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)

Hearthstone Pizza: Wonderful service, pizza needs work.

Having been invited to try their pizzas since opening, I finally got around to dropping by for a visit!

Restaurant: Hearthstone Pizza (visit their website here)

Location: 2755 Lougheed Highway, Port Coquitlam
Cuisine: Pizza
Price range: $10-$15 per pizza



Date of visit: July 31, 2015
Atmosphere: 4/5
Staff/service: 5/5
Food variety: 4/5
Food quality: 2/5
Buck worthy? 2/5

I came here excitedly with Elephant for our dinner run, this was located really close to Michaels in the Poco Mall. Inside, it was quite busy for 8pm and we actually had to wait in line.

They had a large selection of toppings to go with your pizza and you get to choose sizes. We got a regular 11" pizza ($8.95, small is 9" for $6.95). I forgot exactly which toppings I got, but definitely not all of them! I got white sauce, mozzarella cheese, chicken, bacon, Italian sausage, pepperoni (on half), anchovies (on half), olives, artichoke, tomatoes, mushrooms and zucchini. Overall the pizza was too burnt on the sides, and the ingredients too salty-- especially the Italian sausage, sauce, along with the anchovies. I liked the presentation of the pizza and service was wonderful at the store-- though my combination of ingredients and baking of the pizza was underwhelming.

Their stone oven was visible and I liked the clean, simple layout they had, but ingredients need a bit of work. Looking forward to improvements, considering they're only one month old (happy one month!!).

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

Munchie Adventure: Flying Beaver Bar & Grill, Richmond

As JC and I made our way towards this place, we started getting worried we were going the wrong way, since it looked like nothing would be over here =O But we eventually found it (after some detours) =D Yay!!

Restaurant: Flying Beaver Bar and Grill (visit their website here)
Location: 4760 Inglis Drive, Richmond
Cuisine: Pub food, pizza, burgers
Price range: $10-20




Date of visit: November 19, 2012
Atmosphere: 4/5
Staff/service: 4.5/5
Food variety: 3.5/5
Food quality: 3/5
Buck worthy? 2/5

Not wanting to sit at the high table or bar, we waited for a table to be ready. It took about 15 minutes of waiting I think? We were seated and greeted by a friendly waitress who started us with some drinks. JC and JY got coffee, and I got some odd hot water (it was kinda foamy x.x but I survived). Last minute change of mind for ordering items, but I don't regret it =) The food took quite a while to arrive though (probably because they waited for everything to be ready before they brought us the food)

JC likes fried chicken, so a Chicken Fingers ($11.50) was ordered. I thought it was too dry, didn't like it. Sauce made it a  bit better, but really, M&M meats has better chicken strips than them.

I ordered their Blackstone Benny ($9.95), which was a last-minute change =P I saw the description had BACON, and JY recommended their bennies, so I was sold. Eggs were very nicely done, but hashbrowns were too hard and salty, and filoncini bread was too soggy =( Probably because of the tomato sitting on it.

Look at this beautiful creation! =)

JC ordered their Traditional Benny ($9.50), which also had a variation of bacon, looked very similar to mines =O The Canadian back bacon looked good! But good ol' crispy bacon is my fav still =P

Annnnd JY suddenly felt extra hungry when she sat down, and ordered a Pulled Pork Sandwich ($11.50). She also changed the fries to yam fries, which I found were quite tasty. Better than the hash browns. The sandwich itself was lacking though . . . the BBQ sauce was too strong and overwhelmed everything. Coleslaw didn't help much-- it did make it less salty, but not that big of a difference.

This was quite a unique experience, many thanks to JY for bringing us here and treating us ^^ So nice of herrrrr <3 Loved the view, and with the awesome weather-- it was quite memorable =) Maybe this really improved the experience because of the weather hehe SUNSHINEEEE <3

Munchie Adventure: Boston Pizza, Coquitlam

$5 coupon off of a $25 or more ^-^ (We ended up eating way over that of course haha) Came here with the family, and possibly because it was a Tuesday, so it was pretty empty when we entered. Didn't know it was Pasta Tuesday, so all their pastas were $10.99 =D

Restaurant: Boston Pizza (visit their website here)
Location: 3025 Lougheed Highway, Coquitlam
Cuisine: Western, Pizza, Pasta, American, Drinks, Dessert, Burgers
Price range: $10-15 per entree




Date of visit: October 23, 2012
Atmosphere: 4/5
Staff/service: 4/5
Food variety: 4.5/5
Food quality: 2.5/5
Buck worthy? 2/5

They didn't notice at first when we walked in, but after about 1 minute she saw us, and quickly seated us. Personally, I don't like my server staring at me eat, so having her check on us about four times for our whole visit was nice (instead of the normal "How's everything?" every 10 minutes).

Of course, we gotta get the pasta! My brother, likes to choose from the pictures, so we got a Baked Chipotle Bacon Penne ($10.99, normally $15.50). Sounded good in the description-- cuz there was BACON =D Looked really good when it arrived too, full of cheese on top and nicely browned. However, the sauce was mediocre. It felt slimy =/ Like that gooey feel you get when eating okra (if you know what that is. . . )

And we also tried their Jambalaya Fettuccine ($10.99, normally $18.75). It's listed as spicy, but I found it was only the spicy italian sausage that was spicy, the rest was fine =) This was too salty for my liking, but maybe it's because of the tomato sauce's tangy nature. Sauce and pasta didn't work well together, as I had some pasta with no sauce, since it didn't "stick" at all, so it was a tasteless mouthful. Display was nice though, full of shrimp, but the chicken breast were in tiny chunks that were barely present.

And the last item!! We finally got to try their pizza, which they are so famous for! (I've come here before, but never thought of getting pizza haha) We looked at their menu, and decided on a large (15") Boston Royal ($29.95). The pizza came on a stand, looking all high and mighty =P The crust was really crispy and the ingredients were good quality. A bit on the burnt side for the onions, but that was fine, just too them off and the rest was good. Family really liked it cuz it wasn't salty, like many of the other pizza places. However, I'm not sure if it's worthy of $30 . . .

I know Western food is more expensive than our average meal, so even with out $5 coupon, it was over what I would want to pay for lunch. Not for this quality at least. I might be back, but there's other restaurants in the nearby area with similar food, so maybe I'll give those a try first =P