By Karen Aney (The Cascade) – Email
Print Edition: July 18, 2012
114- 19665 Willowbrook Dr., Langley
604.532.5661
Mon to Thurs: 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.
Fri and Sat: 11 a.m. to 11 p.m.
Sun: 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Cost: $10-$17
I need to preface this by saying that I’m not a huge fan of pasta. It’s heavy, bland and typically topped with cheap and tasteless cheese – none of this is a recipe for a great meal, in my opinion. The exception to this rule? Langley—and Coquitlam’s—Pasta Polo, where the heavy and the bland is replaced with the flavourful and the freshly-made.
For the first time in about a year, I stopped by the Langley location. Beforehand, I called to make sure they were open, as it was 7:45 p.m. and I was about half-an-hour away. The friendly employee who answered the phone said “Oh, probably until about nine…” as they typically close at 10, but hot weather means less business, so they sometimes close early. We got there at about 8:15, and received no dirty looks at all – no small miracle, as I’ve worked in retail long enough to hate people who show up looking like they want to camp out at a table and have a three-hour-long conversation. My boyfriend and I are those people, too. We talk a lot. People can tell that we’re going to be difficult to get rid of. It’s part of our charm. Or something.
When our server greeted us, it was with a basket of fresh focaccia bread and a small side of a slightly spicy marinara dip. I had forgotten about this eccentric offering – the generous portion and obvious quality behind the great taste is a welcome greeting while mulling over the menu.
I will say that the menu is probably the lone fault of the establishment: there are some grammar mistakes that my writer/editor self cringes at, and it isn’t entirely coherent. Some menu items, for instance, list an option of four sauces, while the next item—though you can choose between the same four sauces—does not indicate anything along those lines.
This wasn’t too bothersome, as our server was quite cheerful and willing to answer any questions that came up, like with our gnocchi pasta entrée. We wanted it with the rosé sauce—our server’s recommendation—and baked with cheese. The baked gnocchi comes with cream and four cheeses baked on top for $15.95. The plain gnocchi—just sauce, no cheese—is $14.95. Our server said that getting cheese baked on top cost $2.25 extra, and after some debate as to which ordering method was cheaper (I told you my boyfriend and I were “those people”), she cheerfully offered to figure out which was cheaper and bill it as such. The happy ending was that they gave us the baked gnocchi and switched to the rosé sauce for free.
I’m a rather recent vegetarian, and I’ve been becoming gradually pickier with the traces of animal products found in what I eat. As such, when ordering our second entrée—a pizza that either came as seven-inch with a side caesar salad or 10-inch without—I asked the server if she knew if their caesar dressing had anchovies (fun fact: most non-specifically-denoted-as-vegetarian caesar dressings do). She said “I have no idea, but I’ll check that for you!” and immediately turned around to run to the kitchen and find out.
I didn’t get the impression that I was being an annoyance for asking (which I get pretty concerned about), and she was apologetic upon returning (less than 30 seconds later, the kitchen obviously knows their stuff) and informing me that it did, in fact, have anchovies. Speaking from experience, it’s pretty rare to find a server who won’t just say “I don’t know” when faced with that type of question, or worse – say no, even though they have no clue what I’m talking about.
Our food was served quickly – a short enough time span that I hadn’t started to look at my watch yet. With it, we were offered fresh ground pepper and, more importantly, fresh parmesan. No, not the powdered crap, and not the hard rocks they use at cheaper pasta joints. Fresh, glorious parmesan, which was grated on until we could hardly see the pasta and pizza underneath. For the record, we didn’t ask for extra – they were just happy to give us that much.
While the pizza was good, with its homemade thin-crust and nice charred taste, the real star was the gnocchi. Folks, if you haven’t had fresh, home-made pasta, you need to. Like, tonight. Pasta Polo’s is organic and made on the premises of their Coquitlam location. It’s an indescribable taste difference – while store-bought gnocchi tastes like a pile of flour, these taste like delightfully-chewy pillows of awesomeness.
The rosé, a mixture of the tomato basil and alfredo sauces, was bursting with savoury flavour. Oh, and the portion size? Though we both came with sizable appetites, we didn’t finish half of either entree. The pasta portion is easily enough for a full dinner one night and lunch the next day. In fact, I ate my leftovers while writing this review. They’re still just as good.
To finish off our meal, we had the tiramisu. Also made fresh by Pasta Polo – and you can tell. The espresso in it was actually real espresso, rather than the flavoured powdering that often adorns the store-bought versions. The mascarpone cheese was, again … real. The cake was creamy and bursting with flavour – the best tiramisu I’ve ever had.
Oh, and it was $5.50 for a portion size that, once more, we weren’t able to finish. When we commented on how big a serving it was, the server replied, “Really? They’re usually bigger. This was the last one and it looks kind of small, I was going to apologize.” Given the richness of the cake and the reasonable price, we would have been satisfied with something half the size.
Overall, Pasta Polo is one of those rare, hidden gems. The menu doesn’t look that awesome and the restaurant’s appearance isn’t anything to write home about, but the food is local, organic, freshly made from scratch and amazingly tasty. The prices are ridiculously reasonable given the portion sizes, and the service is prompt, knowledgeable and friendly. It’s definitely worth the visit – oh, and there’s a coupon in the 2012 Entertainment Book to buy one entrée and get one free.
