Jimoco: Unfresh seafood, delicious pasta, small portions

I remember coming here many years ago and the would be hour long lineups, but the place was near empty for Sunday lunch time. Odd. Maybe it's because it wasn't lunch time yet? (We were there at 12:30pm) anyways, no one greeted us at the front, and finally someone noticed as we walked in halfway to the counter and told us we'd be seated in a couple minutes.

Restaurant: Jimoco Café & Pasta (visit their website here)

Location: 1046 Austin Avenue, Suite A, Coquitlam
Cuisine: Italian, pasta, seafood
Price range: $20/person

Date of visit: December 10, 2017
Atmosphere: 4/5
Staff/service: 2/5
Food variety: 5/5
Food quality: 1.5/5
Buck worthy? 1/5

Looking at the menu, prices have gone up by about $3-5 per dish, such was expected due to inflation and whatnot over the years. From the 2 for 1 menu we ordered 4 dishes for 5 people. First to arrive was the Risotto Al Frutti Di Mar ($21.95) with rose sauce (you can choose from tomato, rose, cream, wine, or curry). It was a pretty small portion if it weren't 2 for 1. The risotto was about 0.5 inches deep and although it tasted great, it definitely needed more cream to the rose. Tasted like plain tomato sauce. The mussels were hit or miss on freshness, some of them have definitely gone bad.

Next was the Linguine Al Frutti Di Mar ($20.95) in white wine sauce. Portions got smaller for this one, definitely not like the pictures on the menu. The was about a cups' worth of pasta on the plate. There were scallops, mussels, clams, and shrimp in this dish. The flavors were great and noodles cooked al dente. Again, the shellfish was not fresh, tasted fishy and smelled pungent.

Then the Fusilli Alla Lucana ($22.95) arrived a little on the burnt side. Interesting presentation since it's covered with pizza dough on top, which helped keep the dish warm while we finished the others first. At this point I didn't understand why they used such large plates if they were only going to fill them 1/3 or halfway because it just looks bad. Anyways, only dish that wasn't seafood, the sausage and pasta was decent. Pizza dough was very dense and although interesting in design, felt disconnected to the whole dish.

Last was the Linguine Soul Bianco ($21.95). Last time I came here I got the Linguine Soul which is the spicy tomato base, but I wanted to try something new, the Bianco is a white seafood sauce base. This was very delicious with fragrant herbs and succulent seafood sauce infused in the pasta as it bubbled in front of us. Unfortunately the mussels and clams weren't all fresh, more than half were inedible.

It's sad to see such a great restaurant come to this. The flavors and execution were amazing, but subpar staff, ingredients weren't fresh, and portions were tiny. I was disappointed and unsatisfied with my revisit. I guess good things don't last forever :(
 

Munchie Adventure: Jimoco Cafe & Pasta, Coquitlam

AH suggested this restaurant for us to try out for our little get-together, and it looked really good online in reviews! Everyone seemed to rave on and on about it, so we all were excited to try! I got there first, actually drove by first, and OH MY GOSH. There were like 15 people standing at the door, and the store looked TINY!! ><"

So I didn't know I had to put my name down with the waitress at the back of the store... so was set back by one table =( she told me 30-45 min wait... which ended up to be the sum of those. We were seated close to 8 (when I had arrived at 6:30). Better be worth the wait!

Sorry for the picture quality in advance, it was dimly lit in there, and my phone doesn't have the best camera =(

Restaurant: Jimoco Cafe & Pasta
Location: 1046A Austin Avenue, Coquitlam
Cuisine: Pasta, Italian, Pizza
Price range: <$15 per person




Date of visit: January 11, 2013
Atmosphere: 4/5
Staff/service: 4.5/5
Food variety: 4/5
Food quality: 3/5
Buck worthy? 3/5

First we were started off with some garlic bread, we were so famished, even though it was cold and not very good, I still gobbled it down xD

We ordered off the 2 for 1 menu, since it seemed like the best deal =) AH and I ordered their Soul Linguine ($16.95), and it came in a cool hot bowl =D Taste and texture was good, would've liked it more if the squid were in slightly larger pieces, or in those fun rings-- the little bits just didn't work with me. There were 3 shrimps, 2 mussels, two clams, some scallops, and a bunch of squid bits. Lots of sauce, and we asked them for a "less spice" version, and it wasn't spicy at all.

CM ordered their Penne verde (16.95) in tomato sauce. She said it was very bland, and I tried some, and indeed, it was all just tomato flavor, no salt flavor almost. Maybe they forgot, but on the bright side, she isn't consuming as much salt, which is healthy? =) Looked like it was packed with veggies though!

CL ordered the Linguine alle vongole ($16.95), and she also reported it was quite bland. Looked like there were lots of clams though, so she just showered the whole pasta dish with lots of Parmesan cheese which was on the side of the table.

Overall, I'm not quite convinced it's worth the 75ish minute wait, and honestly, not as amazing as the reviews make it seem. I mean, it's quite a good deal seemingly, and half of our table felt the pasta was tasty, but they portions were average sized (everyone finished their dish except for me xD). They're always big for me, but I'm pretty sure, a guy wouldn't be full from this. Waitresses were very friendly and helpful though! Parking is not good, there's two spots in the back, and a few in the front shared with all the other shops. Free 4 hr parking behind Safeway, but SO COLD to walk back to our cars xD