A restaurant carved out of a house, located along Sixth St in New Westminster. Amusingly located on a small strip of restaurants, and directly across from a “Love Shop.” Ahh you know you’re in New Westminster…

At first glance, you partly wonder what you’re getting into. It’s an Italian restaurant and a French restaurant… in one. How does that work? It’s the sort of place that would make Ramsay rip his hair out, stuff it into a burlap sack and take to smashing it into the walls.

Once inside, you see it’s a cozy place that deceptively large (private dining halls to the left and upstairs as well) and attentive service. I dined with a group of 10 folks and we were (rightfully) sequestered into one of the private areas. Our 2 servers were always popping in and out ensuring we had all we needed – an always sure fire way to my heart.

The meal started with… table-side prepared saganaki; calamari; and sauteed tiger prawns. Wow. Now the menu’s Greek? Go figure. The saganaki was excellent – it had a delightful floral scent about it and it went down smooth. The calamari… was calamari. Good – but nothing particularly special, and the prawns were the same.

The mains arrived and this is where it got interesting. Two of the gents had steak and they both got the tableside flambee treatment – quite interesting and it just filled our little area with a scent that was drool inducing. There was also a tricolor sampler of the Italian flag – with a linguine, tortellini and pesto pasta. I do want to say that the pesto was amazingly fragrant – the garlic wafted over to me constantly and practically made me want to reconsider my order. Then I remember I ordered osso bucco. It was fork tender, and tasty – but not amazing – and it was just warm as well. It satisfied me, but I’m not really breaking down the doors to have it again. Yeah… I wish I ordered the pesto.

Dessert time came and with the server’s recommendation, I had the homemade tiramisu – which was good, very creamy, but the lady fingers were over-soaked to the point that you couldn’t taste much of it. So once again – nothing particularly special.

The server’s did bring us a round of shots on the house – sadly I don’t drink, but the folk I were with seemed to appreciate them, and I certainly do appreciate the gesture. So at the end of it all, not an awful meal, but nothing that would have me driving out to New West for dinner here anytime soon. I can’t necessarily comment on how the others’ meals were like since they’re not really foodies and well… they’re just easily impressed.