2 Meh Meals in Saskatoon, and 1 Great One

Last weekend we were in Saskatoon to see my mom.  For dinner on Friday evening we tried a new-to-us restaurant, Primal Pasta.  We were pretty excited to go to this place, as they make all the pasta in-house, and had good reviews.  Unfortunately, we were disappointed in our meal.

To start we had the caponata with buffalo mozzarella and bread:

It was decent, although for the price, we expected more (both in amount of mozzarella, and quality of the dish).  The bread was soft, and pretty good.

I ordered the rigatoni with goat cheese, mushrooms, tomatoes, greens and truffle oil:

And Christopher had the squid ink puttanesca conchiglie bottarga, with olives and capers:

Mine was alright, but not worth the price, as we could easily make this dish at home for a couple of dollars; it was was very basic.  Christopher's pasta was really under cooked; the shells were crunchy!  He is a puttanesca lover, but this one just didn't cut it.  We would have mentioned something to the server if it wasn't 20 minutes before closing time.  Since it was late and we were tired, we just ate quickly so we could get to our hotel to sleep.

Next time we want fresh pasta in Saskatoon, we'll go back to Little Grouse on the Prairie.

Unfortunately we had another mediocre meal the next morning, this time at Park Cafe.  It's hard to screw up an omelette and hashbrowns, but this place just doesn't have it down yet ...

The eggs were super dry, and the potatoes were bland.

The next day we had an excellent meal though!  We picked up a pizza from a newer place called Thirteen Pies.  My brother-in-law Riley recommended this restaurant to us.  The pizza is made with a sourdough crust - mmm!

We went inside to order the pizza to-go, and then sat and enjoyed a beverage while waiting for it.  The service was wonderful, and when the pizza came out it smelled amazing!  We couldn't wait to get it back to our hotel room to dig in.

If the pizzas have the same base (tomato sauce, or white sauce), you can get 1/2 and 1/2 to try two kinds.  We had The Killer Cheese (fior de latte, mozza, provolone, truffle honey, leeks, white sauce), and The White Walker (roasted mushrooms, provolone, mozzerela, ricotta, white sauce, truffle oil), and we couldn't pick a favourite of the two.  Both were fantastic!  It's Brooklyn-style pizza, but I think it is better than any pizza I've ever had in Brooklyn.

The sourdough crust was excellent.  We're looking forward to going back to Thirteen Pies many, many more times in the future.

The photo isn't great as it was dark, but the pizza is well worth a visit.

Our server at Thirteen Pies was surprised that we had a bad meal at Primal Pasta, and he encouraged us to give it another try sometime, so we might head back to Primal Pasta to see if they can impress us on a second visit.

Have you tried any new restaurants lately?  

Where is the best pizza in your city?

Good evening peeps! I hope you all had good Mondays back at the daily grind. Before I get to my eats from today, last night I had a Green Monster:

This guy had 1 cup of unsweetened almond breeze, 3 giant handfuls of spinach, a banana, a scoop of amazing grass, and 1/2 cup frozen blueberries. Delish!

This morning I wanted even more green nutrients, so I made another GM with almond breeze, 1 T almond butter, 1 T amazing grass, and a banana:

I swear these guys are going to help ward off all illnesses this winter. They are my elixir.

On the way to work I also had a cup of coffee, and one of these:

(Don't mind the chipped nail polish - it's sexy).

Lunch was my fave frozen entrée:

And a babybel cheese.

For an afternoon snack I had some source vanilla yogurt topped with blueberries:

Dinner was one of my favourite meals - stuffed pasta shells.

You brown some Italian sausage meat (you can squeeze it out of the sausages or buy it in a package) with some green pepper and onion:

While the meat is browning, you cook the jumbo pasta shells:

Once the meat is cooked, you add ricotta cheese, and some shredded parm (we didn't have Parmesan cheese, so I used Irish Stout Cheddar, which basically tastes like regular cheddar, but looks way cooler):

Heck, why not toss in some chopped spinach too:

Stir it up: (little darlin' stir it up)

Stuff those shells and top them with a red pasta sauce and more Irish Stout Cheddar (heck yeah):

Then gobble them up. This is my portion:

Of course, for the hubby there just weren't enough carbs in this pasta dish ... so he had some toast too (he is a rebel like that):

Pasta is probably one of my favourite things to cook, and I probably have more experience with making pasta dishes than any other kind of dish. I absolutely LOVE pasta.

What is your favourite pasta dish?