Le Pizzo Bella: A large for $10? YES PLEASE

Super hungry from work and craving pasta, I found this place that was open late and kind of on the way home to meet Adorables!

Restaurant: Le Pizzo Bella Cafe (visit their website here)

Location: 465 East Columbia Street, New Westminster
Cuisine: Italian, Pizza, Pasta
Price range: $10-$15 per pizza



Date of visit: September 1, 2015
Atmosphere: 3/5
Staff/service: 4.5/5
Food variety: 3/5
Food quality: 4/5
Buck worthy? 5/5

I actually wanted to get their seafood pizza, but unfortunately it's no longer on the menu (the guy working told me it's not good anyways). So I got the special for that day, which was a large pizza for $9.95 with 3 toppings! Sounds legit.

I got salmon, chicken, and bacon. This was topped with cheese on a bed of their house sauce. I liked the thickness of the crust, very chewy and the cheese melty. I found the salmon a bit dry though (Adorables thought it was chicken breast). The amount of toppings was generous and I quite enjoyed the pizza.

Since well, I came here with a pasta craving too, I ordered a lasagna ($8.95). This was a bit disappointing because the tomato sauce was rather runny and the pasta too soft. I felt the ingredients were fresh and "real" though (like.. not canned tomatoes in there). Kinda satisfied my pasta craving I suppose.

Adorables got another pizza to go, with Italian sausage, capicollo, and bacon. It was a lot more flavorful than what I chose.. and pretty darned good xD Overall, it was a good experience since the person taking orders was super patient and easy-going, plus for the price, it's a great deal! (I could get two and a half of these pizzas with the price I usually pay for at Panago xD)

Munchie Adventure: Happy Mom's Kitchen, New Westminister

Just joined Groupon! So I wanted to spend the $10 credit they gave me as a welcoming gift before it expired, and decided to get the one for Happy Mom's Kitchen (apparently also called Happy Valley Chinese Kitchen which was in Burnaby). The deal I got was $10 for $20 of food (so pretty much free for me :D) We ordered about $35 of food... (which in my opinion, is rather pricey for lunch for 3 people)

Restaurant: Happy Mom's Kitchen (visit their menu here)
Location: #821 12th St., New Westminster
Cuisine: Canadian Chinese, Taiwanese
Price range: $7.50-15
Date of visit: April 19, 2012

Atmosphere: 3/5
Staff/service: 3.75/5
Food variety: 2.75/5
Food quality: 2/5
Buck worthy? 2/5

The owner was very friendly, didn't expect a Caucasian (not to be racist or anything) to know much mandarin, but he was trying so hard, it was really cute. And he was very respectful, and kept asking us if everything was ok, and how everything was.

Their bubble tea was cheap, and I should've expected something wrong with that, but ordered it anyways. It was... bad. REALLY. I got a melon milk slush bubble tea ($3.50), and they made it from powder, and the ice was chunky. You can feel the powder still there in the drink ><"

They had a bunch of stuff on their menu, including All-Day-Breakfast, but we decided on the lunch menu instead. There are a bunch of combo dishes you can get, and I got the almond chicken + fried rice + sweet and sour pork ($8.25). The pork was really good, and the chicken wasn't bad (a bit mushy) but the rice-- IT WAS SO SALTY x.x I almost died. I hope they improve it eventually...

We also ordered Chef's Special Chow Mein-soft ($8.75), which was also on the very salty side, and VERY OILY. After a bit, we had to drain the oil from the plate first before we could down the noodles. Uhhh on the bright side, they're not cheaping out on oil? xD This is a very Canadian-Chinese dish, the noodles were definitely not the normal Chinese kind!

To try more variety, we also got the Taiwanese beef noodle soup ($7.75). It was seasoned well, very rich beef broth, but again, too salty. The noodles were cooked just right, and the beef was tender. This was probably the best thing we ordered, but compared to other places... there's still a lot of room for improvement. This was also a bit spicy, which didn't help much with the saltiness.



Don't think I'll revisit, never have been a fan of Canadian-Chinese food, and it's pretty far from where I live, if I had to drive 40 mins for food, I'd definitely go somewhere more worthwhile (not trying to be mean).