salad ($17).

I ordered the smoked BBQ chicken wings with grainy mustard and apple slaw. They were delicious but could have been more meaty ($12).

After completing our dinner and libations we went through the hallway to the other section which includes a very spacious yet comfortable cafe.

We had a selection of coffees including a nice Americano and took a look around this great space.

Radius is a great addition to the restaurant scene in Hamilton. It has a very nice interior, a very spacious patio with a view, a wonderful cafe space which is large and comfortable. It is quite a large space to service, so the wait staff get a lot of exercise, but the service was reasonable. The menu could be more extensive and the prices are quite high for the quantity of food but we are sure they will improve with time. Their website needs improvement as well.
Recently there have been some drastic improvements to the interior. A wall was removed to open the space, a small bar located on one side was replaced by a much larger one. The cafe was completely replaced and has become a relaxing lounge with lounge music and comfortable seating. It is fabulous! Well done radius!