Via Mercanti

Date Visited: Dinner on Thursday Jul 9, 2015

Company: +Will Ives 

So this year, I gave Will the job of choosing a Summerlicious restaurant for us to try! He decided on Via Mercanto, an Italian restaurant located across the street from Sick Kids Hospital that is known for its authentic pizza. I was impressed and excited to try this place, I didn't realize how close it was to us either so we could go again easily in the future. It was a sunny evening so the patio was packed by the time we got there, we also followed suit as the inside looked fairly empty. When we first got the menu, we didn't see any Summerlicious on there so we had to ask specifically for that. The service was a bit slow, especially with water and taking our orders. We decided on totally separate items so we could share our meal. 

For the appetizer, I ordered the Caprese Salad with Fior de latte cheese, Roma tomatoes serviced on a bed of arugula with basil dressed in extra virgin olive oil. It looked very pretty on the plate and a good size also. The ingredients were all excellent but I thought it could have used a bit more flavour as it was a bit bland. Will got the Rancino Di Riso, a rice ball with Risotto, Mozzarella, Parmesan, Peas, and Beef. I was pleasantly surprised how delicious this was! There was a ton of flavour in the ball and the consistency of the rice with cheese and beef was excellent. I definitely could have had a few of these. 

For my main, I knew I wanted to try their pizza but couldn't decide between the Vegetarian or Romolo's. I read that the Romolo's Pizza, a half tomato sauce, half olive oil with Fior de latte, Prosciutto cotto and Mixed mushrooms is one of their classic dishes so I opted for that and also because Will would be more willing to eat it (without the veggies). I enjoyed the tomato side better cause I'm not really a fan of the smell of olive oil and found it overpowering. Other than that, the dough was very crispy but a bit hard, I thought it could be a bit more chewy. 

Will went for the Faggotino Di Parma, Housemade pasta in a cream sauce wrapped in Prosciutto crudo. This pasta was delicious, the sauce was extremely cheesy and the prosciutto was amazing, there was a lot of it surprisingly! I did find everything a bit salty though from the excess of cheese, great dish otherwise.

Finally, for dessert I went for the Tiramisu and Will got the Chocolate Gelato. The presentation of the Tiramisu was excellent, the piece was kind of small but they sprinkled lots of cocoa powder to appeal to the eye. The flavour was great and the cake was very spongey and light! As for the Gelato, it tasted like chocolate, I don't have much else to add to that :)

Food: 3/5 - Not going to lie, my taste buds may have been a bit off due to a bit of sickness but found a lot of flavours more prominent than others in the dishes.
Decor: 2/5 - Didn't see much of the interior decor but the the outside was a bit difficult to find and the seats weren't very comfortable on the patio.
Service: 1.5/5 - Not the best, very slow.
Willingness to go back: 2.5/5 - Would give it another shot, had lots of good options on their menu.
Overall: 2/5

Website: http://www.pizzeriaviamercanti.ca/

NaRoma Pizza Bar

Date Visited: Lunch on Sunday Jun 14, 2015
Company: Walk-in for 5

I had a bit of a family reunion this summer and had a bunch of family members from out of the country stay at my house for a few weeks. My cousin +Mark decided to take our cousins from HK out for a hiking day trip in Hamilton to experience some Canadian nature. After being rained out, we headed into the city to grab some lunch. We picked NaRoma out of a list of restaurants from a blogTO article showcasing some of the best places to eat in the city. Parking wasn't too hard to find on Locke St. and we also saw a few shops to stop by after lunch (ie cupcakes!).

The location was a lot smaller inside than I expected with only about 8 tables and more of a cafe vibe than a restaurant. Our wait for 5 people was going to be around 10 minutes. Their menu was very intensive with a ton of different pizza flavours. We were a bit confused on what their 'sizes' meant and weren't sure if flavours meant we could try multiple on an order. We ended up getting 2 Coppia's (12 pieces) and only 2 flavours, but we could have tried 4 flavours which was unfortunate to find out after. Our wait seemed forever as we were starving from the hiking but the kitchen also seemed to take a long time. Every time I saw the cooks slicing up pizza I was excited but it seemed they had a lot of take-out orders.

Eventually, our pizzas did come fresh out of the oven and they were huge for the smallest sizes. Our first pick was the Brie e Prosciutto with Mozzarella, Triple Cream Brie Cheese, Prosciutto, Fig Jam, Caramelized Onions, Arugula, and reduced Balsamic. The Prosciutto was very crispy and you could really taste the Brie. The Arugula balanced nicely with the sweet Balsamic which was drizzled all over. I liked this the best, the flavours were equally distributed and tasted great together!

Our second pizza was the Vegetale with Mozzarella, Ricotta, Zucchini, Rapini, Red Peppers, and Garlic. The only reason I didn't enjoy this one as much were the Garlic patches, all I could taste was garlic after eating them. The flavours of the vegetables weren't as prominent, but it was more cheesy and bland. My cousins from HK preferred this one however while Mark and I preferred the Prosciutto.

I was very impressed with their pizzas, they are thicker crust and less cheese but were done excellently. The dough was delicious which is important in this case and they had a ton unique flavours for you to choose from, I can see why it's such a popular spot!

Food: 4/5 - Delicious and filling pizza.
Decor: 2/5 - Very small and hipster, set like a pizza cafe.
Service: 2/5 - Nice servers but slow!
Willingness to go back: 4/5 - Definitely!
Overall: 3/5

Website: http://www.naroma.ca/

La Bettola Di Terroni

Date Visited: Dinner on Friday Nov 8, 2013

Company: Date night with +Will

Will and I decided to go a bit fancy one Friday and have dinner at La Bettola, a nice Italian place just up the street from his. We passed by many times before seeing classy people with their fancy wines and dishes through the windows. I was excited to check it out as Will had gone before and said it had excellent authentic Italian food. We didn't think to make a reservation that night which was probably a poor choice. The hostess that greeted people at the door asked if we wanted to sit at La Bettola or Osteria, which is apparently a different restaurant but they share the same kitchen (and apparently staff). It was a bit confusing when she asked us that but Osteria to the right would have been a 20 minute wait and Bettola to the left only had bar seats open as they had a large reservation at 8PM. We just decided to sit at the bar as we were quite hungry. There were other couples seated at the bar as well but there were also many free tables we could have sat at and been out by 8PM for.  

We were given water by the bartender from jars they have stacks of in the back. Taking a look at the menu, it was very different from what I had seen online. I can understand if the menu items may change but the pricing was very off. After some compromise and figuring out what things were, we decided on 2 starters and 2 mains. We also got some bread to start but I wasn't a fan, it was hard and the outside tasted burnt. The oil they gave for dipping also tasted odd. 

+Will first got the Prosciutto Platter (can't recall the real name) which was very large and consisted of Prosciutto on a bed of arugula with pretzel and bara-like tortilla. I had had prosciutto a few weeks earlier and was turned off of it from the smell so I thought I would only have a bit of his starter, but I actually ate about half of it. The prosciutto was the best I've had, it wasn't too salty and had great texture and freshness. The arugula added a nice flavour to it also. I didn't really enjoy the pretzel things because they were too hard and had strong seed in them I didn't like. The round, soft and fluffy bread thing on the other hand, was great and paired very well with the meat. I got the Leek & Potato Soup to start and that was very delicious as well. It was quite thick and heavy but had good flavour. It maintained a hot temperature through my eating also. 

For my main, I got the Ravioli con Ricotta e Scamorza which consisted of 4 pieces of ravioli stuff with cheese with some tomatoes on the plate. It was a very small portion but at this point I wasn't too upset as I was quite stuffed from the starters. Despite the size of the dish, the ravioli itself was delicious and stuff with lots of cheese. The dough was fresh and had good proportion to the filling. This was the first time I had a dish like this but I'm glad I got to try it. Will got the Pizza topping with Arugala, Mozzarella and Sun-Dried Tomatoes which was a chef special that day. The portion of his pizza was large, even though it was thin crust, it was like the size of a medium pizza. Pizza was definitely the way to go by looking at what others were also ordering. Some people were ordering just a few dishes to share but most ordered a pizza to themselves. The pizza was delicious, it was crispy and had great combination of flavours. The tomato sauce was minimal but was sweet and tangy. The crust was great and a bit over-cooked but I still enjoyed it. We took most of the home and enjoyed it for breakfast the next day.

Overall, I think La Bettola Di Terroni is a nice classy restaurant if you want to splurge for the night. I noticed every woman I saw there was wearing a bold statement necklace and men also were well-dressed. It caters to that type of crowd and I think you should be prepared to spend. I would suggest getting the pizza for sure though, completely worth the money.

Food: 4/5 - Some average dishes but most were spectacular.

Decor: 3.5/5 - Lively atmosphere with modern chic decor and wooden accents, wasn't a fan of the bar seat though.

Service: 3/5 - Not bad at all, pretty quick with dishes.

Willingness to come back: 2/5 - Wouldn't go out of my way to return for a full meal... until I start making a bit more money.

Overall: 3/5

Website: http://labettola.ca/