La Viena

The first time I tried La Viena was probably almost 10 years ago before I lived in Calgary. It completely blows my mind that not only has this restaurant lasted that long (there's a lot of turn around in Calgary) but also the food has been consistently the same after all these years.

I know I say it a lot but Italian "is one of my favourite cuisines" and the reason I love La Viena is because their dishes are a bit different from your average spaghetti and meatballs.  The owner and head chef at La Viena is Vietnamese and she brings a certain unico taste to her Italian dishes. La Vienna offers 35 different pastas, 35!!!! At least that's how many I counted  - there could be more. In addition to these 35 pasta dishes, there is pizza, seafood, specialty dishes, appetizers and so much more!! I've yet to try all the dishes but I'm determined!

The most well known dish at La Viena is actually not a pasta but the Lobster Bisque, a perfect blend of cream lobster goodness -- definitely the best I've tried in the city. Other notable appys are the Snails in Garlic Butter, Congac and Wine Sauce -- I drool just thinking of them. Unfortunately there is no picture as I hoovered them down as soon as they were set on the table. So take it from me you must order them, they are so tasty you don't even remember you are eating snails!! And don't forget to save some of your bread so you can dip it into the yummy wine sauce.

Onto the mains!! After our bellies were warmed with snails and lobster bisque, we moved on to our pasta dishes. I ordered the Penne Hawaii -- spicy Italian sausage, pineapples and chicken in a tomato sauce, while my other half ordered the Shrimp Gnocchi -- baby shrimp, baby scallops and peas in a cream sauce.

The servings are huge! We always forget how big they are and end up ordering our own dishes. My man is a trooper and finishes his plate every time but I always end up packing a large portion away for next day's lunch -- where it is equally as delicious.

Penne Hawaii

Seafood Gnocchi

Needless to say, we are always too full to try any desserts but we can't help but hop over to Amato Gelato. I know, I know. How?! How can I even think to eat gelato when I am stuff to the brim with all that carby goodness? Honestly, I don't know. But I'm sure glad I can :)

Today we had Black Forest and Pistachio / Hazelnut -- that's right, he got two scoups. O.O