Roseto Bistro

Now here is an interesting blog post.  It is about Roseto Bistro located in PoCo.  Now that doesn't make it particularly strange or unusual.  However, if you tried to search it on Google, it wasn't showing up for the longest time.  In fact, you'd find Hearthstone Pizza as a result.  You see, the reason for this is that Roseto Bistro replaces Hearthstone Pizza, but still has some of the K-pizza options leftover from the 2nd iteration of Hearthstone Pizza.  Okay, if you are confused, I don't blame you.  Currently, Roseto Bistro offers up legit Italian eats prepared by a chef who has worked for years in Italy, but also has some Korean influences in the pizza and the pastas.  In fact, RoSeTo represents Rome, Seoul and Tokyo.  The fusion between all 3 cuisines are evident in the menu.

I think they should add Athens as well since we started with the Calamari Fritti.  Sure, this dish can be every bit Italian as it is Greek.  However, let's just say there are influences.  We found this dish to be prepared quite well with tender pieces of squid that also retained a pleasant chewiness.  The light and crispy batter was properly seasoned where the tzatziki on the side wasn't completely necessary.  However, for me, I always like to dip my calamari into it.  This was a good start to our meal.

Next, we moved onto some pizzas, 2 of which were very similar.  What you see in the picture is the Capricciosa.  We also had the Proscuitto e Funghi which looked exactly like the Capricciosa except without the salsiccia, bacon and artichoke.  Both featured a uniformly crispy crust that was nicely browned, but could've been a bit more charred.  The crust was properly seasoned while the tomato sauce was balanced.  Good amount of toppings and the proscuitto added salty meatiness.  Both featured arugula on top.

Onto the pastas, the fusion aspect of the menu really showed.  This was particularly true with the Kimchi Fettuccine with bacon and mushroom.  I quite enjoyed the layers of flavours in this dish where the kimchi offered up mild spiciness along with tanginess and sweetness.  The addition of cream toned down the spiciness but also made the pasta a bit heavy.  The fettuccine itself was house-made and cooked until al dente.  The addition of bacon added salty meatiness and the mushrooms added some pops of moisture and woodsiness.

On the topic of mushrooms, we had a new menu item in the Mushroom Pasta.  It consisted of firmly al dente spaghetti with a good amount of mushrooms.  This had a certain Japanese flair to it with the addition of butter and soy.  This was full of umamainess as well as the classic Asian flavour to the pasta.  This also sported a good amount of olives and capers which totally amped the overall flavour profile.  There was more saltiness (in a good way) and tanginess to provide impact. 

For our non-pasta dish, we had the Cotoletta di Maiale.  This featured a pork cutlet breaded and fried until super crispy.  The meat itself was tender and moist.  However, the best part of this dish was the Japanese demi sauce.  It was super savoury with sweetness and a touch of tanginess.  It was super addictive and honestly, I could put that on anything and it would taste good.  This came with some perfectly cooked veggies and nicely seared gnocchi.  They were firm, but soft enough to be appealing.

For dessert, we had the Frittelle tossed in sugar.  These little donuts were very soft and fluffy while the outside was crispy.  They were a touch greasy though.  I enjoyed the mild flavours and the slight crunch from the granulated sugar.  Overall, the food at Roseto is quite good.  The pasta is freshly made and totally legit.  The incorporation of Asian influences is seamless and reasonably-priced.  Totally loved the pork cutlet where it is a crazy good value at $22.00.  If you are needing to eat out as a family in the area and were going to spend chain restaurant money anyways, go check out Roseto Bistro.   You will be surprised.

*All food and beverages were complimentary for this blog post*

The Good:
- Well-prepared eats
- Totally reasonable pricing
- Quality is there with house-made pasta

The Bad:
- Wished the pizza was more charred

Tip Thai

*Restaurant is permanently closed*

Meeting up for eats with Nikita has always been a treat. She is pretty much game for anything (if it is gluten-free of course) and anywhere. Hence, when I suggested we head to PoCo to try Wilbur & Sebastian's, she readily accepted. When we arrived, it was epic fail on a grandiose scale. Not only was the place closed for vacation, I had no backup plan! Hence, the only option was to drive into Downtown PoCo and search for eats. We quickly parked and surveyed the available options. Well, we didn't try very hard since we were pretty darn hungry. Therefore, we spied a tiny restaurant across the street called Tip Thai. I quickly looked it up on Urbanspoon and found out it had a 90% rating. Of course that could be misleading, yet it was a start.

And to start... we had the Tom Kha Kai which is a soup consisting of chicken, coconut milk, mushroom, cilantro, fish sauce, galangal, kaffir lime and lemongrass. This was pretty fragrant with hits of lemongrass and galangal. I would've liked to see more coconut milk, yet it was enjoyable nonetheless. In addition to the regular menu, there were lunch specials for only $6.99 that included salad and fried wontons. Seeing how Bluebeard and I would not be satisfied with only 4 dishes, we went ahead and got 5 including the soup and a dessert. The first to arrive was the Pad Thai. Thankfully this was not the ketchup-laced version. I have nothing against it per se, but I do prefer the tamarind kind. This one had a pronounced fish sauce hit with plenty of wok heat. It needed more zing in the form of more tamarind and pickled turnip. I'm sure they kept it safe for mass appeal.

Next up was the Stir-Fried Cashew Nuts with Chicken. Again, there was plenty of wok heat which helped caramelize the ingredients. Hence, there was depth of flavour while the veggies maintained their crunch. They did add too much palm sugar though. As per usual, we went for some curries as well starting with the Beef Red Curry. When it arrived, something was odd about it. Those chunks... were they sweet potatoes? No, they were actually golden squash. We'd never seen this before in a red curry and Bluebeard & Nikita have been to Thailand too! Whatever the case, it wasn't bad since we don't mind golden squash. As for the curry itself, it was a bit thin in flavour. It was mostly coconut milk with little spice. It would've been nice to see some bamboo shoots as well. The beef was pretty good though, being in large tender slices.

We also got the Chicken Green Curry which was coconutty as well with obvious hints of shrimp paste and fish sauce. It was pretty mild with tender pieces of chicken and vibrant veggies. Lastly, we had the Pad Kra Pao with Beef. As you can see in the picture, the veggies were vibrant and there was not an excessive amount of liquid.  Hence, the flavours were caramelized while the veggies remained crisp.  The slices of beef were tender much like in the red curry. While we were there, the place was pretty much full for lunch.  At $6.99 for the specials, we could see why.  Overall, the food was pretty good, especially being in PoCo.  There is better Thai food around, but you'd have to go into Vancouver to get it.

The Good:
- Inexpensive
- Decent eats

The Bad:
- Flavours are mild (appealing to the masses)
- Small place, don't bring lots of people