Tonight we were at Coquitlam’s Pasta Polo to judge another contender in this year’s Vancouver Foodster Best Pasta Challenge. Six restaurants throwing their hat into the ring to see who can make the best pasta based on taste, originality, and presentation.
This was our first time dining at this 24 year old Italian restaurant. 11 of those years have been helmed by Ahyoung, a trained chef that started part time serving at the restaurant and eventually rose in ranks to purchase it. Today she still takes an active role in hosting and managing the restaurant, and based on the warm reception her customer gave her in return, she is doing a fine job of it.
As a community driven Italian kitchen, many of the dishes available today were also offered on the original menu. And a handful have been updated to serve changing trends, the desire to accommodate dietary restrictions, and to offer something more health conscious.
We choose to sit on the covered and heated patio, preferring the lighting and privacy here, over the general seating area with booths and their private room with rotating local art.
We started with a couple of glasses of wine, looking to their wine of the month suggestions. According to Ahyoung these are bottles you cannot get from your regular BC liquor store. When making their wine selections they look for good value: a reasonable price that tastes like it should be $20 more.
The Barbanera Toscanna Inbianco is a fresh wine that uses red wine grapes, peeing their skin to discard the colour along with it. This was an excellent white that paired well with our pasta with its sour cherry and orange blossom notes. Very refreshing, it cleans and cleanses the palate, taking its flavour with it as soon as you swallow. Ideal for diffusing a lot of the extra garlicky notes from the table-side garlic caddy we indulged in.
The Italo Cescon Pinot Noir is a medium bodied red. Heavier in the mouth with notes of chocolate and cherry, plus plenty of juicy tannis to temper an extra acidity.
We enjoyed their house made bread and garlic oil. The latter, a communal jar for the table. Together with the chewy bun and its tougher crust it was like a table side garlic bread. I just would have liked the bread toasted and more crusty to pair with the pungent garlic.
We went with the classic Calamari as our appetizer. Fritte, diced onion, lemon aioli, and tzatziki. I am not a fan of bite sized calamari, I want a greater mouth-feel and to not have to scoop a spoonful for a more meaning bite. More breading could have helped with this as well. As is, it felt crumbly and very small in your mouth.
And the plate we were here for was the Scusa Mi Pomodoro with Aglio e Oilio, sundried-tomato, prawn, spinach, fetta, and pomodoro; served on linguini.
This dish is traditionally done as a simple tomato sauce pasta, but here they have dressed it up, hence the name apologizing for the fact that they are calling it a “Pomodoro”, when it isn’t really.
The serving is is homey and comforting. Even with all the grated cheese and pepper from extra large mills, it still felt clean, but otherwise nothing too unique or that I haven’t encountered before. A familiar flavour done finely.
We also went for their three-course, Italian cuisine set dinner menu. With this you are basically paying for your choice of entrée, and get an appetizer and dessert for free.
In our case we went to the eggplant Parmesan that was recommended over the seafood cannelloni, which is also very popular.
Eggplant Parmesan served with basil pesto linguine, a tasty vegetarian dish that didn’t have you missing meat, especially this version that came with a good amount of pesto pasta on the side. Here their eggplant is roasted and topped with melted cheese, instead of being breaded and fried; for a more health conscious option.
For starter you have a choice between a Caesar salad, a garden salad, or minestrone soup. We went with the latter as it is one of my favourite soups. It ate like a stew with plenty of vegetables. Equal parts tangy and sweet with the potato and pasta spirals offering some base to soak up the broth.
And for dessert we also had 3 choices. It was between a classic cheesecake, panna cotta, or French vanilla ice cream. I went with the panna cotta after I read that it would be topped with a red wine reduction and wild berries. This was a lot more light and foamy than the other versions of Panna cotta that I have had. The texture was like a whipped topping, where I was looking for more of a gelatin.
Flavoured like vanilla and custard cream, with a faint tang and texture of yogurt, especially with the addition of the fruit. I almost wish we didn’t mix in the whip cream so I could differentiate between the two. This was the perfect size for a sweet end to your meal.
And we couldn’t walk away without trying their Tiramisu made with Kahlua and espresso dipped ladyfingers, layered with marscapone and dusted with cocoa powder. You could tell the quality of chocolate used here. A dessert that was more cake than cream, with the highlight being a good amount of espresso in each spoonful.
Overall, a great spot for the classics. Homey plates and great service that made you feel like part of their extended family.
Pasta Polo Coquitlam/Catering
2754 Barnet Hwy, Coquitlam, BC V3B 1B9
(604) 464-7656
pastapolo.com
