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L'Artista is an Italian eatery on East Hastings.
Ate here last night with my wife, nice little Italian restaurant. Service was good and friendly.
Appies:
My wife had - Italian Sausage and Artichokes.....Italian sausage and artichoke, sauteed with garlic and white wine
I tried a bite of this and was surprised, it was better then I was expecting.. the flavors went well together.
I had - Mussels Marinara....Steamed mussels with garlic, olive oil, fresh herbs & tomatoes
This was great, a 4 out of 5 for me. Lots of mussels, sauce was great and perfect for dipping the bread into. The bowl was clean when I was finished. I just wished that tasty sauce had a little texture in it, some chopped onions would have made it perfect.
Entrees:
My wife had - New York steak ai Funghi....10 oz. New York Steak topped with mushrooms and fresh herbs
She enjoyed this meal and it looked great as well.
I had - Risotto ai Funghi....Rice with mushrooms and parmesan cheese
This dish was tasty, I'd rate it a 3.5 out of 5.
Dessert
Wife ordered - Creme Caramel .....Caramel custard our new dessert
She liked it
I ordered - Chocolate Mousse ....A mouth-watering delight
Was a good light and tasty mousse.
Overall, nice place, nice staff, good food, prices were ok (some items a little over priced in my opinion)
We'll return sometime.
I ordered a Penne del Pescatore and I love their tomato sauce. The calamari and prawns were done just right. Another minute and it would have been overcooked. The dessert menu, however, was kind of limited. Service was just OK; both the hostess and server were friendly enough, but service was very slow. They probably need to get another server and kitchen helper on a weekend evening. Ambiance wasn't the best; it was quite noisy with a lot of tables crammed into a rather small space, and the decor is kind of dated as well.
This is a great mid priced Italian Restaurant. We've been coming here for years and have not been disappointed yet.
They have the best fettucine with salmon. It is a really good size serving and nice and creamy. Other entrees include steak, Lamb, fish and chicken.
For the quality the food is very reasonably priced.
This was my second time at this restaurant. The food was very good. I had special salad which was light and good. Then for my main course i had chicken with pasta in olive oil and garlic. It was very good. I was too full on this and had no more room for dessert. The latte was a luke warm but not bad. Service was excellent and i was surpised that it was not busy for saturday night. Maybe everyone is at the beach as we are now having some good weather. I was there last year and it was good then. I had some seafood then.
Went to this retaurant for the first time today and enjoyed their lunch special. Scalloped chicken breast with lemon sauce with prawns (no fear of garlic), penne rose, deep fried cauliflower and roasted zucchini and carrots. The lunch was great: well prepared and presented. The chicken was tender and the sauce zesty, the prawns done to a turn, and the deep fried caulifower a new taste sensation. Fresh Portugese buns were provided to sop up every last drop. The waitress and hostess were both professional and very friendly.
I went here a couple weeks ago and had a pretty good meal. The pastas are all around $15, and for what you pay, you get a pretty good quality meal. The pasta seemed like it was made fresh, the sauce tasted of natural good quality ingrediants.
A great waiter and pretty decent house wine, and overall my wife and I were quite satisfied. It's not an outstanding restaurant, but a good one and will probably go back to sometime. I don't think you'll do too much better for this price range.
Went to L'Artista fo an anniversary dinner. Had an EB coupon so thought we'd try it. Read the previous reviews so stuck to the specials. My husband and I had the seafood linguine and we were not disapointed. I had the wine sauce and my husband had the rose. Pasta was cooked to perfection and the mussels and clams were very tender.Shrimp are very small and I think they just cook them in the sauce.Perfect serving size , not the monster portions served at other pasta places. Service was quick and staff was very attentive. Decor is a little dated but it seems to work. We will be back.
There are many Italian restaurants on Hastings. L'artista is among them - dated ambiance with average food, but stellar service.
We arrived late on Friday with no reservations to be served by a great waiter - he knew his menu, was attentive, and was timely with his approach.
I was slightly disappointed by my meat ravioli as it did not taste "meaty" enough. Even though the pasta was stuffed with meat and served with a meat sauce, the only thing "meaty" about the dish was the melted cheese on top. It was an ample serving, however, and the leftovers tasted better then next day.
My boyfriends' Veal Pompei was delicious though! Veal scallopine breaded and lightly fried, topped with tomato, ham, and cheese, and placed under the broiler until the cheese was melted.
We would go back for the service, timeliness and veal, but not for the ravioli.
Had dinner here this evening. Very nice for Italian. Better than most for quality,presentation and ambience. This place rivals the place just down the street, just no after dinner band. We had a couple of fetticine dishes and gnocchi dishes. Portions are excellent and the tastes were wonderful. We watched the veal and lamb dishes go by and they looked very well appointed.Service is excellent but not too aggressive. This place was also catering to smaller sized companies Christmas dinners with ease. If you're looking for a nice intimate Italian fare, this is it. You won't be disappointed. Not overpriced either.Recommended, Chef to be complimented.
Went there on an early Friday dinner without reservation. I was surprised that 1/3 of the restaurant is already full and the other 1/3 is reserved.
Ordered Fettuccine ai Frutti di Mare and it was pretty well made. The pasta is not over-cooked and there are lot of seafood as well.
Service is prompt and there is no need to look for the server.
Nice little Italian restaurant. Have a cozy feel. Maybe a bit too cozy that it is getting a bit tight.
We went on Valentine's day just on a whim, because many places were closed/had no more reservations at the time we could arrive. It's a nice intimate place, with dim lighting, and some soft elevator/romantic music (it was cheesy, in a cute way). They gave us some nice complimentary bread (so hot, and so fresh!) and we ordered 2 appy's: garlic butter prawns (about 6) and breaded oysters. The garlic prawns were nice, especially if you used the hot bread to dip into the sauce (so delicious!), and the bread oysters were okay (my bf wasn't a huge fan)..there were 3 big pieces with a nice mayonnaise sauce). Nothing to rave about...although a table near us got the mussels, and those looked really good. For the entree, we got the mustard rack of lamb, which came with seasoned vegetables (nice potato wedges, deep fried cauliflower, carrots & broccoli)and the special: beef tenderloin with the vegetables....well I loved the lamb, it was soooo good, maybe a little bit too mustardy, but the way the lamb was cooked, I enjoyed it a lot (and i usually don't like the taste of lamb)...the beef tenderloin was fine, but i wouldn't order it again, in the sense that my grandma could cook the same meal. We were stuffed so there was no room for dessert...but I wouldn't mind going there again, maybe at lunch time and try to some pasta. It's definitely a place one should consider if they're in the hastings/burnaby area.
We go there about once a year, and each time, it's pretty consistent. We always order the tomato bocconcini to start (have yet to find one more flavorful anywhere else), and finish with the tiramisu (very light). This time, the prawns in white wine and garlic was the entree of choice, and it was very tasty; vegetables were a little scant, but otherwise we'd order it again. Pretty casual and relaxed environment - no frills.
The place is nothing to write home about - old and rustic. Maybe they should renovate. The food on the other hand is very good. I had the seafood plate - with halibut, prawns in a tomato wine sauce. Awesome.
The tiramisu was fabulous. But the house wine was a little off.
But for Burnaby, this is pretty good.
a week ago, we booked this restaurant (6 of us) for a friends gathering. One of the friends picked this since L'artista is close to all of us.
the reservation was pretty smooth I have to say and we didn't wait too long before we got seated. can't compliment the ambiance because it was a little too "old" for me. I know probably it was for a "Traditional Italian Family Style".
the waitress was nice but a bit too shy for me (not knowledgeable about the menu items enough). I ordered Veal Ravioli, and the sauce was way too salty and not fresh too me (I had to drink so much water after). The sauce feels like it was from a canned creamy mushroom sauce poured on top of canned pasta instead of freshly made sauce and hand made pasta (I mean that's what I would expect from a Italian restaurant not a supermarket). the sauce was also too thick. The veal ravioli was not impressive since I couldn't taste the "meat"....
I would not go back again!
Third time that we tried this place. Had to make reservations and ordered the "special" and asked the waiter to recommend the type of sauce. Was EXCELLENT. Now I understand why this place is so popular. Will only order the special and with recommendations from staff. That is the "key". Tables are crowded in and is very noisy so don't expect a romantic evening. We will definitely go back.
Food:
I had the fish soup, it was flavourful, chock full of mussels, clams, prawns for $8 it was definitely a good value.
We had the special seafood linguine for the entree $18, this was dissapointing, especially after the fish soup. Half a can of cream mixed with some salt dumped on to cheap linguine. For desert we had the tiramisu, it was decently average, a typical tiramisu.
Ambiance:
The room was a dark and dingy and a little dirty, not a place to chill
Recommendation:
I would definitely go back for their amazing fish soup but, pass on the entrees and desert.
As a group of four women, we were out to celebrate a friends birthday. The place was packed when we arrived at 7:30 p.m. on a Friday night. We were seated right away which was great as we had reservations. This is a very small restaurant and space is very tight. The tables are very close to each other.
I was very disappointed in the way they had gone about serving the cake that we brought to the restaurant. We had presented our friend with the cake and it was in front of her on the table. The waitress then asked us about dessert and explained that they would have to charge each person $2.00 for plate service etc. We didn't really have a problem with the charge except on several occasions we have done the same at other restaurants and there were no charges.
The waitress offered to take the cake and put candles on it and slice and serve us our cake. When she came back with the cake, she did not place the cake in front of the birthday girl, from whom she took the cake, she had placed it in front of me. After the "sparkler" fizzled away, the cake was taken back to the kitchen to be sliced. I was very disappointed in how messy the slicing was and all four pieces were of different thickness. I was waiting for an explanation of what was going to happen with the rest of the cake. When we were finished I asked about the remainder of the cake. I was told that there was only a sliver of cake left and that it was at the front ready for us when we were ready to leave.
When my friends and I were leaving, the cake box was sitting on a table waiting for us. The box was not attended to and the box was wide open, we could see how much of the cake was left. The waitress was right there was only a sliver of cake left. I do not think we were served the entire cake, there should have been at least 1/3 of the cake left. I don't really know what to make of this. It has been on my mind how unprofessional this whole experience at L'Artista has been, considering it is a fine dining restaurant.
It does not matter what the rest of the meal was like with a finish like that. I definitely will not be going back to L'Artista !!
I did not get an apology or satisfaction from talking to the owner the following day.
My husband I like to try out different Italians and we decided to take-out from this place this time because the review was good.
well, we are so glad that we tried. Make a long story short, this place is the best of all Italian places we have been to in terms of the taste, and value. My husband ordered ravioli in meat source and I ordered Linguine in seafood cream source(I don't remember the name). For my husband dish the portion of ravioli was incredible and was soaked in lots of tomato source and lots of cheese on top. My linguine was also soaked in a great amount of cream source with lots of sea food like Mussels, clams and Prawns.
We aren't so sure about the service because we didn't stay in though we were warmly welcomed when we went in and the attendant was very friendly.
She was very prompt yet very polite.
This place I think is for "greedy" people who want both value and quality.
We would like to eat-in next time for our special occasions.
My wife and I went there last night. We saw some good comments about this restaurant, so we gave it a try. I ordered last night's special, Veal Marsala. It was tender and I love the wine sauce. My wife had Ravioli Alla Sorrentina which is stuffed with veal and cheese. It was quite good and filling. Our server was very friendly and welcoming. Too bad that we didn't have room for dessert. I will go back and try their seafood dish and Tiramusu next time.
This restarurant is very consistant: Everytime I go there I always enjoy the delicious taste from the foods. The pasta have good portion and is well price. The service is great and the staff are very inviting and friendly. The only thing this restaurant need is a makeover as it appears old and outdated inside but it was okay for me as I rather pay a friendly price on food then having high end decor.
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