| A trattoria, broadly speaking, is an informal restaurant serving simple Italian dishes. Boccocino’s Trattoria (401 — 12th Ave. S.E., phone 265-2255), one of Calgary’s newest restaurants, fits the definition well. Boccocino’s is an easygoing place with well-cooked, simple food. About the only stress you could face here is figuring out in which of its three rooms the washrooms are located. (Stress-buster: it’s the front room.)
The decor is simple, too: red and white tablecloths, wooden floors that look original to this old brick building, tea lights on the tables, red napkins poofing out of the wine glasses. Nothing remotely intimidating.
Prices for lunch and dinner don’t vary significantly, except that at lunch you can indulge yourself in the special of a sandwich and a "bottomless" bowl of the day’s soup ($7.95). That’s an amazing deal anywhere downtown, especially in the East End where there’s a definite lack of choice. The sandwich selection covers pretty much anyone’s dietary demands (except the gluten averse, of course). These include a toasted ham and salami baguette, a meatball sub, or a house smoked chicken salad for straight ahead meat lovers. There is also a balsamic vegetable baguette for vegetarians and a remoulade-dressed shrimp and artichoke baguette for variety.
We went for dinner and found the prices reasonable, the service engaging and the food satisfying. The usual suspects show up on the appetizer list – calamari, mussels, garlic prawns, bruschetta. But we opted for the Portobello in pastry ($9): two large triangles of puff pastry stuffed with slices of Portobello and a creamy mix of mascarpone, spinach, artichokes and sundried tomatoes. The presentation is playful, and the freshly grated parmigiano is sprinkled on in amounts surpassing a garnish. Rounding out the plate is a large spoonful of pesto, and another of fresh tomato sauce, perfect for topping up each bite.
The roasted red pepper and roma tomato bisque ($5) is delicious – a bargain of a bowlful of blended veggies, with tomato and basil flavours predominating. As a riff on croutons, four freshly toasted fingers of bread top the soup. For any soup-loving soul who thinks heaven is dipping their bread in soup – here’s your excuse!
Cutesy menu descriptions – the kind of puzzling verbiage that obscures what you are ordering – is the verbal equivalent of really, really low restaurant lighting. Boccocino’s wisely restrains itself to a single serving of cute on the menu: a meatball "as big as your head" ($5), with the asterisked caveat "size of head may vary." Remember that scene in the Wedding Singer where Adam Sandler’s elderly music student presses him (literally) with two massive meatballs? Boccocino’s are even bigger. They’re softball-sized. That fact alone doesn’t make them great – it’s simply a basic ball of seasoned ground beef. But, topped with tomato sauce and melting parmesan, and hiding a few garlic surprises, you could do much, much worse.
If ground beef is not your thing, but you like veal, you’re in luck. Scaloppine ($21) come with a choice of mushroom brandy cream sauce, or parmigiana, or marsala. There are also chicken, beef, seafood, and lamb selections ($20 to $29).
In the spirit of simplicity, though, we ordered pastas ($13 to $19). Boccocino’s makes three from scratch: the gnocchi ($16), white truffle stuffed pasta with sage cream ($18) and organic asparagus-stuffed pasta ($18). The asparagus dish appears as little flower-like bundles of pasta crowned with tomato sauce and set off by pieces of green asparagus and spinach. With the red, white and green, it looks like a big, fresh Italian flag-coloured bouquet. The taste was just as delightful – a smooth paste of asparagus and pecorino cheese filled each little bite, while the "petals" of the pasta picked up and held the tomato sauce.
The only letdown to the otherwise enjoyable linguine salmone ($15) we ordered was that there wasn’t quite enough of the well-flavoured brandy cream sauce. Still, it was a relief not to get the "sauce soup" amount that some places ply. The pasta was cooked with skill and the smoked salmon in the dish was very, very good.
Neither of us could finish our pasta – these are large portions. The only reason we even attempted dessert was for your sake, dear reader. Ah, the sacrifice. There are six sweets, each $7, from which we chose the house-made Callebaut-laden raspberry XTC – a deliciously dense milk chocolate mousse topped with white chocolate chunks. If one must consume white chocolate, it’s best like this, highlighting the depths of the real chocolate. Hitting the middle layers of tangy raspberry chocolate sauce revives sated tastebuds.
Boccocino’s seems comfortable with what it is. It has an atmosphere that’s not straining to impress and food that has some nice touches of creativity and fun. It makes an agreeable choice for a casual meal. |
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