Restaurant Review: Ristorante Pulcinella

Kensington is a great place to stroll around during the summer months and with the weather warming up I’m really looking forward to doing just that. It really is a bonus to also have lots of restaurants just around the corner..or more so on every corner. There are so many choices when it comes to dining options in Kensington that it’s hard to pick and choose where to go. So I’m not surprised that I’ve yet to make my way down to Pulcinella until my friend brought it up one day. Since I’m usually in other parts of downtown, when I was in Kensington last, I made it a point to drop by.

Atmosphere: Open dining area with modern ristorante decor yet keeping a casual Italian trattoria vibe.

Price Range: Mid $10s – Mid $20s

Food and Wine: We were there for a pretty early dinner that evening, which meant we got one of the coveted tables by the window. After ordering our drinks (I recommend starting with a prosecco..or two), we decided on some appetizers to start. We had the Calamari Fritti and Tuscan Bruschetta. The calamari was very lightly breaded and coated in a spicy lemon tomato sauce. I really enjoyed the bit of spice that lingered afterwards.

The Tuscan Bruschetta is a great dish for sharing. It came with three good sized portions of their house pizza dough topped with tomatoes, olives, capers, sun dried tomatoes, and roasted peppers all drizzled with olive oil. The tomatoes were sweet and juicy with the addition of olives and capers giving it that additional tanginess, which brought the dish to a different level, making it not your usual Bruschetta.

We were in the mood for pizza and I was intrigued by their forno oven, so we ordered the Capricciosa to share. My girlfriend and I were both craving different ingredients, which all so happened to land on this one pizza. Fully loaded with mushrooms, prosciutto, olives and artichokes, the only thing I could think of that would bring it up another notch would be to add some truffle oil (what doesn’t taste better with truffles?)! I did find the pizza to be a bit doughier in the middle than what I’m used to because I prefer my pizza dough to be on the crunchier or crispy side, but I did enjoy the toppings and the smoky flavour infused in to the pizza from the forno baking process.

For dessert we shared the Fresh Unbaked Cheesecake topped with a slightly sweetened fresh berry coulis. The texture of the cheesecake is a bit lighter than the conventional baked cheesecakes. Since it’s unbaked, it has a whipped cream cheese mouthfeel. The berries overtop were a nice contrast providing a bit of both sweet and sour to the cheesecake, which can be muted if you just eat it alone. Since I’m not in to overly sweet desserts, the cheesecake was a nice way to end our meal.

My Pick: Calamari Fritti

Overall: With so many great restaurants in Kensington, it’s always hard to pick and choose where you want to go and what you want to try. Pulcinella is a great space to people watch (I have some friends to go there for that specific reason) while sipping on some great beverages and sampling some delicious appies. I’ve also been told they’ve got a great patio in the summer. So why not stroll over?

Pulcinella

1147 Kensington Crescent NW

Calgary, AB

(403) 283-1166

Website: www.pulcinella.ca