Bianco — Restaurant in Edmonton

INCONSISTENT PORTION SIZES & SKIMPED LEFTOVERS? My fiancé and I decided to celebrate a birthday here together because we wanted to try somewhere new. We have eaten all over Edmonton but we had not gotten the chance to get to Bianco yet so we gave it a shot. We forgot that an oilers game was happening that Tuesday so when we showed up we were just lucky enough to get 2 available bar seats. No problem, we aren’t picky on where we sit. We order our meals and our appetizers, a Ricotta Parma Fresca and Polpette di Pomodoro. The ricotta we had seen numerous times online and wanted to try it, when it arrived it was a much smaller portion rather than what we had seen others have. The overall taste was fresh, but a bit boring. You get more flavour from burrata or even butter, which I wasn’t expecting from the ricotta. We ended up dipping it in the sauce of the meatballs (Polpette di Pomodoro) and it was a good pairing together so we enjoyed it other than the smaller portion size. The meatballs themselves were juicy and rather large! We then ordered the Casarecce al Ragu Bolognese and the Casarecce con Pollo e Funghi. The portion size was great for both of them, and they both had two delicious sauces. The Pollo came with chicken but it wasn’t super appetizing. It was similar to that of a cubed bagged chicken breast they serve in a lot of restaurants. For a high end restaurant, I didn’t like that. It shouldn’t feel like it came out of a wrap pack. If it was fresh and that’s just how their chicken turns out, that needs to be replanned because it cheapens their homemade Casarecce and such a nice sauce. We had a lot of servers during our time here, we didn’t get just one person stick with us. Coming on the end we got the bill and the server said “oh we will pack it up for you.” I thought that was rather nice and really added a nice touch to the elegance of the restaurant. At this point I would’ve given a rating of 3 or 3.5/5. It wouldn’t have written the restaurant off totally, we would’ve came back in future. It was like a mid level restaurant which had elegant touches. We pay over a hundred dollars for our dinner and we went home. We decided to eat our leftovers while relaxing together on the couch later that night since we had an early dinner, and come to our surprise they rationed our bread for our ricotta. The dish came with focaccia and it was in long strips on the plate beside our ricotta. We had intentionally left 3 long pieces of bread so that we could enjoy it later with our meals. These pieces are realistically the length of my hand. Opened the box and they cut 2 small pieces from what we left for our bread and what… tossed the rest in the garbage? Why take something away that we paid for and waste it? I just thought that seriously cheapened the restaurant and it put a bad taste in my mouth. So we received smaller portions on our Ricotta appetizer than they normally put out, then it was bland and could’ve used an oil or vinaigrette, then we got some cubed bag tasting chicken in our pasta, then we were skimped on our leftovers. Did part of our pastas get tossed too? Not a good look!!! Pictured below is what we got from our leftover bread minus one piece of the same size that was eaten, keep in mind we still had about 4 times both of those pieces that was left with...

Instantly my new favourite restaurant in the city. My partner and I went last week in the freezing cold to celebrate her birthday and the experience was well worth the chills.

We were greeted with a smile and had no issues with our reservation. I had never used Reserve with Google before so I wasn’t sure what to expect. But they called us earlier in the day to confirm our reservation and when we got there it was instantly found.

We didn’t have to wait and were seated right away. While we sat against the large patio doors, we didn’t feel as chilly as we expected. We were able to warm up really quick thanks to the great atmosphere.

Service was quick and full of great personality. Our waiter helped make the night even better. They provided some solid recommendations but also gave us enough space to enjoy our meal checking on us every now and then to see how we were enjoying ourselves. Sometimes it was like they read our minds and for example, brought us some more bread to go with the fantastic house made Burrata without us really needing to ask.

For our mains we had the Tortelloni Burro E Salvia and the Campanelle Aragosta. Both were fantastic and the portion sizes were very reasonable for the price point. We ate it all with no leftovers because fresh house made pasta is better eaten on the spot than the next day. We were stuffed! However, we left some room for dessert since we were celebrating a birthday. We had the Blueberry Ricotta Cheesecake and I don’t think I’ve ever had such a fluffy cheesecake before. I’m so used to dense cheesecake but this one was like eating a cloud with the most delicious flavours.

I topped it off with an americano that was also quite tasty.

Overall we spent ~$150 for an appetizer, two mains, a dessert, a couple cocktails, and a coffee. Plus the tip of course. Money well spent if you ask me.

But that wasn’t even the highlight of the experience, well celebrating a birthday was the highlight but we also got to meet Joe, one of the owners, who came by and had a chat asking us about our experience. It was nice to connect with the owner and see how invested he was and that he cares about his guests’ experiences.

The restaurant was packed on a Thursday evening in -35 degree weather. If that doesn’t tell you the quality of the place, I don’t...

Have eaten here a few times and hosted my birthday here with a large group before. Great food and decent service, probably the best pasta I have had in Edmonton! Wish they had more vegetarian options that tasted different from one another as a lot of them felt like a different type of pasta with the same spinach and sundried tomato sauce combo. Only reason for 4 stars is because someone needs to address the behaviour of the person who I presume to be some form of management (male with white hair and glasses). On every visit I have been there, I have witnessed him berate a female waitress (at least one per visit). On my birthday, he was quite rude to one of my guests who came late (but of course she already knew she had less time to eat as she was late but he just yelled at her saying she’s late so she needs to hurry to eat before she even sat down. Then came back and apologized to her saying he was “acting like a dad who just cared about her”). Tonight, he pulled a girl aside and berated her beside our table (so we heard everything). After she looked visibly sad, we saw him trying to hug her (which she uncomfortably half hugged him back) and use the same “caring like a father” about her line as he did my guest, again right next to our table. He then tried to hug her a few more times throughout the dining room, and she just looked so uncomfortable. Maybe it is just coincidence but the fact it has happened every time we are there makes me question the work environment. Discussions like this should be had in private in an office or kitchen, not beside people’s tables and in the entrance table where all guests and other workers watch. Just felt like a poor working...