La Terrazza

La Terrazza
1088 Cambie Street, Vancouver

You know that place on the corner…right on Pacific and Howe…you know, it’s like right on the edge of Yaletown…yeah you know the one. Well I’ve always seen this place as I make my way onto the Cambie Street Bridge but for some reason, I’ve never been. Maybe I thought the location was bad. Maybe I though it kinda looked gaudy. Nevertheless, it never struck me as a place I’d want to go and to be honest, I’ve never heard much about it. But that began to change recently when I started hearing people talk about this restaurant – a traditional Italian restaurant that isn’t just a pasta bar. The food was supposed to be sensational and the wine list was one of the most comprehensive. I began to grow curious. I mean this place has been in Vancouver for quite awhile now so it must be doing something right. Well luckily, I had the opportunity to go there this week and see for myself what the little rumblings were about.

I went to La Terrazza for a special function, which meant we had a set menu and had a choice for our main course and dessert. Because we have a relatively large group (35ish people) we were seated in one of their 2 private dining rooms. The restaurant is quite stunning, once you step inside. Right when you walk through the doors, you enter into their lounge area with a full service bar. I found it kind of weird that people were actually having dinner in the lounge even though the dining room wasn’t full at all. But I guess that was their choice. Walk around the bar and you can see the dining room, which was beautifully decorated with Italian paintings on the walls and red wood chairs and tables lined with white linen. I headed into our private room, up 2 steps and through a stoned archway and was pleasantly surprised. The room has wines stacked up in shelves on the far wall and was spacious enough to fit at least 6 or 7 tables.

We all mingled with each other and the servers were all very attentive, pouring wine and making sure everyone was comfortable. Before we were told to settle in, 2 plates of appetizers were placed at each table with an assortment of the restaurant’s favorite appies for us to try. But even before we got to dig into that dish of food, our head waiter gave his spheal about our meal that evening. He told us what was on the appetizer plate (there was so much stuff on there but I do remember the duck sausage, the mushrooms, the ratatouille and the tomato and bocconcini…at delicious!), what our choices were for the main and the choices for dessert. As he was reading out our choices, you can hear everyone whispering and discussing what they should get. It was all very exciting and I think they do this simply to stir us up a bit for the food. For my main, I decided on the beef tenderloin and for dessert, I went with their special marscapone cheesecake wrapped in phyllo.

After chowing down on the appies, the servers brought around round 2 of our 5 course meal. We had a mushroom ravioli (they had a fancier name but it was basically ravioli) in a mushroom reduction sauce. Now you know I don’t eat pasta but being in that restaurants just made me throw my diet to the wind and I ate the ravioli. It was good but honestly, I think they can do with more stuffing inside the pasta. I personally found the pasta a bit thick and the filling thin. I mean it was good but probably wasn’t good enuf for me to actually eat pasta. Oh well…

Our next course was just a green salad, which wasn’t anything too special. But then it came. For our main course. I had the beef while my mom went with the duck. Oh boy was I ever happy with this piece of meat! It was made to perfection! I had ordered my steak medium rare and it was cooked exactly to medium rare. The gentleman sitting beside me got his medium well and again, he was so impressed that they actually made it exactly to medium well. The steak was juicy and tender and just plain gorgeous. They duck was really good too and my mom was happy with it. I thought it was good but I was defiantly happy that I ordered the tenderloin!

We all had a latte or cappuccino before our dessert and I was getting kinda full at this point. The portions weren’t huge so it wasn’t like I was stuffed but I guess I didn’t need to eat dessert. But then the dessert came and, again, I threw my diet out the window. This dessert was just heaven! It was a warm piece of cheesecake wrapped in phyllo pastry and I don’t think I’ve ever had anything like it. This dessert is defiantly something you should all try!

The service at this place is top notch and the waiters were all just so nice. They were always there filling our glass with wine and making sure we were okay. They knew how to serve and were very professional. On a side note, the white wine they served that night was a Burrowing Owl Pinot Gris and I think I just found another wine that I can actually enjoy! Very very yummy!

Well I’m sure glad I got to go there and I’ll defiantly be going back again. I guess this is just another lesson not to judge a book by it’s cover, or in this case, it’s frontage on Cambie Street. The little rumblings about this place were all true and hopefully, the rumblings will turn into an earthquake and more people will start checking this place out!