Fueled By Flapjacks: Dolce Vita

Fueled By Flapjacks

Sunday, March 11, 2007

Dolce Vita

I haven't had much dedication to this whole food blogging thing lately. Blame it on whatever. I went out to dinner last Friday but I was much too concerned with stuffing my ravenous belly to take photos. I have a few and they suck. Oh well, you just should have been there!

After hanging out at Erin's apartment eating crackers and cheese, Erin, Jen and I headed down to Queen St to meet up with Roxanne. We settled on Italian at Dolce Vita on High St. Jen and I used to go here a lot when she was still at university and we had pasta cravings, so we were interested to see what it is like now that they have renovated and possibly changed owners. I think the interior is what attracted me to eat there. Deep red walls give the restaurant a cosy warmth. The beautiful antique wooden bar that I always admired is still there but has moved to the back of the restaurants rather than the side.

We perused the menu for awhile before deciding to share dishes and a bottle of red wine (which I discovered I don't actually hate but must have had a bad experience with a crap bottle of red wine a long time ago). First up we got an antipasto platter which included breads, dip, salami, salmon, ginger, olives, ham and pickle. It was pretty tasty but I found the olives way too salty and refused to touch the pickles or the ginger... ugh. The rest was good especially the salami and the fresh raw salmon.

For mains, we shared fettuccini carbonara (roasted bacon and onion in a white wine creamy sauce) and fettuccine dolce vita (delicious roasted chicken, mushroom and onion in a creamy tomato and basil sauce). I'm not sure which pasta I liked the best so I can't pick a favourite, though you can't usually go wrong with carbonara. I wish I could have eaten more of it though. I find it hard to savour the taste of things in small quantities, on account of the fact that I stuff my face too quickly. I think I prefer eating lots of one thing rather than little bits of stuff.

We also shared a pizza but I forget the name of it. It was one of the meat pizzas. It was good but nothing completely wow inducing. Just an average pizza really.

We all ordered dessert. Roxanne and I both ordered the tiramisu, Erin got the baked apple pie and Jenny got a pancake ribbon dessert (I forget the exact name).

The tiramisu was okay but frankly, I think I could make one better. My ideal tiramisu may not be entirely authentic however. Firstly, it would have a stronger coffee flavour. This didn't have enough coffee. It would also have more chocolate because chocolate is what this tiramisu lacked. All the alcohol seemed to have settled to the bottom of the sponge as well. It would have been much better if it had been evenly distributed.

Erin had wanted to order the apple tart but was informed they had run out and the waitress suggested the apple pie because it was very similar. As to what the exact different between apple pie and apple tart is, I'm not too sure. I guess they are like cousins or something.

It came out served in a glass, which was rather surprising and peculiar. I'm not sure how well chocolate icecream goes with apple part. I personally would find that the chocolate would overpower the tartness of the apple. Vanilla usually compliments apple much better. I didn't taste any of this so I can't say whether it was good or not. From my observations, Erin was either not too impressed or too full to eat much because she appeared to have just scooped out the middle.

The waitress couldn't adequately describe what the pancake ribbon dessert was but Jen took a gamble on it anyway. I actually have to say I preferred this more than my tiramisu. Who knows why I didn't go for something containing pancake. I have been acting rather out of character lately. Anyways, it was thin strips of crispy deep fried pancake doused in a sweet sugary white wine egg sauce. I don't know why I've never tried deep fried pancake but it is delicious and I wonder what a whole pancake would be like deep fried. The sauce was divine. It was similar to maple syrup but with a more eggy flavour. I could have just drunk it straight which in my opinion is the mark of a good sauce. It's not the mark of good manners or self-restraint but it makes a fine benchmark for weighing up a desert condiment. This was definitely a unique dessert.

On the whole the food was rather average, but I'd still go back to Dolce Vita during the day if I had a pasta craving. It was still satisfying.

Labels: dessert, Italian

posted by Lauren @ 1:41 PM

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