I went to try Chianti Cafe after picking up a good friend from the airport. She wanted to try a good Italian place, and I was here a few years ago, and it seemed to have gone downhill…
We ordered Calamari to share, and it was decent. It was quite crispy and breaded nicely.
I had penne al pacifico – which was basically smoked salmon with sun dried tomatoes on penne pasta. It was an interested texture of smoked salmon and the pasta was less than al dente, as it had quite a bit of crunch in the centre of the pasta. It wasn’t unbearable, but it wasn’t preferred.
We also had a Piatto Combinato Veal medallions with peaches, mangos in a cream sauce served with penne in fresh spinach & tomato sauce. That I heard was quite tasty.
Our last dish that we ordered was the linguini Kitsilano which was Italian sausage, mushrooms, green peppers, tomato sauce with linguini. It was a decent dish.
Overall, I think it was just the texture of the smoked salmon which probably made my dish seem to fail, and made the rest of my dish seem to be a disappointment, especially considering the other 2 entrees were fine. The calamari was really good too, and they only used the body of the squid, so it was all in ring forms. It was deep fried in oil that seemed to be quite dirty, but the overall taste was good.
Chianti Cafe
2805 32 Ave NE
Calgary, AB