Dee and I went out on a trip out to Pasta Polo in Langley to get some dinner last weekend. First time at Pasta Polo I noticed how busy it was. The restaurant was filled, and there were people waiting. We didn’t mind sitting at a table near the door, so we got our seats right away.

Dee ordered the Chicken Genovese and I ordered the Meatball Florentine with Linguine ($13.95). Before our pastas came we were given some house bread with marinara sauce.

I absolutely loved the marinara sauce. It was so good. The sauce was cold, and it had just the right consistency. It was fresh, very garlicky, and the flavor just jumped out at me. Keywords: garlicky. I love.

The marinara sauce gave me high hopes for my red sauce pasta. The Meatball Florentine came with 5 spinach and beef meatballs. It came on a huge plate. The portion was very generous, it was enough to feed two people.

My first taste of the pasta was really, a disappointment. It was very bland. It didn’t have nearly as much flavor as the marinara sauce. The pasta was really soft, way past al dente. Maybe that’s why it tasted bland, because it didn’t pick up much of the sauce. The meatballs were nothing spectacular either. The texture was a bit weird, it didn’t taste like it was made from ground beef, more like beef paste because it was that smooth.

Dee’s Chicken Genovese pasta was chicken breast in a sun-dried tomato pesto cream sauce. It should have lots of flavor, but it was also bland and watery. He ordered it with fettuccine, and the noodle was softer than mine.

This was a very family friendly restaurant, it’s got that 90′s retro feel to it. It really reminded me of the restaurants they’d show in a early 90′s movie, for example, Top Gun. Another time warp back to time, just not as far back as Elizabeth’s Chalet.

The service was great, and judging from the crowd, it seemed like it was a local favorite. But if we had a choice, we’d pick Anton’s pasta over this.

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Pasta Polo
19665 Willowbrook Dr
Langley Twp, BC V2Y
www.pastapolo.ca
(604) 532-5661

Last week I was reading Dee’s Review for Coza Tuscan Grill. He had such a good time there, I asked him to take me there too. Unfortunately, I didn’t have such a great experience as he did.

The restaurant was big, comfortable and had cozy lighting. It did took me a while to decide what I wanted, because there were quite a few promise sounding dishes, and I decided on Pappardelli With Spicy Italian Sausage.

Before I talk about the pasta, we ordered a couple appetizers to share. Sausage Stuffed Mushrooms and Fonduta Alla Coza. The stuffed mushroom didn’t look very ‘stuffy’, and they were quite small. They were good, but not amazing. The Fonduta Alla Coza was basically toasted flatbread with tomato, goat cheese and black olives dip. The flatbread was thin, crispy, and had a lot of Parmesan cheese on it. The dip was very tomatoey. Again, good appetizer, but not amazing.

About half way through eating my appetizer, I had placed my forks and knife on the little bread plate. Then our waitress came, grabbed my forks and knife, threw them aside on the table, and took my small plate away. I didn’t really know what to say at that point. We weren’t finished with our appys, what if I still want to eat the appetizers? Does she want me to stop eating? Why did she only take my plate and not my friends? Why would she throw my cutlery on the table that might be dirty?  Yah, I was not impressed, I didn’t feel like eating after it happened.

About 10 minutes later, she came back and took all of my friend’s plates, the entrées are here. Oh and I guess I shouldn’t take throwing-the-cutlery-on-table too personally because apparently that’s the thing that she does, she did it too all of my friend’s forks and knives. She really needed to work on her waitressing manners.

Pappardelli With Spicy Italian Sausage was wide egg noodles, spinach, and Italian sausage. This pasta is a little spicy because of the Italian sausages. There were actually a lot of sausages in there. Some were already cut up and mixed into the pasta, and there was the obvious one sitting on top of the pasta. The one on top of the pasta was not spicy, but the ones got mixed into the pasta were. It looked really good, but tasted a bit boring after a few bites.

My friends had Lasagna, Osso Bucco (braised veal), Shrimp with Alfredo pasta, and Chicken Parmesan with spaghetti. I’d say all of us were some what disappointed with our food.

Knowing Dee had a good time there last time, and I didn’t this time, the restaurant lacked consistency. The waitress’s mannerism did turned my appetite down by a lot. Maybe the food wasn’t that boring, I’m not too sure if I’d return.

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Coza! Tuscan Grill
20065 Langley Bypass
Langley, BC
(604) 539-8880
http://www.coza.ca

Coza! Tuscan Grill is an Italian restaurant in Langley where all the other Chain restaurants are. It kind of has a chain feel to it, from the logo, and size of the place, but there is only one Coza! It is however part of the Montana, Kelsey’s, Swiss Chalet family. This place is way better than Olive Garden. Once I saw the menu online I was in love. So many good looking and sounding appetizers and dishes!

I went here on Saturday during the peak dinner hour (630 PM) without a reservation. They said it would be about a 35 minute wait, and they were right (give or take 5 minutes). We got seated in a booth that could seat about 4-5, which was a bit strange because there was just 2 of us, and there were bigger parties waiting. Oh well.. we got to eat sooner.

We ordered the Tuscan Sliders, Antipasto Mista plate, and the Carne plate. There was a lot more dishes I want to try and I’ll definitely be back for more.

They served us nice crusty and toasty bread with balsamic vinegar and olive oil. The bread was really good, but I don’t know about the balsamic vinegar and olive oil. It was kind of a mess. It was good, but just not sure how long it was sitting there. I would’ve preferred them to pour the oil and vinegar in front of us.

Next came our Caesar Salads, which we actually didn’t know was coming. It was pretty bad. Some of the lettuce leaves were brown, and it had a bit of a bitter flavour to me. We didn’t touch much of it. It was not good at all.

Our antipasto plate came soon after. It was pretty cheap for an antipasto plate and it came with Basil-wrapped goat cheese, olives, provolone, Tuscan ham, Genoa salami, roasted pepper, bocconcini, artichokes and grilled asparagus for $8. It was a fairly small plate, which I guess should be expected for only $8. I loved everything here except for the bocconcini. This was probably the crappiest, blandest, most tasteless, mushy cheese I’ve ever had. The star of this platter had to have been the basil-wrapped goat cheese. The thin sliced ham and meat were decent. The Tuscan Ham was definitely better than the salami. I don’t remember eating artichokes though.

Our Tuscan Sliders took a little longer to come because the grill was busy. The 3 Tuscan Sliders were served on a ciabatta bun with pomodoro sauce, spinach, and a lemon aioli for $8. You could definitely tell these burgers patties were made fresh. It was cooked well, and was juicy. The pomodoro and lemon aioli complemented the burger well. They weren’t the best sliders I’ve ever had, but they were good.

The Carne Platter for ($15 per person) came with Chicken Reggiano, Bistecca Marsala and Chicken Under the Brick. Served with Tuscan mashed potatoes, roasted vegetables and house spaghetti. Now it doesn’t seem like a lot. The pieces of meat weren’t huge by any means, but you are able to get a taste of a bunch of different dishes for $15. Is it worth it? I’d say so. You got to try 3 different meants along with 3 different sides. And by the end of my meal I was stuffed. I’d say the steak was the best. It comes medium rare, and was cooked to perfection, just the way I like it. The Chicken Reggiano was second best, and it had a nice crisp crust and was tender inside. The Chicken Under the Brick was my least favorite, but still good. It was a bit dry though. I don’t think mine was stuffed with anything like the original says it is. My favorite side was the mashed potatoes. The House Spaghetti was alright, but got cold really quick. I’m not much of a spaghetti with tomato sauce person though.

Our waitress noticed that we didn’t touch our salad, and when asked why, we told her that it just wasn’t good. We weren’t expecting it, but she offered us free dessert! Although we were stuffed, we decided on getting the chocolate panini, which was just a panini stuffed with Gnutella, and Bananas. It came with two. She actually offered for each of us to have a dessert but we were too full.

I enjoyed my time here. All of the staff that we met were polite. Our waitress was awesome, and we weren’t sure what exactly it was that made us like her. Maybe it was her smile. The atmosphere was very lively, and seemed like it was always busy there. It is very loud in there. Thumbs up for both the food and the experience. I will be back to try all of the other dishes I never got to try.

Coza! Tuscan Grill
20065 Langley Bypass
Langley, BC

(604) 539-8880

http://www.coza.ca

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