Serra Pizza & Pasta Ristorante
378 Bloor St. W.
416-922-6999
serrarestaurant.com – prices not accurate/no reservations for dinner
Rating: **
Dinner & drinks for 2: $55
It’s been here for 11 years. It must be good.
Cozy and warm, despite the casualness, the space allows diners the watch passersby out the glass front. The menu is straightforward — a few appetizers, pizza, pasta and your typical mains — chicken, salmon, lamb, etc.
The Arugula and Grilled Asparagus Salad ($9.95) is splendid — sweet roasted red peppers and grilled artichoke hearts tangle amongst a mountain of peppery, lightly dressed arugula. The Grilled Calamari ($12.95) erupts with fresh Mediterranean flavours — oven-cured tomatoes, kalamata relish and red peppers.
The pizzas, though, are disappointing. The thin crust is crunchy, greasy and surprisingly heavy. Cooked to well-done, it is hard to get at any of the flavours (broccoli, eggplant, pesto), except roasted garlic in my Smoked Chicken Pizza ($13.95) — which comes in loud and clear.
The Woodland Mushroom Pizza ($12.95) is better suited to the dough’s density, but the crust remains its biggest downfall.
And the service isn’t any better — treated disdainfully by our server throughout our meal, our guy peppers my food without asking and we can’t get water to save our life.
We are clearly an imposition. The city is teeming with restaurants. We’ll go where we are wanted.
