Campagnolo Roma. A nice casual simple place. I like it.

I like Refeul, especially their burger.

I had one bad experience there.

I like Campagnolo on main.

Now I finally had the opportunity to check out Campagnola Roma on Hastings. The third restaurant in the Refeul/Campagnolo empire.

It seams like decreasing fanciness and increasing casualness as we go down this list.
Roma has a real simple mom and pop feel but with a trendy young edge. The menu is short and simple, a few apps a few pastas and a few pizzas. But then really what more do you need.
I had the diavola - spicy salami, tomato sauce, aged provolone  pizza. The crust was good a bit soggy in the middle but that's ok and the topping was a bit greasy from the sausage (99% sure the salami is made in-house at Refeul - I love when that happens) but then that's totally expected.

I like the pizza I would go back in a heartbeat and really thats all that matters as well.

A really nice casual simple place. I like it.

BTW, this is a great dinning corner of Hastings with Red Wagon right across the street. All this corner needs now is that the Churches Chicken  kitty corner convert itself into a soul food Chicken and Waffles joint and the neighbourhood transformation would be complete.

La Ghianda. Officially my sandwich shop

La Ghianda is an upscale deli / restaurant on Alma kitty corner to its sister restaurant La Quercia on

4^th Ave.



Beef tongue - La Quarcia



La Quercia tops Van Mags best Italian Restaurant List year after year. I just eat there last month but I'm not going to blog about it except to say that it was outstanding. I was there with a group of friends and the chit chat got in the way of serious, yes this place demands serious attention, serious critiquing and serious picture taking. My friend Cristina took one photo of the beef tongue appetizer just because it’s something you don't usually see on menus. It tasted a bit like really fine head cheese. The rest of the dinner was a surprise 7 course meal, served family style.

The surprise was the fact that we actually didn’t order anything; this is chefs’ choice all the way. The table next to us got the same treatment but entirely different food.



This place has its act together.
Our dinner culminated it what was probably the best lamb I've almost ever had.

Ok I said I won't blog about La Quarcia, back to La Ghianda.

La Ghianda is a cross between an Italian deli and restaurant. It has a huge kitchen for a deli and an extended menu. Great looking deli like stuff especially the salumi.  
I'm here for a sandwich. A sub actually, roast beef (perfectly roasted pink middle) on a gorgeous crusty sub style bun. The type of bun that has a thick outer crust dusted with flour that gets all over your face and cloths with every bite but soft chewy airy holiness inside. The holes in the bread suck up the ample amounts of horseradish cream and then this masterpiece is finished with crisp bitter arugula. I embellished my sandwich further by purchasing a bottle of good expensive peppery olive oil and then drizzling every bite so that the green oil filled all the air pockets in the bread. What can I say; I've got issues with olive oil (amongst other things).

Remind me again why people eat at subway? This behemoth at La Ghianda is bigger infinitely better and about a dollar more then a footlong at subway. (if you don’t count the olive oil)
La Ghianda is now officially my sandwich shop whenever I'm in this neck of the woods, unless its a Monday they are not open Mondays WTF they should be open 24/7 as far as I'm concerned.

See you there.

Pronto. Mmmm Porchetta

How can this be bad? Take pork belly, where the bacon comes from, stuff it with a bunch of good stuff like rosemary, parsley and garlic, role it up, skin out, and roast it slowly until the fat renders and permeates the entire roll. While the pork is hot and the skin is crispy cut it thick like you would a sausage then dice it all up and put in a baguette.

OMG, simple, decedent, beautiful.

You need to check this place out. As soon as you walk through the door pork roast hits all of your senses. The restaurant itself is a small diner feel serving simple porchetta and other deli sandwiches. Quite frankly I really don’t care about the other stuff; I’m never going to order it anyway, it’s strictly porchetta for me. And I may have to come by multiple times per day.

Campagnolo Restaurant - Great Pizza

Campagnolo the back room

One of my favorite burgers in Vancouver is at Refuel in Kits. It's also a favorite more broadly as well. You can tell that there is a passion for food there, a passion for freshness and quality. It's not overdone it’s just good. Campagnolo is owned by the same people as Refeul. No burgers just Italian cooking here and easily one of the best pizzas in the lower mainland. Man, I am seriously craving one right now.

Pizza Prosciutto

The dough is chewy and crusty, the toppings are not overdone and then the while still piping hot the pizza is drizzled with good quality olive oil perfuming the whole restaurant with Adriatic aromas. The smells the flavor the look all reminds me of pizza you would get somewhere along the Adriatic coast, Italy or Croatia, your pick this is truly outstanding. I don't even care if the do anything else I'm going back for the pizza.

But wait there's more! Check out the home made charcuterie. I'm moving in next door at the Ivanhoe Hotel just to be close to this place. Yes it's a sketchy neighborhood but well worth the trip.

Charcuterie

Campagnolo has just expanded to a new location on Hasting at Nanaimo with Campagnolo Roma. I hope to check it out soon.

Octopus Salad my complaint: Not enough of it. There rarely is really, nor can there be, really.



Octopus Salad