Casa Italia Pizza and Pasta - Nanaimo Ferry Terminal

What?  I was desperate, leave me alone.  Yeah, I went to a pizza-by-the-slice place in a ferry terminal, I have no right to complain, but if the pizza sucks, the pizza sucks.  I haven't found many places that serve decent pizza-by-the-slice, the only one I like so far is Romano's or Pie R Squared.  This place will not be on my list of places to go.

The pizza here was semi cold and the cheese had already hardened into a greasy mass that separated from the pie all to easily.  Add this to the list of crummy places at the ferry terminals.  Frankie's Barbeque is another place not to waste your dollars....unless you like boiled hot dogs.

Delicado's - Nanaimo

I was in Nanaimo for a martial arts seminar and didn't really get to explore the town and eat out, but on the way back, managed to grab a bite at some of the local places.  Someone said they wanted Mexican and we ended up at this place that clearly catered to consumers of non-meat products.  The closest thing they had to flesh was chicken, and I was in the mood for something that went moo.  I stepped in to this tree-hugging, bunny loving outfit and found myself surrounded hippies eating Mexican Food you wouldn't even find in Texas, let alone Mexico.

My friends decided to spend some cash, but I opted for the free water and a plate of nachos for $5.  From what I had, I basically got tortilla chips from Costco or Save-On foods, and yes, you guessed it, Tex-mex cheese.  There was some sour cream and some bottled salsa.  Suffice to say, I would have been far happier saving my money for something like a burger from White Spot on the ferry.

Urban Beet Food Co

The formal dinner for the Canadian Iaido Association annual seminar this year was held at Urban Beet. Peter Gunstone sensei was primarily responsible for organizing the whole thing, but I was told that one of his senior studens - Sue put together the dinner.

 

Upon arrival, the place looked like a coffee shop, but the set up was professionally done and the servers greeted us with a friendly smile.  We had the whole place booked and they made sure that it was closed off for the event only.

For $30, we got a salad/soup, an entree, and a desert.  I chose the salad and it was really, really good.  Generally speaking, I'm a carnivore and don't really like the green stuff, but this salad was an excellent starter and I was really happy with it.  It came with a nice mild dressing, and candied walnuts wich really complimented the whole thing. 

My dish of choice was the salmon.  I seldom order salmon in restaraunts because it's so easy to screw up and overcook.  But the other choice was chicken breast and there's nothing I hate more than a dried up, overcooked chicken breast.  There was a vegetarian option, but me being the meat eater, I didn't give it a second thought.  I took a chance and ordered the salmon, and was very, very pleasantly surprised.  The salmon was moist and flavourful, and perfectly complimented with the maple syrup drizzle, the side veg were cooked to perfection, but the best part of the dish has to go to the scalloped potatoes.  Rich, buttery scalloped potatoes with some sort of mild cheese sandwiched in between.  Absolutely brilliant.

My neighbor, who was a vegetarion, let me sample some of the canaloni.  Though I didn't regret my order of salmon, it really made me wonder if I had made the right choice.  The pasta noodles were done exactly right, the sauce wasn't overwhelming and the cheese stuffing was fantastic.  I wish I had the option to eat two meals.

The chicken breast I was told was a bit dry, and Iwas relieved to not have ordered it.  the chicken also came with those scalloped potatoes so overall, the experience couldn't have been that bad.

My desert was some sort of fruit pastry, which was also very good.  The fruits were fresh, the pastry wasn't dried out as I expected - very delicious.

Urban Beet is a bit out of the way for me (Nanaimo, where as my stomping grounds are Richmond and Vancouver), but if I ever find my way out there, I'd definitely drop in for a bite.

Swiss Chalet

It's hard to give a review to a restaurant you haven't eaten in before, but here it is.  A couple of friends and I were looking around for a bite to eat Friday night and someone mentioned they wanted to go to Swiss Chalet.  It wasn't that late - about 10pm - pretty early actually considering it was a Friday night.

The place still had a considerable amount of customers inside so we figured, ok, no problem.  We open the doors and there's no host or hostess.  We wait a moment and someone comes to reception and starts to talk but is rudely cut off by some lowly kitchen worker.  I doubt he was a chef - too young.  This snot-nosed teen hollars out "Tell them we're closed!".  Excellent customer service.  I didn`t expect A-1 service at Swiss Chalet, but I expected a bit more than say a Wendy`s or Burger king.  The person who came to reception was not much better, just said with a sarcastic grin that they were out of food for the night and had to close.  WTF.  If the manager or owner of this location ever reads this, you should seriously reconsider hiring your staff from the mall food court. 

Anyway, here's the address so you know which one not to go to:

Island Highway
Nanaimo, BC V9T 1W1
(250) 729-7120