Wednesday 31 December 2014

Lupo Restaurant & Vinoteca




Mixed Artisian Bread $6 3/5 - nothing memorable.  I think they were 3 types of bread: plain, olives, and focaccia.  Only olive oil was provided (no vinaigrette nor butter).

Octopus carpaccio, pimento, limoncello 2.5/5 - paper thin octopus.  I could only taste the olive oil but not the lemon liquor.

Vitello tonnato 2/5 - Our server recommended this.  It was tender but it wasn't great.  The tuna sauce was not fishy at all.

Taglierini wild mushroom 4/5 - best dish of the night.  Flavourful with truffle oil.  Generous amount of mushrooms.  It was more like a sautéed pasta instead of a saucy one.

Lobster Ravioli 3.5/5 - The dough was thicker than what I could like.  Decent amount of filling but not too flavourful.  I think they were more crab than lobster.

Penna bolognese 2/5 - I could barely find any meat.  It was also too salty.  We had less than 1/3 of it.  Our server Michael was smart enough to notice that and took it of our bill.

Veal porterhouse steak, wild mushroom 3.75/5 - we ordered 2 of them but there was a lack of consistence.  One was medium rare and the other was medium.  The sides were a little too salty.

Sabelfish, grappa and orange marinade 4/5 - My second favourite.  The sabelfish and spinach were a little too salty.  I think it was because they marinated it for too long.  The fish was fresh, juicy and cooked perfectly.

Housemade gelato (pistachio, chocolate) 3.5/5 - both flavours were not as strong as I expected.  I could barely tasted the pistachio.  There was no pieces of pistachio.  I would have guessed tiramisu instead of chocolate.  It might be the cocoa powder.

Chocolate fondant, blood orange gelato 3.5/5 - I was expecting chocolate molten cake but there was no liquid.  The chocolate was too rich and too cold for the liquid chocolate.  The gelato tasted citrus but I couldn't tell it was blood orange.  It was also the most melted one.

Grand marnier, mixed berry cheesecake 3/5 - could not taste any liquor.  The cheesecake just like the only I could find at Safeway.

Housemade sorbetto 3/5 - coconut and I couldn't remember what was the other one.  The coconut didn't stand out as much as the gelato.


Service (hostess 2/5, server Michael 3.5/5) - We were there on New Year's Eve.  We received a phone call 2 days before telling us they will only serve 3 or 4 course dinner ($75 and $95 respectively).  It was kinda late to find another reservation so we decided to keep it.  At the same time, we asked if we could add 2 extra seats (making it from 4 people to 6) but the lady on the phone said no.  We asked if we could put our names on the waiting list but she said we had to call back on the day of the dinner.  We tried the day before and no luck.  She asked if we wanted to cancel our reservation instead.  3 pm on New Years New Years Eve, I called back and the hostess said they had no problem giving us a reservation for  (before I explained that I wanted 2 extra spots instead).  She said we had to be at separate tables so I said no.  They were at least 2 empty tables around us.  There was a round table for 6 right behind us.  On our way out, Michael told us that they had some last minute reservation.

Michael was really nice and attentive.  He made sure our glasses were filled and checked on our food a few times.  He also didn't charge my Bolognese after I told him it was salty.  He asked if we wanted to pack our leftovers and offered some panna cotta cake?  I think that was what he said.

Overall, everything was alright expect the hostess (or the lady on the phone).  I had high expectation for this place but nothing really told out.  I don't mind going back but nothing was significantly good that I had to go back.

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