Robba Da Matti: Anniversary dinner/Date night in West End

For our anniversary, we made reservations to have dinner at Robba Da Matti, an Italian restaurant with 3 different locations across downtown and Vancouver. I came here for a birthday dinner previously and saw they had a date night special menu that I wanted to try with my boyfriend.

This review is based on an in-dining experience at their West End location.

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Patio

Dine-in was available but when I made the reservation, I selected patio. The West End location’s patio is very pretty with different foliage and spaced out seating. The patio is fully undercover and heated so even though it was raining on our anniversary, we felt warm and cozy at our patio seating.

The inside of the restaurant has a romantic atmosphere with dim lighting and beige/neutral tones. The seats look comfortable as well.

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Food / Date night menu

So again, we are here to check out their date night special menu. It is available every day of the week and costs $125 for 2 antipasti (or 1 select appetizers), 2 pastas, 2 desserts and a bottle of wine.

For the wine, we chose the house white because of our pasta choices. But you’ll have a choice between a house red or white.

Antipasti

Unless you choose the Yaletown antipasto (appetizer platter) or the prosciutto and burrata appetizer, you can select 2 items from the antipasti menu. Most of their antipasti range from $9-33. We decide to go with 2 different antipasti.

Beef tenderloin carpaccio

Robba Da Matti’s beef carpaccio is thinly sliced raw AAA Alberta beef tenderloin, drizzled with grainy dijon and a white alba truffle aioli. The carpaccio is very thin so you may find it a bit difficult to pick up with your fork without shredding it, but it’s a standard thin sized (and it doesn’t matter if you shred it). The truffle aioli is quite strong, which makes this dish taste rich. They give you a lot of cheese and arugula as well – a very nice antipasti.

Regular price for this dish is $15.

Burrata caprese

One of the biggest reasons why I wanted to bring my boyfriend here was because the burrata cheese tasted amazing the last time I ate here. If we chose the burrata and prosciutto antipasti, we wouldn’t be able to choose 2 antipasti, so we selected the burrata caprese salad as the next best choice that has burrata in it.

The caprese salad comes with fresh roma tomatoes, basil infused olive oil with burrata mozzarella flown directly from Puglia! The portion is quite big for 2 people and the burrata cheese is so creamy and sweet!! Definitely 10/10. It makes the dish quite rich and so the tomatoes and olive oil are refreshing. We liked to pair this with the free bread because the bread didn’t come with any olive oil or balsamic vinegar to dip it in.

Regular price for this dish is $16.

Pasta

Lobster and crab ravioli

I ordered this pasta dish previously so I wanted to include it in this review. It is a red-sauce pasta with lobster and crab stuffing in big ravioli pastas, along with fresh tomatoes, arugula and prawns. There is a bit of a spicy kick, but generally the dish is not spicy.

I liked this pasta and the portion/sizes of the ravioli. I didn’t get a strong lobster/crab smell or taste because it’s not a lobster bisque sauce or anything like that. The prawns were cooked nicely.

Regular price for this dish is $28.

Spaghetti allo scoglio

I order this pasta during the nate night special. The menu describes it to be “spaghetti from the coastline”. This pasta has a lot of seafood in it, including scallops, mussels, clams, tiger prawns and calamari. The sauce is red based with cherry tomatoes and chilies.

I was very impressed with this pasta. I’m not usually impressed by spaghetti but it was cooked perfectly al dente and had a great texture. It also seemed slightly thicker than the spaghetti sitting in my pantry.

I also loved how much seafood is in this pasta. In terms of mussels and clams, there’s not a lot, but you ge ta lot of scallops and calamari!

Regular price for this pasta is $28. Compared to the ravioli, I think I preferred this pasta more.

Risotto alla pescatora

My boyfriend orders this risotto because he loves risotto. It is a seafood risotto and looked very similar to my spaghetti in terms of seafood toppings. These toppings include tiny scallops, calamari, tiger prawns, mussels and clams on an Arborio rice blend from the Mediterranean.

This pasta is a white-sauce base but it’s not as saucy/wet as some risotto we’ve had. The pasta is cooked well and when I tasted it, it wasn’t a super rich or cheesy flavour, so a lighter pasta.

Regular price for this pasta is $26.

Dessert

There are a selection of desserts you can choose from – tiramisu, creme brulee, panna cotta, etc.

Tiramisu

My boyfriend chooses the tiramisu because we are at an Italian restaurant. It is in a cute little cup and is mostly mascarpone cheese, so if you prefer your tiramisu with more of the white ooey goodness, this one might be up your alley.

Lavender-infused crème brulee

I choose the lavender crème brulee even though I’m not a big fan of lavender. I would say the crème brulee is not the best one I’ve had. The top of the crème brulee wasn’t smooth (had a big bubble) and I think it was slightly burnt in some areas so there’s a slight bitterness to it. Under the crunchy top layer, I also found a lot of sugar sprinkled in there as well which was surprising because the crème brulees I’ve had previously didn’t have this (just the smooth custard right under).

The lavender flavour was very subtle so it didn’t affect me.

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Final thoughts

Loewe’s rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

We really enjoyed our anniversary dinner at Robba Da Matti. The service was great and the patio was very romantic, even on a rainy day.

The food was delicious! We couldn’t finish all of our pasta so we packed it home and it tasted good the next day too. The wine was an excellent pairing and also improved the mood.

Out of all our dishes, I liked the burrata caprese salad the most because of how amazing the burrata is. Make sure you order something with burrata! Next, I liked my pasta the most.

For $125 for 2 people, this is a great deal. I recommend you to come here with anyone (doesn’t have to be a significant other) in order to take advantage of this deal.

Sincerely, Loewe