On Saturday night, the hubby and I were over in Burnaby and had a lovely date night at Trattoria Italian Kitchen.

The restaurant is easy to get to.  It’s very close to Metrotown skytrain station and there’s also street parking and underground parking under the Element building.  It’s in a nice new tower and the restaurant is large and fancy.  There’s a beautiful circular bar at the entrance that I just love.  I did see a TV screen in the corner with hockey on that Chris really appreciated.  Although it’s a large space, they still manage to offer an intimate setting that was perfect for our date night.

Before I get into the food, I just want to talk about the fantastic service we received here.  Upon our arrival, we were greeted by a friendly hostess and shown to our seat.  Once seated we received attentive service from our waiter and had an opportunity to speak with the restaurant manager who was inviting, friendly and knowledgeable   The drinks and food came out quickly, empty dishes were cleared out instantly.  They treated us well.  I was very impressed by the service.

For our drinks, Chris went with rosé and I had the red wine sangria.  The drinks came out quickly.  My sangria was delicious.  I love it when restaurants actually add the fresh fruit into this cocktail. I felt like I was drinking a proper traditional sangria.  I’ve been finding a lot of restaurants are skipping the fresh fruit lately.

For our appetizers we tried the tomato bruschetta and the signature meatballs.  The bruschetta was so fresh.  Tomatoes, fresh parmesan and basil…mmm.  The beef meatball was smooth.  I know that’s maybe a weird word to use when describing a meatball (haha), but it was just so smooth.  They definitely know how to do meatballs.

For dinner, we decided on the pasta platter as we wanted to try a bit of everything.  The manager also suggested we give the cheese bread a try, so we did.  The platter portion size was generous (initially we thought it was too much food for two people, but after that first taste we quickly changed our tune.  When it’s that delicious it’s not too difficult to clean it off).  The platter came with bucatini cacciatore, crab and lobster ravioli, truffled spaghetti and meatballs, and pesto gnocchi.

The cheese bread was warm and cheesy perfection.

The cacciatore had ground chicken, zucchini, roasted peppers and eggplant.  When I read the menu, I wasn’t certain that I would be a fan of this one.  I’m not usually so into eggplant and it just didn’t sound as appealing on paper as the others, but boy was I wrong.  It was so good.

The crab and lobster ravioli was one of my favorites on the platter.  It was served with a creamy sundried tomato sauce.  How can you go wrong with that combination?  Yum!

The truffled spaghetti and meatballs was a clear stand-out on the platter.  This was the highlight of my meal.  Perfectly cooked spaghetti in a creamy ricotta with those smooth signature meatballs and tomato sauce.  Ohhh myy!  Heaven!

Lastly, the pesto gnocchi.  My husband is not a huge fan of gnocchi and even he liked it.  It was very well done.

Usually I have some sort of critique to offer, but I just can’t.  Our meal was so satisfying.  At several points today I found myself daydreaming about last night’s dinner.  That’s how good it was!  My only regret is that we didn’t have room for the zeppole dessert.  The group sitting next to us was celebrating a birthday and the waiter brought out the italian donuts with candles lit for the birthday boy.  It looked absolutely delectable, but we were in our happy carb food comas and there was just not enough room.  Big regret lol.  I will be back to perhaps try their Carne e Pesce Platter next time, which is more like a protein platter.  It sounds great and may make it easier to leave some room for the zeppole.

We had a great night.