Massimo’s Cucina Italiana

I just got back from a wonderful holiday in Phoenix and Disneyland late last night, well actually, very early this morning. The weather was absolutely fabulous (just wait until you see my “tan”) and it was great just to get away from Edmonton. I had a bunch of really delicious meals and I took a lot of photos so there will be a few food-travel related posts coming up in the next couple of weeks! In the mean time, let’s get back to some Edmonton dining from a few weeks ago.

Massimo’s Cucina Italiana
5012 104A Street
Edmonton, AB

A week before my birthday my friends Irene and Sayyad took me out for dinner to celebrate. I decided that I wanted to go back to Massimo’s after having had a great lunch there a few weeks ago.

We made the reservation for 6:30 and when we arrived we were surprised to see that the restaurant wasn’t really that full. However, by about 7:00 the place was packed, which was great to see.

I ordered a glass of one of my favourite white wines, Casasole Orveito. The wine was refreshing as always, however, I thought that the portion of wine seemed a little small. Sayyad, who also ordered a glass of wine, agreed that there seemed to be just a little less wine than we expected.

The bread that was brought out was excellent. I especially liked the crisp, flat foccacia bread that had the rosemary and olive oil on top of it. Although I knew I had a bowl of pasta coming out, that didn’t stop me from polishing off the foccacia.

Irene and I decided to split the Caprese Salad to start. The salad was made up of thinly sliced, fresh, beautiful tomatoes, creamy white, bocconcini cheese, fresh basil and oregano, and drizzled with olive oil and balsamic reduction. The salad tasted so fresh and light and was an excellent start to the meal.

For my entrée, I ordered the ravioli barolo beef in a rosé sauce. The fresh ravioli were so flavourful and the rosé sauce was the perfect accompaniment. What I really liked about the sauce was that it was so smooth and luxurious. Clearly no flour or other thickeners had been added, like at some other Italian restaurants I have visited, resulting in a nasty paste like “cream sauce.” Although the pasta was so good, I didn’t end up eating the whole portion, which wasn’t even that big, just because I found the pasta so filling. Not a bad thing though… that meant leftovers for lunch!

Irene chose the gnocchi with prawns and basil pesto as she said she had been wanting to try fresh gnocchi for a long time. After trying the gnocchi, Irene and I agreed that it was very good, but it was just so rich. We both decided that we probably would have preferred a small amount of the gnocchi as a side dish, nothing against the gnocchi, just personal preference as it was just so rich.

Sayyad ordered the Salmon as he is currently following the Paleo Diet and was trying to stay away from the carb loaded pasta and pizza. He said the salmon was good, but at the end of the day it was just salmon. As the potatoes would have gone to waste, I had a couple bites of them and they were excellent mashed potatoes– loaded up with lots of cream and buttery goodness, I am sure, to make them so delicious.

After out entrée dishes were cleared, the waiter (and my friends) surprised me by bringing out a huge piece of tiramisu with a candle in it. I didn’t think I had room for any more food, however I somehow found room to eat almost the whole piece of tiramisu. It was excellent, there seemed to be just the right balance of coffee liquor, cocoa, whipped cream, lady fingers and whatever else went into making that tiramisu delicious. The best thing about the tiramisu, however, was that it didn’t come accompanied by a loud and embarrassing birthday song. Thank goodness Massimo’s isn’t that kind of place. 🙂

I had a wonderful evening at Massimo’s. The food was delicious, the atmosphere warm and inviting and the company top-notch. Thank you to my wonderful friends, Sayyad and Irene, for the beautiful birthday dinner!

Happy Wednesday!