Yesterday I went to have Father’s Day dinner with Al and his family. We got to Italian Kitchen Restaurant a little earlier than we expected but they were able to accommodate us. After about 3 minutes, we were seated up stairs. On the way up to the 2nd floor, we passed by the open kitchen. It was very neat as this is the first time I’ve seen an open kitchen that is…well, very open. There were no divider or glass, it’s almost like the kitchen you have at home.
It didn’t take long to decide what to get for dinner. We ordered an Antipasto Platter for two to share as the starter. Al’s mom and dad ordered the Father’s Day Platter, Ken ordered a roasted pork tenderloin, while Al and I got the Seafood Platter. All the platters has a minimum order of 2.
While waiting for our food to arrive, I made a comment that there were water marks on the knives. Checking the utensils seems to be one of my favourite thing to do at restaurants lately, which turned out to be a good thing because after I made that comment, we all noticed that some of our knives and forks were dirty. Here’s a picture of my fork:
There were stuff stuck on the tips of the fork. Ugh, I’m not putting that in my mouth. So we had our utensils changed not once, but several times. Even the serving tongs got dried stuff stuck to it. We were not impressed with their dishwasher.
The food arrived and it looked gorgeous! I really liked the idea of the sharing platters. However that’s about all the raves I can give to the food. It looks great but when you eat it, it’s lacking something. What it is lacking? Taste! It seems like they didn’t add any salt to the food or any other spices/flavourings because there is just no taste at all. For example, the wild salmon from the seafood platter. It’s seared perfectly, cooked on the outside and still a bit rare on the inside. But when you bite into it, it doesn’t even have the natural salmon taste (*removed the “fishy taste” since it was confusing people, what I meant was the natural flavor of the salmon*). Even the previously frozen salmon fillets I bought from Save-on-Foods has more flavour than this. And all I used to marinate it with was salt, pepper and some olive oil. I even over cooked it because I can never tell when it’s done. Here are some photos of the dishes:
I was pretty disappointed with the food. From a restaurant that classify itself as a “business-casual” setting I’d expect the food to be better. However, since dessert is made by a pâtissier, I still have hope that the dinner will have a happy ending (for my tummy). And sure enough, I was right. The desserts were fabulous!
I ordered the Flourless Chocolate Cake with Espresso Ice Cream (yes you guessed it, I ordered it just for the ice cream)! Al got the dessert platter which has contains a mini lavender infused creme brulee, raspberry semi-freddo and a wedge of hazel nut and chocolate ganache torte. Ken got the Maple Panna Cotta. All of them were really delicious. I would definitely recommend coming here for the desserts! Here are some mouth watering photos:
On the way out, I decided to take a photo of the washroom. What’s so special about the washroom? Well it’s a washroom for both male and female. I guess to eliminate lineups? Inside you’ll find a toilet AND a urinal, opposite of each other. Technically speaking 2 people can use one washroom at the same time…ok lets not get into that. Anyways, aside from that, they also stock the washroom with mouth wash and toothpicks. I thought that was a very good idea as there were multiple times where I wish I had sneaked in a toothpick with me while I went to the girl’s room.
To see a picture of the washroom and more from Italian Kitchen, visit my Picasa Album.
PS: I’ve left them with a very detailed comment regarding the food as well as the utensils. I’ll let you know if they follow up with me.
