I am one of the three judges for this year’s Vancouver Foodster Pasta Challenge. This is the competition that pits combatants against one another vying for the coveted spot of best pasta of them all. Some restaurants compete with a pasta that is already on their regular menu, others create something custom for the contest. At the end of the day we are looking for the one with the highest score between 20 for taste, 10 for presentation, and 10 for originality, for a total out of 40.
I recalled visited Locanda dell’Orso right when they opened and being in to their black and red modern motif and their photogenic dish ware with their names stencilled around them. I have never taken a bad photo of their food on these plates, and today they continued to make everything on them look amazing.
We were here for their pasta, but were also celebrating the completion of my one year counselling program, so Christened the occasion with a couple of rounds of Lambrusco. I find it a delightful merger of the lightness of a sparkling with the bold acidity of a red. Rinaldini Picol Ross Lambrusco, Emilia Romagna DOC, 2022.
We also decided to try some of their other dishes, and I was impressed by how much more depth their menu has. I remembered them doing simple classic pastas and pizzas, but today I found I got to know them better through their flavour profiles.
I can’t turn down Burrata when I see it on any menu. This is their Burrata di Puglia with seasonal accompaniments, and today that was a half roasted peach and prosciutto. As lovely as both of those ingredients are on their own, they really didn’t do anything in conjunction with the milky cheese. Both masked it, using it as a neutral base that only made the meat saltier and the fruit sweeter. So we asked for some olive oil and coarse salt to be able to enjoy the cheese on its own, and that we did.
This was best smeared generously over a slice of their house-made focaccia. This, like everything else within the restaurant is made in house, and includes sauces, pastas, and pizza dough.
We tried the Ham-azing! as it was recommended to us. This was a full pizza with fior di latte, mushrooms, truffle cream stracciatella, prosciutto cotto, and fresh basil. With its dense toppings and flimsy soft crust base, this is the type of pizza you eat with knife and fork, after dropping half of everything with the first bite. Salty meat and chunky cream with enough flavour for the plain crust. I could have used more of the crispy dried sage that helped to cut into the strong truffle, which double down on umami mushroom. I actually enjoyed the crust most, dipped into the dish of olive oil above.
As for the best pasta contender, this is the Agnolotti dell’orso, which is only available during dinner service. They are little pillow shaped pasta, stuffed with a slow braised veal ossobuco, sitting in a pool of meat juice and Parmesan sauce. This was an eye catching plate, like art with the lettering adding colour correcting contrast to the otherwise brown and yellow plate. So dense and meaty that you want to eat each of the veal pasta pills one at a time, to best take in the contrast of strachy shell and shredded meat.
And you can’t leave an Italian restaurant without trying their house made Tiramisu. Here, it is pistachio flavoured. Aside from the striking colour it isn’t too sweet or rich, but had a lovely warm nuttiness that married well with the espresso, allowing both to sing.
In short, we had a lovely meal and they are a spot I would recommend for casual Italian cuisine at affordable prices. Be sure you try their’s and all the other pasta dishes competing and vote for your favourite as people’s choice winner for this year’s Vancouver Foodster Pasta Challenge.
Locanda dell’Orso
350 W Pender St, Vancouver, BC V6B 1T1
604-336-3151
locandadellorso.com
