Table: Café de l'Orangerie
Anata and I headed out for a quick late night bite. We haven't eaten at a Japanese-fusion pasta place for a while, and everytime we're downtown there's this one restaurant that we end up bypassing in favour of ramen... So today, we thought we'd try Café de l'Orangerie. Anata said they used to be in another location, and they moved and replaced another Japanese establishment.
They're located in a small plaza that has parking as well as the street parking available. It was quite late when we got there (they close at 11), and we were seated promptly. When we were ordering we were told that they were doing last orders for the dinners (10:15), with dessert last order being for 10:30.
Anata started off with the mango milkshake, and I opted for the matcha green tea latté. The mango milkshake was rich in flavour, and similar to a yoghurt shake, but very thin in consistency. It was almost like just drinking juice. It had a light mango with the strong yoghurt, and then another wave of the strong aftertaste which we couldn't quite identify but likened it to drinking yakult. Overall Anata found it too sweet.
We were pretty pleased with my matcha latté. It came with lots of foam on top, and had a good balance of matcha flavour without being too milky or too sweet. One of the best matcha lattés I've had so far :)
I ordered a small poutine à l'orangerie, which is the house version of poutine, which comes with their beef stew sauce on top, with shaved cheese. The servers very nicely brought out sharing plates for us and I think it was a great portion for sharing without filling us up too much. The fries were really nice and crisp, and reminiscent of the way Costco's fries have that super crisp and crunchy texture. They're also seasoned with some additional herb-spice-peppery mix for additional flavour. The meat sauce was tasty without being rich, more on the subtle side. It was mostly a beef gravy with a tiny bit of tomato sauce in flavour. The cheese, which was in large shaved pieces overtop the fries could have benefited from being grated and mixed within the fries.
One thing I do have to note is that, quite oddly, the one corner side of the oval dish had some cold fries and sauce, whilst the other parts were warm and the sauce still releasing a little steam. We found that weird, and for food practices it's never a good sign when the food isn't served "hot" when it's supposed to. However, it could just be that because of the lateness of the hour and it being last call time that they might have turned off the heat lamp and only just had it back on for our orders or something like the sauce not being quite hot and fresh since it's the end of the day.
The chicken karaage looked great and appetizing, but I felt that they suffered from the "end of the day" syndrome because you could taste that the oil wasn't fresh. They weren't super crisp, but Anata said that the batter aside, the inside chicken was fluffy and tender so it was still a win for him.
I ordered the spaghetti neopolitan with extra hamburg on top. It came in a very attractive plating with the mound of pasta and cheese generously sprinkled over it, with the hamburg steak pattie sitting on top. The hamburg steak was soft and juicy and tender, and the flavour was very reminiscent of the time I made home made swedish meatballs. They tasted quite strongly of nutmeg. The pasta was sweet since it was ketchup based. It came with mushrooms and pieces of ham. Yummy and filling!
Anata ordered the cabonara with hamburg steak. His sauce was nice and creamy, with mushrooms and bacon pieces in the sauce. It was rich without being too oily, and Anata said that if they had an option with chicken it would have been his ultimate pasta meal ever. As it was, he was very pleased with his pasta. Both portions were quite filling, and neither of us finished our entrées and ended up packing them for home.
We elected to take home dessert since they looked so good but we were full. Anata and I both chose the chocolate rare cheesecake with berry sauce. They packed them in styrofoam boxes with the berry sauce on the side. They also drizzled chocolate sauce and dusted the top with cocoa powder. Anata said the sauce was too sour for him, but I loved it for being so tart and wonderous. Haha.
It's a no-bake cheesecake that's very mild in the cream cheese department. Very light, almost like a mousse, but still maintaining a lovely chocolate flavour. The bottom crust is kind of like a light chocolate pie crust. It's very well balanced with the tartness of the sauce contrasting nicely with the lightness of the chocolate.
As for the other items in their cake display (I actually wanted their matcha parfait pudding but I think they were all sold out... I do apologise for the poor photo quality):
Overall we had a really nice experience. The service was with a smile, the prices moderate, and food tasty. It would probably be better next time earlier during the day and not at their closing time! The only thing I was sad about was the strong food fumes that stuck to my clothes and hair :(
They're located in a small plaza that has parking as well as the street parking available. It was quite late when we got there (they close at 11), and we were seated promptly. When we were ordering we were told that they were doing last orders for the dinners (10:15), with dessert last order being for 10:30.
Anata started off with the mango milkshake, and I opted for the matcha green tea latté. The mango milkshake was rich in flavour, and similar to a yoghurt shake, but very thin in consistency. It was almost like just drinking juice. It had a light mango with the strong yoghurt, and then another wave of the strong aftertaste which we couldn't quite identify but likened it to drinking yakult. Overall Anata found it too sweet.
We were pretty pleased with my matcha latté. It came with lots of foam on top, and had a good balance of matcha flavour without being too milky or too sweet. One of the best matcha lattés I've had so far :)
I ordered a small poutine à l'orangerie, which is the house version of poutine, which comes with their beef stew sauce on top, with shaved cheese. The servers very nicely brought out sharing plates for us and I think it was a great portion for sharing without filling us up too much. The fries were really nice and crisp, and reminiscent of the way Costco's fries have that super crisp and crunchy texture. They're also seasoned with some additional herb-spice-peppery mix for additional flavour. The meat sauce was tasty without being rich, more on the subtle side. It was mostly a beef gravy with a tiny bit of tomato sauce in flavour. The cheese, which was in large shaved pieces overtop the fries could have benefited from being grated and mixed within the fries.
One thing I do have to note is that, quite oddly, the one corner side of the oval dish had some cold fries and sauce, whilst the other parts were warm and the sauce still releasing a little steam. We found that weird, and for food practices it's never a good sign when the food isn't served "hot" when it's supposed to. However, it could just be that because of the lateness of the hour and it being last call time that they might have turned off the heat lamp and only just had it back on for our orders or something like the sauce not being quite hot and fresh since it's the end of the day.
The chicken karaage looked great and appetizing, but I felt that they suffered from the "end of the day" syndrome because you could taste that the oil wasn't fresh. They weren't super crisp, but Anata said that the batter aside, the inside chicken was fluffy and tender so it was still a win for him.
I ordered the spaghetti neopolitan with extra hamburg on top. It came in a very attractive plating with the mound of pasta and cheese generously sprinkled over it, with the hamburg steak pattie sitting on top. The hamburg steak was soft and juicy and tender, and the flavour was very reminiscent of the time I made home made swedish meatballs. They tasted quite strongly of nutmeg. The pasta was sweet since it was ketchup based. It came with mushrooms and pieces of ham. Yummy and filling!
Anata ordered the cabonara with hamburg steak. His sauce was nice and creamy, with mushrooms and bacon pieces in the sauce. It was rich without being too oily, and Anata said that if they had an option with chicken it would have been his ultimate pasta meal ever. As it was, he was very pleased with his pasta. Both portions were quite filling, and neither of us finished our entrées and ended up packing them for home.
We elected to take home dessert since they looked so good but we were full. Anata and I both chose the chocolate rare cheesecake with berry sauce. They packed them in styrofoam boxes with the berry sauce on the side. They also drizzled chocolate sauce and dusted the top with cocoa powder. Anata said the sauce was too sour for him, but I loved it for being so tart and wonderous. Haha.
It's a no-bake cheesecake that's very mild in the cream cheese department. Very light, almost like a mousse, but still maintaining a lovely chocolate flavour. The bottom crust is kind of like a light chocolate pie crust. It's very well balanced with the tartness of the sauce contrasting nicely with the lightness of the chocolate.
As for the other items in their cake display (I actually wanted their matcha parfait pudding but I think they were all sold out... I do apologise for the poor photo quality):
Overall we had a really nice experience. The service was with a smile, the prices moderate, and food tasty. It would probably be better next time earlier during the day and not at their closing time! The only thing I was sad about was the strong food fumes that stuck to my clothes and hair :(