Al Porto: Great early dinner special!

It was LadyH's birthday, and she opted for an early dinner-- because there was an early dinner special! We were seated in the middle of the restaurant where there was an interesting arc above us that clearly transmitted sound, so we could speak with others far down the table without having to yell! Super cool.

Restaurant: Al Porto Ristorante (visit their website here)

Location: 321 Water Street, Vancouver
Cuisine: Italian, Seafood
Price range: $25+ per person




Date of visit: April 18, 2015
Atmosphere: 4/5
Staff/service: 4/5
Food variety: 3.5/5
Food quality: 4/5
Buck worthy? 3/5

Adorables, ThickToast, and I decided to share a couple dishes to try more variety, so we got their Arancini Funghi ($8.95). Basically they were wild mushroom risotto croquettes stuffed with provolone served on a bed of basil tomato sauce. We were confused at first since they came in three balls (thought they were meatballs).

Anyways, cut it open to find delicious cheese that was melty and a creamy mushroom risotto shell which was crispy on the outside. The tomato sauce was nicely seasoned and made it quite appetizing. Great for dipping bread too!

ThickToast selected their House Cut Fries with Chili Mayo ($6.95). These were thin fries which were adequately crispy, with a tangy chili mayo sauce. The fries were nothing too spectacular, some were too tiny  so they ended up being overfried, but I really liked the chili mayo!

They also offer an early dinner special 4:30-6:30pm where any main course with soup or salad is $24 or any pasta with soup or salad is $18. We got a main course, Scallops and Prawns ($25.95 regularly). It came with 5 scallops, 7 tiger prawns (if I remember correctly), sweet pea and saffron risotto, beet, radish, and purple kale. The scallops were cooked perfectly, juicy and fresh! tiger prawns also cooked well, but not that big. The risotto was bland, radish took us a while to figure out what it was since it looked like sauerkraut but was just julienned radish. One of the highlights was the purple kale, it was seasoned well and cooked so that it was tender but still had some bite to it. I loved the flavor!

We chose a salad to go with our special, the Insalata Beet Carpaccio ($7.95). This was visually appealing with the arugula and frisee mix on thinly sliced beets. I think they also had candycane beet chunks on top. The Parmesan crisp was yummy. Salad was your basic salad with barely detectable honey blood orange dressing.

During early dinner there are also drink specials, but I just ordered a Grapefruit Juice ($4.00 I think), and Adorables had a small San Pellegrino ($5.50). Grapefruit juice wasn't a bright red color and tasted like fresh squeezed grapefruit juice! Very surprising to me! No bitter taste, I enjoyed this with my meal a lot.

Overall it was an enjoyable experience, service was pretty decent, the waiters and waitresses were attentive and accommodating. They have a very homey feel here =)