FLOUR AND BARLEY

3545 Las Vegas Las Vegas Blvd. S. (702) 430-4430, 11 am to 12 midnight 7 days a week.

Located on the Linq behind the Flamingo Hotel and Casino is a large, reasonably priced restaurant.

It has a large interior and a very large patio.

We sat on the patio and ordered a litre of their house red. 

The menu has a nice variety of choices.

We decided to split the arugula and kale salad - it was amazing, the ingredients were unique and included artichokes, mushrooms and pine nuts.  It was large and easily split.  The flavours were fabulous!

My wife had the grilled salmon with broccolini and roast potato in a lemon caper sauce.  It was a large meal but very tasty.

I chose the shrimp scampi in a garlic lemon sauce with spaghettini.  The shrimp were large and very tender.

This was a good meal and good value in a nice location on the newly developed linq.

 

http://www.flourandbarley.com/

TAVOLO 

South Oakville Mall, 1515 Rebecca St. Unit 19, Oakville, 905-827-2221 Mon. to Sat. 11 am to 10 pm, Sun. 12 noon to 10 pm.

Went to Tavolo with a number of fellas I worked with on a nice Friday evening in June.  There were six of us that arrived at about 8 in the evening.  We decided to order several bottles of Malbec wine.
We read our menus and selected our choices.

The kitchen was open and easy for patrons to view.  It was clean and very busy.

There was a good number of patrons this evening.

We began with several bottles of an Argentinian Malbec, which was quite good with lamb.

We ordered a number of different appetizers before our mains.

Zucchine Fritte with black pepper and peperoncino aoili

Fritturina Poseidon with Calamari

Margherita Pizza

Pizza Cacciatore

For our mains 4 of us had the grilled lamb cutlets with lentils, baby kale, topped with salsa verde.

I had the feature pickerel with quinoa, green beans and corn.

We all enjoyed our appetizers and mains.  The service was excellent and we all finished with espresso. 

 


http://www.tavolo.ca/

BISTRO SIX ONE 

61-63 Queen Street, Niagara on the Lake, On., (905) 468-2532, Lunch and Dinner 7 days a week

On a cool, but sunny March afternoon my wife and I decided to take a drive to one of our favourite tourist places, Niagara on the Lake.  It is a quaint and historic village that has the famous Shaw theatre, along with a variety of boutiques and restaurants.  Being the off season for tourists, some shops were closed, but the restaurants were all open.  We decided to try Bistro Six One after reading their menu posted near the front door.

The inside has a variety of booth seating which we like.

Located in the centre of Ontario's wine region, restaurants here tend to feature the local wineries in their wine lists.  We chose our favourite local wine from Jackson Triggs, their Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc blend VQA, a full bodied red with a rich flavour.

The menu has a nice variety to choose from including wood oven pizza, sandwiches, salads and mains.  

Since it was late afternoon, we decided on a salad and sandwich.  We both chose the Caesar salad.  The romaine was fresh and crisp, the bacon was real and the parmesan cheese and croutons were delicious.

For her sandwich, my wife chose the ham and brie melt on multigrain bread.  It had thin layers of smoked ham, soft brie cheese and a wonderful pepper jelly that was very tasty.  It was accompanied by a mound of french fries.

I decided on the grilled chicken ciabatta.  It had tender grilled chicken, lettuce, bacon and cheese.  The bread was crisp and fresh and the sandwich was excellent.  It too, was served with fries.

It was a wonderful meal in a peaceful restaurant with nice music and good wine.  We will definitely be back again.

  

http://www.bistrosixone.com/index.htm

CANALETTO 
Venetian Grand Canal Shoppes 3355 Las Vegas Boulevard S, Las Vegas Nevada, (702) 733-0070, Open 11:30 to 11:00pm every day except Friday and Saturday ti 12:00am
We visited Canaletto after a web search of many of the restaurants on the strip.  We found that a lot of restaurants in Vegas were way overpriced and selected a few before leaving home that seemed reasonable, this was one of them.

It is located in the heart of Mark's Square in the Venetian Canal Shoppes in the plaza level.

We had made a reservation and were seated at the edge of the indoor patio with a view of the plaza.  It was quite a glamorous setting.

A nice basket of bread arrived accompanied by olive oil.

We ordered a bottle of Chianti (reasonably priced compared to most Vegas restaurants).  It was smooth and had a nice flavour.

We began with an appetizer of calamari fritti (one of my favourite appetizers).  They where soft and perfectly cooked and were accompanied with a choice of white or red sauce.

My wife ordered the calves liver with polenta and really enjoyed it.

I ordered the chicken with spinach and a hot sauce that turned out to be very hot.  The chicken was enormous and was nicely coated and grilled, but the meat was a little dry.

We ended our meals without dessert since they were so substantial. Instead my wife had a nice cappuccino.

I followed with a double espresso.

Our meals were wonderful and reasonably priced in a location that was lively and pure Vegas.  The service was very spotty but the restaurant was very busy.


http://www.ilfornaio.com/?page=138&restaurant_id=3164