Osteria Rialto was one big, pleasant surprise. In need of a last-minute reservation to be close to after-dinner festivities, we booked the restaurant based on availability versus reviews. Their menu offers a selection of Italian staples that looked adequate. It’ll likely be a safe but forgettable meal, I thought.

My first bite into the suppli cacio e pepe ($12 for two pieces) and Rialto already brought the arancini to another level by combining it with a mozzarella stick. There was a nice cheese pull to the rice croquette encapsulated by the creamy risotto with a liberal sprinkling of black pepper to balance out the rich bite.  

A decent portion of cheese and meat arrives with the burrata e prosciutto ($25), enough for a taste each for our table of five. The 36-month aged prosciutto had a lovely savoury sweetness against the creamy cheese. And while we didn’t want any bread, they mistakenly provided focaccia ($9) that ended up pairing well with the cheese, the bread salty and fluffy served with a generous dish of olive oil.

The tagliatelle ($27) was surprisingly rich for a meatless sauce. Soft buttery squash was tossed with parmigiano and fried sage, almost melting into the chewy pasta ribbons. The dish is a hearty vegetarian alternative for the winter.

I preferred the squash pasta to the rigatoni ($28), which was a touch dry. While I liked the hint of heat in the sugo, the lamb tasted more like sausage, so the dish was too salty and greasy.

While the chicken in the pollo ai funghi ($34) could be cooked less, the thin cutlets were at least crispy and flavourful slathered in a creamy mushroom and black truffle gravy. If only Osteria Rialto offered rice as a side, the grains would soak up the delicious sauce so well.

It was difficult to decipher the background flavour in the sauce on the braciola di maiale ($38) ... it had a hint of umami that seemed out of place from what looks like a cream sauce. Consequently, the bagna cauda sauce incorporates anchovies (along with garlic), which is likely what added the umami and gave the neutral pork chop a lot of flavour. The meat was cooked well and the roasted rapini kept nice and crispy.  

Osteria Rialto tried to jazz up the insalata misticanza ($16) with a colourful variety of lettuce, including pink leaves – spoiler alert, it tastes like any other bibb lettuce. Ultimately, it’s a plain salad with a few slices of radish and sprinkling of crispy farro tossed in a vinaigrette. Nothing exciting, but if you’re looking for a traditional way to finish an Italian meal, a simple salad is it.

The dinner reminds me to sometimes not over plan a meal – there’s so many reviews and opinions that at times it gets overwhelming. Keep it simple: look for location and a decent menu, then grab a group of friends and go. 

We all know that COVID has hit restaurants badly. If you’re a newly opened restaurant or one beginning during the pandemic, it’s even worse. O&B’s latest addition, Babel, is unfortunately one of these restaurants that has been affected since operations only began in late 2019, when COVID was a mere whisper.

Their Mediterranean inspired menu relies on the 12-foot open concept hearth, where fires are ablaze and the force for cooking their dishes. It’s a shame, as from our patio vantage point, we couldn’t see it. Babel did try to make up for it by putting two blazing torches on the patio. They are beautiful, adding much needed light to the dark parking lot and an element of ambiance, but they’re more for décor as they don’t release much heat for warming.

Yet, their staff did everything they could to make us feel comfortable and welcomed. First, moving the table from the patio and onto the walkway beside the restaurant to give us more light and blocking some of the wind. The “heating lamp” was pushed as closely as possible; a second one later added until the other reservation for the night arrived. A fuel warmer, something you’d normally use under chafing dishes, was brought out to warm our hands. Pots of boiling water were substituted to the ice variety to warm us from the inside. They really tried to go above and beyond, which certainly helped as despite the frigid temperatures we stayed for two hours and didn’t want the evening to end.

With the dishes made with fire being marketed as a specialty to the restaurant, we had to try a couple. The smoked charred eggplant ($13) is a beautiful plate: the eggplant smeared into a thin layer and topped with pistachios, pomegranate, and edible flowers; drizzles of tahini and date molasses giving it tons of flavour with each bite. While more interesting than the typical dips, the delicate creamy eggplant does get covered with all the other ingredients, so if you really want the flavours of the vegetable, perhaps try the stuffed eggplant instead.

The beef tenderloin kebab ($30) arrives more done than we hoped – closer to medium well compared to the medium rareness described – but likely due to the hot metal cooking skewer being left in the kebab to help retain the heat longer. No harm done as being a tenderloin cut, the beef remained tender anyways. With the beef sitting on the pilaf, the rice becomes well seasoned with the juices soaking into the grains.

Both fire-cooked dishes were good, but so were the deep-fried falafels ($9), a green harissa mixed into the batter giving it lovely green hue and more flavour. Crispy outside and fluffy on the inside this is exactly what falafels should taste like.

They go nicely with the fattoush meets Caesar ($14), a salad that’s exactly as described: take charred romaine and drizzle it with a light Ceasar dressing and some of the ingredients typically found on the salad (parmigiano and filets of anchovies) and augment with other things found in fattoush – cucumbers, tomato, onions, and of course, crunchy pita bits. While it didn’t look overly exciting, it ended up being a decent salad.

We would have liked to see more chicken and less chickpeas in the shawarma ($17), a strange addition making the hand-held even messier to eat. After having shawarma in Dubai, I realize they are best kept simple: tons of chicken, a little bit of lettuce and pickles for crunch, and just enough garlic sauce and tahini for flavour but not to soak the bread. Babel’s probably looks better but is cumbersome to eat, especially when it’s served in a halved pita rather than in a chewy wrap. I’d also reduce the seasoning on the fries, as they were salty even for a person who likes things flavourful.

Truth be told, some of my favourite dishes of the night doesn’t even sound Mediterranean. The Babel wings ($17) was a perfect patio eat, the sole dish that arrived and stayed piping hot. We literally could see the steam being emitted from the wings as we bit into them. And the dry spice rub coating the skin was fantastic – slightly sweet but also bursting with other flavours like sumac enhanced with earthier tones.

The chef had to substitute tagliatelle in the spaghetti aglio e olio ($23), which was fine by me and perhaps worked even better to capture all the oil-based sauce. This was dish that gets cold quickly, but even warm was delicious, the pasta done nicely and just flavourful enough without being overly garlicky. The shrimp were also cooked perfectly and there was plenty of it with the pasta.

Can I have a knafeh ($10) to end? Of course! A thin layer of cheese sat on the bottom, enough to have the toasted crispy vermicelli stick to it with hazelnut and pistachio pieces sprinkled on top. There was just enough cinnamon syrup for sweetness but not to soak into the dessert. It’s one of the lighter renditions of the dish I’ve had. Normally, a small wedge of the dessert is all I can stomach; at Babel, I probably could have eaten it entirely.

Maybe it has something to do with eating outside in the cold, our bodies are burning so many calories just to keep us warm through the ordeal. At least that’s what I tell myself – dining in the cold will help work off all the fried food and carbs I just ingested (those who understand science and nutrition, don’t bother correcting me). Plus, the experience made me feel like a real Canadian. I may not ski, but I can eat in the cold.