Bottega Trattoria (Saskatoon, Sk)

I am a foodie at heart. I love cooking, learning new techniques and of course, eating.  When I read about the new high end Italian restaurant opening up, Bottega Trattoria, I knew I had to try it when it opened.  I've read other reviews of the restaurant that are all positive and the following is my unbiased opinion, the good and the bad.  It is important to note the restaurant only opened 5 days prior to our visit mainly serving lunch.

Location & Decor
The restaurant is located in the former Olympia restaurant downtown Saskatoon (#yxe) on 2nd Ave.  While this location was considered a problematic area, the neighboring McDonald's recently closed and the downtown core has been home to newer retailers and chains.  The renovations took less than 4 weeks and there is little reminiscent of its former occupant outside of the interior arches.  In terms of size, the restaurant is reduced by half it formerly was making it more intimate.  There is an addition adjacent to the restaurant where we were told they are still unsure what they are going to use it for.  The color scheme is a mix of white tiles that flank a side wall with black benches, chairs and ceiling with wooden tables and dark wood flooring.  The restaurant has few wall decorations and zero televisions.  The majority of the tables seats larger groups with fewer tables of two. I would have expected more tables of 4 allowing the restaurant more flexibility when catering to smaller groups as we were seated at a table for 6 and it was just the 2 of us. When we arrived for dinner they were having troubles with their air conditioner even after spending approx. $200,000 on renovations.  It was quite warm making our meal slightly uncomfortable and it was observed other tables were experiencing the same discomfort.

Marketing
Currently the restaurant does not have a website (at the time of this review) but uses Facebook to market themselves.  Their Facebook page is well laid out, probably one of the best Saskatoon restaurant pages I have run across.  Their photos are professionally taken and the page is informative, relaying the daily features.

Chef
According to their Facebook page, the restaurant is owned by Master Chef Amedeo Vallati who was born in southern Italy and has traveled extensively throughout the world.  He earned his masters in Florence and certification in butcher and meats in Austria.  He owned a restaurant in Montreal and an Italian bistro in Halifax before settling in Saskatoon.

Service
Upon entering the restaurant we were greeted by Jayce Tomyn who previously worked at Carvers for 15 years.  He was quick to seat us as it wasn't too busy and our waiter was knowledgeable about the menu and wines.  They were attentive during our meal and ensured we were well stocked on water and taken care of.


Menu

Rissoto Ball Stuffed With Ham

They didn't have a drink menu yet but was more than willing to accommodate us with whatever drink we wanted.  We both ordered a Negroni which was good.  Our waiter was very knowledgeable and listed off the wines they currently had stating they are still working on having Italian wines shipped that you can't get in the liquor stores.

The dinner menu is quite large and each night there are 3 features that varies daily so you know you’re not getting served leftovers.  The restaurant prides itself on using fresh ingredients and making its own pasta and breads.  It will be interesting to see if they are able to keep up with demand with such a large menu while still making things fresh and from scratch.  There are a few vegetarian options, mainly salads and they are able to create gluten free meals upon request.

Calamari

Our meal started with the Chef's complimentary sample consisting of a risotto ball stuffed with ham atop of a tomato based sauce.  This was quite delicious and a good start to our meal.  We ordered a few appetizers, calamari and a Caesar salad.  As we stated we were splitting these appetizers they were gracious enough to split the salad into 2 portions which were fairly generous portions.  The salad dressing was nice and light with a hint of anchovies consistent with Italian cooking.  The calamari came with a marinara dipping sauce which was quite delicious.

Caesar Salad (1/2 portion)

For our main course,  I selected the rack of lamb prepared medium rare and my husband had the spaghetti and meatballs.  My lamb arrived while we were still working on our appetizers and I was a bit disappointed to find it rare inside and requested it to be cooked some more.  I’m not sure what the rush was in cooking our meal as it wasn't busy that night.  The chef felt badly and we were compensated with a free dessert.  John's pasta came with meatballs that you could tell were homemade and were fairly large in size.  When I finally had a chance to eat my lamb they recooked my critic would be that it was very salty.  The lamb was covered with sauce like it was a rack of ribs and overpowered the flavor of the meat.  I would recommend reducing the salt and smearing the sauce on the plate with the lamb sitting on top as the lamb should be the star of the meal.  John also reported that his pasta was over seasoned as well.

Rack of Lamb

Spaghetti and Meatballs

Pricing
The restaurant considers it to be a high end eatery and the prices reflects this.  Wines by the bottle ranges from $50-$100 and it's hard to say if this markup is reasonable or not as they are serving wines you can't get in liquor stores (though I can't recall if he said their current supply is from the liquor store while they work out the logistics of shipping in unique wines).  My lamb was priced at $30 in the menu but upon paying for it discovered it was a misprint as we were charged $40.  I pointed this out and the waiter was more than willing to refund the difference as he forgot to mention the misprint.  For the amount of lamb you received, I would say this is reasonable as it's a full rack of lamb and cooking it at home, I understand lamb is expensive to buy.  I was expecting with the high prices they charged that the food would be a tad better.  Another surprise was the price of their pizzas.  They offer 2 sizes, 10"/15" and the prices ranges from $18/$38, with one seafood pizza at $100.  I didn't try their pizza so I can't say if it's worth it or not and I'm not sure if Saskatoon is ready to pay for pizzas at these prices.

Overall
With all the new restaurants popping up, especially downtown, it will be interesting to see how this one makes out in the long run.  As we were there during their soft opening I would be willing to eat there again but am apprehensive as to how they are going to keep up with such a large menu.

Joey's Only Seafood Restaurant

I am a big fan of seafood, especially lobster and King/Snow crab.  A BIG fan.  So big I like seafood as much as I love steaks, that is how much I love seafood.

Anyway, I think I am a pretty adventurous person when it comes to trying out restaurants and after listening to the numerous radio ads for 'Joey's Only Seafood' and seeing their 'All you can eat King crab' everytime I drove down 8th street, I decided to try it out.  So goes the adventure...

We arrived at the restaurant shortly after 7 to be greeted by the only waitress on staff serving approximately 15-ish tables.  The restaurant was quite busy and after having the waitress tell us she would clean a table right away, we waited for a good 30 minutes before being seated (good thing I had my itouch).  The food had better be good.

The restaurant itself reminded me of a toned down Red Lobster with lobster traps and fake fish hanging off the walls.  The most impressive thing about the restaurant decor was the chalk drawings depicting an octopus and a fish.  The seating are is nothing to write home about.

After being seated, we found out they did not have any beer on tap which wasn't surprising as it had a family atmosphere.  Their menu did have a wide selection of items, where each day was all you can eat shrimp for $19 and all you can eat king crab for $35 on Wednesdays.  Unfortunately the day we went was not Wednesday.

Having selected the 1 pound Snow Crab with my 2 side dishes of garlic toast and ceasar salad, John went with their salmon and rice pilaf and the vegetable of the day (peas - gross).  We proceeded to play checkers on my itouch while we waited and just as I was about to make a game winning move, our food came.

The food itself was medicore.  The crab was definitely boiled and if their goal was to boil the flavor out of the crab they definitely succeeded.  I accommodated this by drenching my snow crab in butter which my stomach later told me was not a good idea.  The garlic toast was the standard garlic toast you could find in other restaurants while the ceasar salad was overly creamy.  John's salmon was well-cooked which probably suited the majority of clientele that ate there but it definitely could have been cooked less.  He did manage to eat all of his rice pilaf and vegetables, mainly because he had to wait for me to finish my meal.  When asked what he would rate the restaurant/meal he said 7 only to retract it when I said I would have rated it a 6.  All in all, if you are craving seafood, I would not recommend Joey's Only Seafood Restaurant.

The Hole in the Wall Restaurant Review

So last weekend (Aug. 29, 2008) we were in the mood to celebrate so we decided to venture out and try The Hole in the Wall restaurant. We had heard from a couple of people that the food was great and worth the drive. Now to get to this restaurant you have to drive out to Blackstrap as the restaurant was situated in the townsite of Shields.

Upon arriving you are greeted by the original gas station sign in front of the Mexican style restaurant. After being greeted by a middle aged waiter with a ponytail, we were seated in a secluded 2 seater table. He went through his spiel of how the restaurant was converted from the gas station that it originally was and to expect a 3-4 hour meal as everything is prepared from scratch. We were told from others of the long meal time so that came as no shock to us. However looking at the menu prices you would think they would have spent a bit more money fixing up the place as the walls were missing paint in a few areas, our table was squeaky and the lighting kept on flickering (this was a bit of an annoyance). Oh well, here's to a first in trying out this restaurant.

After reviewing their scrumptious sounding menu, we decided to go for the combo meal that was priced at $60/person. It included 3 appetizers, soup, salad, 3 entrees, coffee/tea, and dessert. We ended up choosing scallops, mussels and oysters for our appetizers and lamb, duck and ribs for the entrees. To drink we ordered sangrias which was very tasty due to the tiny morsels of apples, pears, lime and oranges they place in it.

The service started out quite well, having spent 20ish minutes pouring over the menu and placing our order shortly after. Our reservations were for 6:30 and we received our sangrias and appetizers shortly after 7. The appetizers were fairly tasty - the raw scallops were definitely the highlight, complimented by a tomato sauce (which surprisingly tasted like a hot sauce that I've made in the past). After finishing off the appetizers we had an hour wait until we received their house salad. It consisted of fresh greens and an orange vinaigrette dressing - definitely a nice, light salad that I loved and will try to reproduce. Shortly after came a chilled Buttermilk Apple puree soup that had tomatoes, corn and cucumbers in it. I am not one for chilled soup but this one was definitely tasty.

After a short wait our entrees came. The duck was slightly under cooked but still tasty, the lamb was slightly over cooked and the ribs were good. I was a tad disappointed in the lamb as I love lamb and was looking forward to this dish and it definitely did not meet up to my standards. All in all, it was a lot of food topped off with a pudding type dessert and coffee.

Overall I would have to say the explanation of the 3-4 hour waiting time for the entire dining experience due to everything prepared fresh was over exaggerated as it seemed like it was just an excuse to only have one server for the entire place with one cook (or so it seemed). Usually I like to give the restaurant the benefit of the doubt but when there is an hour wait between appetizers and chilled soup and salad, I cannot justify that by saying everything is prepared fresh so it'll be a longer wait. Also the decor was under par for the prices of the meals they served. However the food was pretty tasty and I am always up for trying new things. The restaurant is the type you should try at least once even if you don't go back.

If you like gourmet pizzas do I have a place for you

If you live in Saskatoon or are visiting on a Wednesday, stop by Aroma Mediterranean Resto-Bar for half price gourmet pizzas and cheap pints if you haven’t already. I promise you won’t regret it.

I’m not as big of a pizza lover as my husband is but I like going here for their pizza every week. The pizzas are not only made with fresh ingredients on its thin pizza crust but you are also able to sit in front of the pizza making station and watch the pizzas go into their “wood stone fired” oven. I discovered this diamond when I attended an Occupational Health and Safety course approx. a year ago and the head chef also happened to be enrolled. Let me tell you, having gone through this course previously for a different employer, having him tell me about this deal was the best thing I learned. Since then my husband and I have been religiously eating here on Wednesdays, inviting friends whenever they can join us. Having eaten here shortly after they came out with this deal, the restaurant has increased immensely with diners to the point where you either have to go really early after work or later in the evening to get a seat. Pizzas like Da Em and Em, Big Island Drive By, Pollo Greco, and other great ones are just few of the items in their unique menu. Each week they also come out with a featured pizza that begs the question as to why they are not regulars on the menu.

The staff here is super friendly and helpful, from their servers to those that make the pizzas. After a hard days work, the ambience (and variety of music) is exactly what the doctor ordered. See you at Aromas!

Do you have a recommendation for a restaurant that you enjoy as I love trying new restaurants?