Il Toro Pasta and Pizza Bar - 1/321 North East Road, Hampstead Gardens, SA
Wanting a quick and fuss free dinner on Friday night, boyfriend and I decided to try Il Toro Pasta and Espresso Bar on North East Rd. Although not the most flash looking place, Il Toro boasts fresh handmade pasta and has received fairly good ratings on Urbanspoon.
The garlic bread ordered
for starters was nice but not rave worthy. Standard crunch, standard amount of
oil, standard amount of garlic. Personally, I like my garlic bread oozing with
oil but I understand this isn't to everyone's taste.
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| Garlic bread |
Gnocchi Calabrese was
chosen as one of the two mains for the night. This dish is described as hand
cut gnocchi with calabrese salami, chilli, kalamata olives and roma tomato salsa.
Unlike your normal round petite gnocchi, the gnocchi were large oval shaped
pillows, both soft and comforting. I was initially surprised at the
softness and the lack of bite of the gnocchi but was not disappointed. The
texture of the gnocchi was closer to the mash potato side than al dente pasta
side. The roma tomato salsa was nicely flavoured by the olives and had a mild heat
impact from the chilli and salami.
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| Gnocchi Calabrese |
The second main chosen
was Penne Al Pollo - pan fried free range chicken breast, smoked bacon, field
mushrooms and rose sauce. This dish had nice, subtle flavours but was not as
complex as those found in the Gnocchi Calabrese. Once again the pasta did taste
fresh and handmade. However, the chicken in the pasta was slightly dry and
overcooked.
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| Penne Al Pollo |
There is no doubting the
handmade nature of the pasta and lovely to have copious amounts of shaved Parmesan served with each pasta dish - the way it's suppose to be. The food served was very homely tasting. My boyfriend,
a reputable Italian source, stated it tastes exactly like something from
someone’s home, especially the element of chicken dryness because you're freaked
about salmonella poisoning. Price points
for pasta dishes lie between $10 – $13. This is fantastic value for a dish of
good quality handmade pasta, considering Fasta Pasta would cost you slightly more.
Jess gives Il Toro
Pasta and Espresso Bar 14/20 chops on The Chopping Board.
Food: 7/10
Ambience: 3/5
Service: 4/5
Posts
I think the chicken dryness was more like re-cooked chicken...it had that taste about it.
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