Campagnolo
1020 Main Street
Vancouver, BC

What is better than a food blogger visiting another food blogger for dinner in another city? How about having a mini gathering of sorts? When Chris (Eating is the Hard Part) told me about his trip, I sent an email to some of the local bloggers here but, between bad timing and other reasons, only Sherman managed to join us. As to where, while in Edmonton, Chris and I visited Corso 32, a newly opened Italian eatery there and, in my post, I mentioned “the best way would to visit a somewhat similar/related restaurant here and compare!”. That restaurant I had in mind the whole time was Campagnolo.

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Tagged as:
Italian,
Main Street,
Vancouver
Famoso
4 Locations in Edmonton
1 Location in Calgary
11750 Jasper Ave NW (Location visited)
Edmonton, AB

OK, I made a big blunder for this post. In a way, I got carried away with some details that I completely overlook the bigger picture. One night, for dinner, I was planning to go for Italian with Dumbfries (*), which sort of ended up in a coin toss between Famoso and Violino Gastronomia Italiana. Yes, as you can see for the title of this post, Famoso was the “winner” that night. But, of course, there is one other question: why Famoso was one of the options? (Violino was based on a suggestion). As mentioned, it was a case where I got carried away…
(*) Technically Dumfries but Dumbfries stuck!

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Tagged as:
Edmonton,
Italian,
Pizza
Corso 32
10345 Jasper Avenue
Edmonton, AB

In a way, food bloggers are seldom restricted by boundaries. For those of us who are lucky enough to travel, chances are we will contact local ones for suggestions and what not. For example, last year, Phyllis of me Hungry! visited us in Vancouver and we were happy to be her host for some local eats (despite she is originally from Vancouver). And while none of us where local, something similar happened when Sherman, Mijune and I visited San Francisco for FoodBuzz Food Blogger’s festival (here and here), where we ended up meeting with Naomi who writes The Gastrognome at Incanto. And, of course, Chris in Edmonton who writes Eating is the Hard Part, whom, along with Sarah, I met personally when I visited Edmonton last year (restaurant visit here). Since I was back in town, I though I should check with him again for dinner! Of course, me being the one visiting, I thought I should let the locals decide. And Chris’ suggestion? Corso 32 in Downtown Edmonton.

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Tagged as:
Edmonton,
Italian
White Tower
1359 Robson Street
Vancouver, BC

If you are looking for Greek food in Vancouver, you can pretty much go anywhere. Probably you might have favourites but, if you go around town, there will be one every dozen or so blocks. In the case of Downtown Vancouver, for most people, there is even a “default”: Stepho’s, a restaurant that, in a way, has mastered the art of generating enough volume of customers to make it possible for them to lower there prices to an almost ridiculous level – to an extent that people are willing to queue up just for a plate of Greek food. But, then again, there is Takis Taverna a couple of doors from Stepho’s. If you move to Denman, there is Olympia Pizza and Pasta and Maria’s Taverna. After walking so many times in Robson, I thought there might not be any… That was until a day, PO and I were looking for something quick in the area and we ended up going to a place I believe has been there forever: White Tower.

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Tagged as:
Chicken,
Downtown,
Greek,
Italian,
Lunch,
Pasta,
Vancouver,
West End
Giovane
1038 Canada Place
Vancouver, BC

For some reason, embedded in my head is that concept that most hotel restaurants are… Well, disappointed. Of course, given that I travel on a budget, the hotels I end up staying aren’t necessarily a five star hotel; instead, they are usually your regular hotel chains, i.e., Hilton, Marriott, Sheraton, et al. And, then again, even if they have fancy locations, I seldom end up staying in those. After all, why should I? If travelling on business, it is my customer’s money, not to mention I spend the whole day at the customer’s site; if it is leisure, chances are I am only there to sleep and some basic necessities.
But, even when I stay in the “fancier” locations of those hotel chains, more often than not, the food has been average at best. But, then again, Fairmont is a luxury hotel chain so comparing them to the other chains might be akin to comparing apples to oranges. With that in mind, I went to Giovane, the “cafeteria” located in the recently opened Fairmont Pacific Rim Hotel and little sibling to Oru, the main restaurant in the hotel. Hey, I wasn’t in mood to fork big bucks to Oru, given the mixed feedback!

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Tagged as:
Eggs,
Hotel,
Italian,
Sandwich,
Soup,
Vancouver
Ciao Bella Italian Restaurant
703 Denman Street
Vancouver, BC

Alas, good things always seems to come to an end. After my trip to Panama, everything started to settle back to its usual routine, including lunch at work. In the past, PO has been my *cough*victim*cough*, I mean, partner in crime. However, for this lunch, I was able to gather another “recruit” – CN. With this “hobby” of visiting restaurants, there is always that element of expectation but also that element of discovery. So, with that in mind, we were settled for lunch. Then the usual question… Where? A couple of weeks prior, PO and I went to Le Bistro de Paris and mentioned the relationship with Ciao Bella Restaurant. So, we though “why not?”. And to Ciao Bella we went…

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Tagged as:
Fish,
Italian,
Vancouver
Calabria Bakery
5036 Victoria Drive
Vancouver, BC

This is a case of me blaming somebody else for a post. In this case, I am blaming Jessica! Long time ago, she had a quest for the ultimate cannoli which, in a way, I took over but also dropped since I don’t have desserts that often. But, looking across the street of Lam Hoa Quan, there was Calabria Bakery…

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Tagged as:
Bakery,
Dessert,
Italian,
Vancouver