Mosi - Breakfast, with a side of Italy

Another revolving restaurant door is about to stop with the opening of Mosi on West Saanich Rd and Prospect Lake Rd/Sparton Rd.

If you long for the fabulous'ness of the original La Collina (remember pizza and pasta nights at the original Cedar Hill location?) - then you'll want to head out for breakfast or lunch at Mosi. It's run by the same family.

Their Italian roots are authentic - there's a photo on the wall of the owner's grandmother....

Padella Italian Bistro - gnocchi near the beach

Tucked away in Estevan Village (deep, dark Oak Bay!), a few blocks up from Willows Beach is Padella Italian Bistro - a lovely little restaurant serving dinner. {Tangent: for only being a block long, this little village is great - in addition to this great Italian place you can get top notch breakfasts from The Village, classic fish & chips from Willows F&C and fancy cupcakes from Crumsby's (well curated greeting card selection at Bungalow too...but this is a food blog ;-) }

Padella's bright red door greets you on the outside....

Padella's welcoming red door

Fiamo Italian Kitchen - it's Dine Around again!

We're coming to the last few days of Dine-Around and have landed at Fiamo Italian Kitchen.

A nostalgic stop, as this was one of my first blogging entries…but I digress.

Even though I'm making this recount fast and short (and there's only a few more days to take advantage of Tourism Victoria's Dine-Around promotion) it's not like Fiamo's is going anywhere - so use this dinner review the way Dine-Around is intended - get your interest peeked (or your memory jogged) about eating out at one of the great restaurants that this city has.

Now onto the food.

Zambri's - classy Italian at the Atrium

Zambri's has been a fixture of Victoria's restaurant scene for over fourteen years.

The restaurant is located in the beautiful Atrium building, adjacent to the main entrance on Yates Street. Prior to opening up shop in their glass walled setting, they were tucked into a non-descript spot between London Drugs and the Market on Yates. Back then, weekdays lunches were ordered & paid for at the counter and brought out to your table. Dinners were usually a wait for one of the unreservable few tables (or you might luck-out and grab a stool at the tiny bar). Scene-change: Atrium - now Zambri's is open for lunch six days a week (with table service) and reservable for dinner seven nights a week. They're also open for a fabulous brunch on Sundays.

Zambri's Atrium location

Everything about the restaurant setting has changed. Nothing about the quality of the food has.

Italian Brunch at Zambri's

I really love heading out for breakfast/brunch. I’m not in the minority in that love as most breakfast restaurants around Victoria suddenly spring line-ups on weekends (and the really good ones have line-ups DURING the week!). Whether our timing was right or not many know about it yet – we were able to waltz right into Zambri’s and grab a lovely table for two just before 11am on a Sunday for their brunch.

As with any meal at Zambri’s, the setting, service and food are really great.

We ordered the meatballs & eggs and Italian scramble. The meatballs were sliced, sitting on two solid pieces of polenta and topped with soft poached eggs. The polenta was sitting on a delicious, fresh tomato sauce with a lovely drizzle of olive oil. Beautiful, tasty, but watch out for errant pieces falling off your fork and into the sauce. I may have splattered a tiny bit of sauce….around the plate…and onto my teapot…and cup…but my napkin remained pristine and white!

Meatballs and Eggs (before sauce disbursement)

The other dish wasn't as napkin challenging.....

Dine-Around - Fiamo Italian Kitchen

Next stop : Fiamo Italian Kitchen near the bottom of Yates Street.

The restaurant was offering both a $20 and $30 menu for Dine-Around - and we obviously weren’t the only people who thought the options sounded interesting – the restaurant was packed – albeit we were there at prime time (7pm) on a prime night (Friday). We weren’t surprised by having to put our name on a long waiting list and then stroll down the block for a drink. As a small, side review – we quite enjoyed a red wine and an on-tap gin-and (locally-made) tonic from Sauce Restaurant.

Back at Fiamo’s, we returned just as our name was up next on the wait-list – and settled into a cozy table tucked up against the brick wall in the main dining room. And now we got down to the business of deciding which menu to try and which options to choose (helped by a glass of prosecco…..conveniently on-tap here – hmmm, apparently I have a theme going with this). We both opted for the $30 menu and agreed to swap half-way through each course (our parents and Sesame Street would be proud).

First courses: tempura soft-shelled crab and bruschetta three-ways. The tempura crab was excellent – a nice, light batter on the crab, served with a tasty aioli. The bruschetta was equally as tasty – the tomato one was a little bite of summer, the smoked tuna was, well, nicely smoky and the Italian sausage was flavourful without being too spicy or greasy (and the bread was firm enough to hold the topping, but not shred your mouth). An cleaned plate and empty cutting board were returned to the kitchen.

Tempura soft-shelled crab

Bruschetta Trio

And next up, the main courses: