Campagnolo (on Main St.)

If you've been following my blog, you'll notice that I frequent Main St. A lot. And I am not done with it yet as restaurants, shops, and cool places continue to sprout in this neighourhood. Today, my family and I decided to check out Campagnolo to celebrate my brother saying goodbye to his 20's. (Happy 30th!)

This isn't a new restaurant, and has been open for a few years now. When it first opened, I heard good things about it from a couple of my friends. Then I heard a couple of mixed reviews after that. Somehow, I never got the chance the check it out myself. 

When I was trying to think of a restaurant for my brother's birthday, (we've developed this trend of checking out a different restaurant each time someone in the family celebrates a birthday), I was craving some good hearty pasta. I crave it quite often actually. But just don't eat it all that often. 

Dad always orders a beer, and the rest of us always start of with appies. We had the seared albacore tuna topped with eggplant and charred onion, and the baked clams with anise and butter. They were both delicious. The melted-down eggplant gave a fresh pairing flavour with the tuna, and the clams were enjoyably rich. 

Then we shared four different entrees : Tagliatelle with pork ragu, basil, and pecorino romano cheese. Rigatoni with short ribs and kabocha squash. Canelloni with roasted vegetables. Pulled pork pizza with roasted peppers and beans.The food was delightful. Each entree had its own distinct yummy flavour. My favorite was the tagliatelle and I can't wait to go back and order it again! It was that good. 

One of the best part of our meal was our waitress. She was exceptionally nice. We exchanged good chats. She even told us a story about her grandma in Croatia when she was trying to describe to us what a quince is. (Do you guys know what a quince is?). So, for dessert, we ordered the quince cake. My mom describe it as nothing special, and I could see why she would think that. The cake was not moist or especially flavourful. But it was paired with a topping of quince crumble, which was all of tart, sweet, and salty. Frankly, I enjoyed it. Because it was new to me. I enjoyed being able to taste a little bit of the crunch from the flesh of the quince fruit and the burst of complexity between sourness and a tad of savoury.

Overall, a very pleasant night spent at Campagnolo and I'd definitely return.