Adesso Bistro

Adesso Bistro @ 1906 Haro Street

Nestled away in a quiet corner of Vancouver's downtown west end is one of the most pleasant little bistro patios you're going to find in Vancouver. You'd almost miss it if you were just having a stroll through the neighborhood. It's the only restaurant in the entire west end, which is otherwise all cute houses and high-rise apartments, given away only by an inconspicuous portico.

I happen to live just a block away and it's the nearest restaurant to my place, but I don't go there very often. Adesso is a newcomer to the space, which up until a year or so ago was occupied by Parkside, a slightly higher-end bistro with a rotating seasonally-based menu. Adesso is basic generic Italian place serving "Modern Italian Cuisine", its inflated pricing seemingly based purely on rent rather than food quality.

We had a fairly good experience at Parkside before it closed down, so I was disappointed to hear that it had been replaced by an Italian restaurant. One more poor little high-end restaurant fallen victim of the recessionary flu infecting its would be clientele.

Keepo and I ate at Adesso last night for the first time, and found the experience predictably disappointing.

Service was weak. We watched our beer sitting on the bar ten feet away for five minutes before the waitress appeared out of nowhere and brought it over. She proceeded to unceremoniously dump it into the glass rather than pouring it on the side, generating a massive head. Somebody forgot to let her in on the secret that you're supposed to pour beer down the side to minimize foaming. When I told her my order, she asked if I wanted an opener. I said I didn't want an opener. She seemed bewildered. When it came time to dessert, instead of asking "Would you like dessert?" like a normal person, her question was: "What would you like for dessert?" Apparently at Adesso customers who don't order a drink and an appetizer and dessert are cheapskates deserving thinly veiled contempt and ridicule from their server in the form of huckster-like goading that would offend even a child. Very lacking in professionalism.

It's a shame because this place has the most amazing patio ever, and dining on the patio here on a warm summer evening makes for an amazing experience that almost trumps whatever annoyances the service might throw at you. Unfortunately we arrived too late and the patio was full, so we had to eat inside. The interior is "cosy" in a dank basement kind of way, bedecked with zealous abandon with the most Italianate paintings imaginable. If you decide to brave the perils of the west end to penetrate the bowels of Adesso, make sure that there is room on the patio when you do come, or make a reservation ahead of time.

As for the food, I wasn't feeling particularly hungry, or at least not enough inspired by the menu to order a lot, so I decided only to get a main. So only Kweepo ordered a starter - she ordered the following:

Arancini with risotto, prosciutto and mozzarella, pepperonata ($8)

I had no idea what it was she had ordered. I expected a plate of risotto. Instead out came two cojones de toro, complete with bloodstain. Packed into the crunchy exterior was risotto cooked with mozzarella cheese. While fairly good, it was lacking in spark and could have been so much more, squarely setting the tone for the remainder of the evening. The MO appears to be to go just far enough to be passable, and not a step further. The little bed of red capsicum sauce you see at the bottom was flavorless and its presence served mainly to anchor the two balls so they wouldn't wobble around the plate.

For our mains we got the following:

Braised Berkshire Pork Short ribs alla Genovese, chickpea frittelle ($19)

Roasted half Cornish Hen pan roasted with tomatoes, garlic, lemon and herbs ($18)

As you can see, the presentation of each dish is very basic and straightforward, contrasting starkly the aesthetically pleasing, meticulous and tasteful layout of each dish at Chambar (in which each of the most disparate elements serve a clearly defined purpose).

More importantly, the taste of each dish was completely middle-of-the-road. My hen tasted good at first bite, but it quickly became apparent that the meat was completely tasteless, and only the gravy sauce and garlic and herb paste on top were lending it any taste. It was very tender, but what's the point if it doesn't have any taste?

The short ribs were a little more successful, but also spotty. It had a decent flavor and was well seasoned. It was well cooked in parts, but other parts were less well cooked. The two thick pasty looking bars on the left-hand side are the chickpea-based frittelle. They went well with the meat.

We left the restaurant feeling we hadn't gotten our money's worth. The food just wasn't that great. And it was hard choosing a dish, because none of the items on the menu sound that creative or interesting. I had a nagging feeling that the food would probably be not that great when I saw the menu, and that turned out to be the case. Perhaps other items on the menu are better, but I think the low quality of the service reflects the global attitude of the restaurant, and I don't envision myself wanting to give it another shot.

Portobello Ristorante

Portobello Ristorante @ 1429 West Broadway

I generally avoid Italian restaurants. Who wants to pay $15 for a plate of noodles that could just as easily be made at home for 1/8 the price? There is no mystery about fettucini alfredo, et al. I have no doubt that Italian restaurants worth their salt can make a better noodle dish than me. And friends speak in hushed awe about the delights they tasted on trips to Italy, with its rich culinary tradition. I just don't think Italian restaurants make for an exciting and worthwhile dining experience, as a general thing.

In our effort to try as many restaurants as possible, the other day Kweepo and I visited Portobello on Broadway near Granville. Our first choice was Cru next door, but the mains there were an absurd $35. The mains at Portobello are between $24-$28, and after my experience there I can confirm even these are laughably overpriced. The noodles range between $14 and $18, which again I find overpriced, although I predictably had better luck with these.

In summary, the pastas are decent but slightly overpriced, the mains are hit or miss, and the service is lousy. I do not feel that this restaurant is a good value. My experience is based solely on two dishes we ordered, so I can't comment on the rest of the menu. Perhaps we just chose the wrong dish, but I am not inclined to go back to check.

The first sign that things were not headed in a good direction was the emptiness of the room when we walked in. It was Friday night, and every bistro in Vancouver worth anything is completely packed on a Friday night. Clearly, people are not flocking to this restaurant.

The next sign was the casual, unprofessional attitude of the service. Instead of a person standing behind a counter greeting us and asking us for our reservation, a waiter casually sauntered up and looked askance at us until we were forced to say we had a reservation and could we please have a seat.

For our starter, we ordered the Fungo Portobello Gratinato ($10, portobello mushroom stuffed with bread crumbs, fresh herbs, served with roasted red pepper sauce). It arrived within about 10 minutes. It was quite passable, but not extraordinary in any way, and did not justify the $10 price tag.

For our mains, we ordered the Ossobuco Classico ($26, veal shank braised with red wine rosemary, carrots, celery, served with risotto) and Pappardelle Alla Romana ($14, broad egg noodles in a cream sauce ham, peas, mushrooms, fresh basil). The dishes took a long time to come out. We had been in the restaurant almost an hour before our mains came out.

We ordered a glass of Chianti Castiglioni frescobaldi to go with the Ossobuco. It had strong tannins with a little fruit, and though I usually like bold wines, it was without body and unimpressive. Very disappointing for a $9 glass of wine.

A basket of warm bread was brought out before the dishes were served. I like warm bread as much as the next person, but these were literally burning to the touch. I almost got a third degree burn just trying to break open one of the loaves. I know the importance of brining out hot food, but that was ridiculous.

I have personally eaten Ossobuco made in the traditional way, and it was a marvelous thing and a revelation about the possibilities of cooking meat. It was for this reason that I ordered Ossobuco for Kweepo, to share the experience of this one-of-a-kind traditional dish that is not so easy to find in restaurants. I hoped - no, I assumed - it would taste like the last Ossobuco I had. Hello, disappointment! The Ossobuco we had at Portobello was, in a word, tasteless. There seemed to be a hint of the trademark flavor of this classic dish hidden there somewhere, but only a merest hint. What a deception foisted on innocents who would eat this travesty and be forever turned off to the notion of Ossobuco as a tasteless, flavorless waste of $25. As if this weren't enough, the meat was on the leathery side. Every flexion of the jaw left my masseter screaming for mercy. Somewhere along the line in the course of the birthing of this dish, something went terribly awry.

The Pappardelle Alla Romana, on the other hand, was a satisfying dish, and exactly what I would expect from a pasta joint. The broad noodles were fresh and soft, and the cream sauce was unctuous without being pasty or overrich. There many pieces of ham and peas filled out the texture nicely. And finally, it came out piping hot. Italian pasta cools quickly, and I can't count how many times I've been served lukewarm pasta in an Italian restaurant, which ruins the dish. So at the very least, the pasta was spot on. Worth $14? Not really. Still overpriced for what it is, but at least not the massive disappointment that was the Ossobuco.

The thing that left me with a bad taste in my mouth was the decided lack of professionalism in the atmosphere at this restaurant among the servers. The service, while not rude or inattentive as in the case of many restaurants, was dissatisfying for a different reason - it was offhand, casual, sloppy. It was not what one would expect for the price tag. As we were getting up to leave and putting on our coats, the busboy flipped his tray impatiently behind Kweepo. The open design of the restaurant felt uncomfortable. A group of three or four people seemed to constantly be milling behind the counter/kitchen exchanging idle chatter or looking over the room. A lady I assume to be the manager was chatting away with the table behind me for the greater portion of our meal.

In short, my visit did nothing to change my general opinion of Italian restaurants. Quite the opposite, it mostly reinforced the majority of my negative perceptions.