The Boot Italian Restaurant — Restaurant in Town of Cochrane

The restaraunt is has a mediteranian home styling. The servers are very nice, and the dishes aren't expensive. But there are some major issues (like, waiting time). See complete review below:

Before proceeding, the food is by no means bad. However, 'not bad' is a ridiculous standard for a restaurant. The bare minimum is serving food customers WANT to eat (or else why be in the business of serving food) and the food is, at least, decent.

The biggest issue is the delay after ordering. Each time for dinner it has taken at minimum 1h 30min for the food to arrive (at half capacity).

It varies a little, but generally portions are half-sized compared to an average restaurant (esp. $16-18 pasta dishes, more so for the homestyle image they portray... If you have ever eaten at an Italian's). If you want less food a good restaurant will accommodate, so it is hard to argue the smaller size is advantageous. However, the pizzas are a more reasonable size and what you recieve is fairly proportional to the cost of a specialty pizza.

So why is the food decent? You want to eat it, but you are left seeking more flavour. As italian food goes, I would say the menu options are excellent by description, but the seaoning and quality of noodles hold it back.

The atmospherics are like a Mediterranean home, but it doesn't really suit their menu (slightly upscale ingredients, smaller portions, and unlike an authentic homemade pasta, frugally seasoned). The furniture while fitting the atmospherics (in stereotype) do cheapen the feel. The table cloths especially (red checkered) draw an association with a roadside diner (that again does not meet their level of product). The small size is cosy, however the layout/airflow, though ignorable, causes a faint waft of restroom odour while you eat (and my nose isn't as good as most of yours).

I would suggest the owner re-conform or reposition themselves for a consistent brand for lasting success (locating further from another Itialian restaurant would be advised as well). Also, either an improvement to the level of seasoning, or service time would be a significant improvement. Right now the best analogy I can make is, "a less-good Panini's Italian Eatery". Until improvements are made, I would recommend getting a pasta dish at a non-Italian restaurant with decent food (like original joes, milestones, cheesecake cafe) over this restaurant.

Unless you have a specific craving, walk across the parking lot...

Had dinner here with the family a few days ago. The atmosphere is pretty good with large windows and a bright dining room. The food is very good and everything arrived hot and was tasty.

The calamari is hit and miss as mentioned by others, it's quite tasty and the sauce was spicy as advertised. However, my order had a small fragment of plastic in one of the rings and a few rings where on the chewy side.

The pasta was delicious and cooked perfectly, the sauce was tasty, the home made sausage ontop was also perfect. Everyone cleared their plates during the main course.

However we come to two major issues that need to be tackled before I can give more than 3 stars; first off the service. The restaurant was about half full and although our waitress was kind, service was slow and reactionary. If you wanted a refill on anything other than water you need to ask. We asked for a dish to share between two people and it only came with one spoon. The table was not promptly cleared at the end of the meal and we noticed a number of new arrivals waiting for tables to be cleared. We saw a cook or bus boy slap one of the waitresses on the butt. Over all staff professionalism could be greatly improved.

Secondly the glass wear was not clean. I won't say it was dirty because it really wasn't. But water spots where everywhere and the cups had a slight haze. Definitely not crystal clean but not horribly offensive either.

Hopefully with a little more time these hiccups can be worked out. The boot has the potential to be a serious contender in the Italian food market and is worth your time if you're interested in Italian...

We ordered take out from here the other night - A few pizza's and 2 pasta dishes. The pizza's were great, could use a pinch or so more cheese but were like a flat bread. Crust was tasty and ingredients nice and fresh. We didn't want typical pizza, we wanted a good Italian pizza and I think for the most part we got it. I have had better but for Cochrane, being so small, I thought it was pretty good. The pasta was pretty good and I am very picky about my pasta, it has to be traditional and not generic 'olive garden' type stuff. We ordered Carbonara and Lasagna - Both were great and very traditional Italian dishes. The lasagna had those homemade thin noodles (not sure if they are homemade but they sure tasted like it) - For sure tasted like an Italian grandma made it BUT my main complaint is it was very salty and very meaty. I didn't mind the meat as much as the salt. Keep in mind, I am a salt lover and always over-salt things because of that love -- And even these pastas were too much for me. The problem probably was all the parmesan on both of the dishes along with salt added into the dish, which parmesan acts as salt, so it was double dosing BUT I would order again! Just nice to get authentic Italian food and have it be in town. The prices are I suppose on the higher side but if they are making traditional and authentic dishes with possibly homemade pasta and sauces with great ingredients etc, then I'm fine with it. Lost a star for salt factor and needed a little more...