LUNCH AT RISTORANTE PULCINELLA - Kensington

I went down to Kensington for the Harry Potter/Diagon Alley event. I arrived early, 9:15-ish, and there were only a line-up at Pages. After 10am, when the event started, it was crazy busy. My friend arrived late and was having trouble finding parking. We tried to walk around a bit but gave up. We just ended up at Pulcinella. I was curious about their gelato that they had for the event, but my friend was hungry. We decided just to have lunch in the restaurant since she love their pizza.

Pulcinella is a nice modern Italian restaurant with a gelato display case by the front door and a wood-burning stone oven near the back were you can watch the pizza masters do their work. Since we chose this place randomly, I didn't have time to do any research so I have no idea of what to expect. The server was very nice and attentive. Every time he stopped by the table to check up on us, he would refill our water from the carafe on our table. I wasn't really hungry so I decided to just order an appie. However, my friend also talked me into sharing a pizza as well.

Arancini $14

Arancini is one of my favourite Italian dishes. When I ordered it, I was under the impression of just getting one ball. I was pleasantly surprise that three big balls came in this appetizer. So I was quickly rethinking my saying yes to a shared pizza. Arancini is a stuffed rice ball coated with bread crumbs and deep-fried. The arancini I ordered was stuffed with mozzerella, and the rice was infused with saffron. The balls were topped with a nice light tomato sauce and a fried basil leaf. The appetizer was warm when I got the dish so when I cut into one of the arancini, the cheese was all nice and melted. The arancini also had a nice light crunch to it from the deep fried outer layer. The balls were a little bit salty for my taste but overall it was very good.

Verdure Grigliate $18

Pulcinella is known for their authentic Neapolitan pizza with the chef being a member of the Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana (VPN). My friend and I decided to order a 'light' pizza which means not overloaded with meat. So, we were looking at all the veggies ones, and they have a good selection of those. I think I counted ten different vegetarian pizza. The pizza we chose, verdure grigliate - translated to grilled vegetables - was loaded with vegetables. This pizza consist of tomato sauce, grilled aubergine, peppers, zucchini, mozzarella, parmigiano, basil, and fresh tomato. All the vegetables were grilled except for the tomatoes. The crust was thin and bubbly. Neapolitan pizza has to be cooked in a wood-fire stone oven. Everything was fresh and delicious on the pizza. The only problem I had was I think I took a bite of crust that was very charred. My mouth had an ash taste that I couldn't get rid of quickly.

Overall, this was a pleasantly surprise restaurant to visit. I'm glad we stopped by here. However, after all that food, we weren't able to get a scoop of gelato. Next time ...

Ristorante Pulcinella
1147 Kensington Crescent NW
403-283-1166