Nova Ristorante (Kennedy Road and Lawrence Avenue East)

439 Oh Oh Oh Oh PIZZA NOVA! …You know you sang that in your head, admit it :P. So today my friend and I kept it in the hood and decided to try out Nova Ristorante. This is the first Italian restaurant to open up in Scarborough as well as the first Pizza Nova chain to open up all the way back in 1963… yeah that’s right 53 years :O.

There’s apparently been a new renovation to this place and while I haven’t seen the old setting to compare I have to say it was quite nice inside. The entire restaurant had a chic brown wood theme throughout which enhanced the dining atmosphere in conjunction with the yellow dimmer lighting. Something that really stood out was the way their bathroom doors were painted… I know gross but seriously it's worth a mention. The doors had a Roman-ish painting of a woman’s face and a man's face, these details seriously get to me.

As soon as you walk in you have to wait at the front to be seated. Thankfully, they weren’t that busy today so we got quickly seated by a really nice girl who also gave us our menus. After a few minutes, our table waitress came over and began taking our order. Because we hadn’t decided on entrees yet, we placed our appetizer order and she gave us time to decide on our mains. My friend and I noticed how upbeat the waitress was and she gave us suggestions when we asked. She also explained how she’s been working at Nova Ristorante since 1992 and we could tell that she was very passionate about the food at this establishment. Really unique experience to actually see cheerful people working serving jobs.

For appetizer, or “antipasti” if you want to be Italian about it lol, we ordered the Stuffed Calamari which is on their winter menu. Inside was a mixture of bread, garlic, parsley and parmesan and it was served on a bed of roasted leeks and baby carrots. Though there could have been a little more of a sear, the calamari were well cooked. I mean of course they should be but for some reason restaurants that don’t fry up their calamari have a hard time not turning it into chewy and hard to swallow bites. Even more than the calamari though, the vegetables were sooo delicious. Perfectly seasoned and roasted with olive oil, one of my favourite ways to eat them.

For my entrée, I ordered the Seafood Pasta.  It had mussels, calamari, jumbo tiger shrimp, freshly made spaghetti and you have the option of ordering this dish cooked in your choice of classic homemade tomato sauce or spicy aglio and olio sauce, I chose the aglio and olio sauce …mostly because of the fancy way our waitress was saying it lol. Though I didn’t find this pasta spicy whatsoever it did have a nice garlic flavour, which just hit the spot. The addition of the seafood, which was perfectly cooked by the way, really elevated the humble spaghetti aglio e olio and brought that extra pizzazz for a restaurant dish.

We of course also ordered a Pizza, just to see what the hype was compared to the regular pizza Nova chain restaurant. While it was fancier, with the premium toppings like pesto, feta cheese, etc., I wouldn’t say it was completely worth the $16 for a small x_x.

For dessert we got a slice of Truffle Royale Cake as well as their Tiramisu.  The Truffle Royale Cake is La Rocca brand and had a milk chocolate truffle and a layer of white chocolate truffle sitting on top of rich devil’s food cake. Was it delicious, yes but can you really complain when it comes to La Rocca Cakes, one of Canada’s top premium cake manufacturers? On to the Tiramisu, which surely could have been amped up a thousand times more. It wasn’t terrible but the coffee could have been stronger and the cream definitely needed more mascarpone. The heavy layer of coco powder on top of the Tiramisu also totally caught our throats, and if it's hindering the dining experience I’m just going to go ahead and say that counteracted the nice presentation.

Something really interesting is that during the dinner, one of the chefs set up a free taster session. The chef sampled a dish and explained about it. I love interactive experiences at restaurants and it's pretty smart on their part as well. I was able to learn that Nova Ristorante uses local, fresh, mostly Canadian ingredients to support local businesses. Now did I need to know this, no, but did I feel a thousand times happier dining here after, hell yeah!

Naheeda

If anyone ever says you put too much Parmesan cheese on your pasta, stop talking to them. You don't need that kind of negativity in your life. ~Unknown