Anton's Pasta Bar

Hungry after a long day of picking up furniture, we decided to go to Anton's in Burnaby with a friend of mine to sate our hunger.  We went on the early side, around 5:30, and there was a small line up as usual, but we were seated quickly anyway and given some complimentary rolls and butter.

Anton's is known for their huge portions, so we didn't order any appetizers.  Instead, we each got a different pasta dish.  

Flowerbunny got the Penne All'Emiliana (Italian sausage, bacon, fresh tomatoes, basil, black olives & feta cheese in a light extra virgin olive oil).  She got it without the olives as she doesn't liked them.  It was pretty good, and the feta was a nice touch.  I think the olives would've added a lot though!

My friend had the Gnocchi Cardinale (Potato dumplings in a creamy tomato meat sauce).  I didn't try this but I'm pretty sure the gnocchi was freshly made as the pieces were squared off and not rounded like you would see in the frozen variety.  This was the first time my friend tried gnocchi and he really enjoyed it.  He said they were really light and that the sauce was good.

I had what has always been my favourite pasta from there: The Linguini Con Salmone Affumicato (Smoked salmon in a dill cream sauce).  I haven't been to Anton's in a long time, and this was as good as I remember it.  The smokiness from the salmon meshes so well with the dill.

For dessert, we all decided to split some Tirimisu.  Flowerbunny thought this was the best she'd had, but while my friend and I both very much enjoyed it, we weren't quite as enthusiastic with our praise.

As usual, we all had lots of leftovers, probably enough for at least two lunches each!

Overall Impressions: Anton's serves huge portions for a decent price.  In a lot of cases, this means that the product isn't very good (quantity vs quality), but here, the pasta is freshly made, quite good and would be well worth the money, even at smaller portions.  

Anton's Pasta Bar

4260 East Hastings St.

Burnaby, BC

http://www.antonspastabar.com/welcome.htm