Trattoria: Italian happy hour in Burnaby

Trattoria is a small chain of Italian restaurants under the Glowbal Restaurant Group. They have 3 locations – Kitsilano, Park Royal and Burnaby. I’ve written a review on their pasta special before, but today’s post will be on their happy hour menu at the Burnaby location.

Read my previous review on Trattoria.

Trattoria Burnaby’s happy hour is daily from 2-5pm and 9pm to close.

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Patio

I’ve dined inside as well as outside on their patio. The patio is facing the busy Kingsway street but there is enough sidewalk coverage to not feel like you are eating with a bunch of cars whizzing by you. The patio tables all have big red umbrellas.

I usually prefer to sit inside if the weather is too hot or cold. The patio does not have heating so I only recommend it for a nice day.

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Drinks

Trattoria’s happy hour menu offers a variety of different drinks. I tried 2 of their pitchers.

White sangria pitcher ($18)

I love sangria in the summer and I prefer white sangria over red sangria simply because I like white wine more. They have bits of fruit in the pitcher, which is quite refreshing. One pitcher is about 4 glasses and generally, it was not very strong.

Aperol spritz pitcher ($18)

I had to google what aperol spritz is lol. It consists of prosecco, digestive bitters and soda water. Similar to the sangria pitcher, it was not very strong but I liked the colours and gradient of the pitcher – very pretty! On our last cups, we mostly got the orange soda water so it didn’t mix well, given the layers of colours. Taste-wise, I would prefer the sangria over this.

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Food

We share a bunch of different appetizers. These photos were taken from 2 different instances of happy hour – one outside and one inside so I have some pictures of both.

Pear & fennel salad ($10)

Now I don’t usually order salads at restaurants, but this one sounded pretty good and I felt like my body needed some veggies. This salad has shaved fennel & pear, candied pancetta, marinated figs, gorgonzola, walnuts, arugula and a red wine vinaigrette.

I thought I took a pic of this but I guess not lol. It was a decent salad and big portions. I like the addition of the pear and figs.

Bruschetta ($10)

I was kind of surprised by the appearance of this bruschetta. I was expecting a few slices of bread with tomatoes on it, but it came as a platter with tomato bruschetta, chickpea spread, roasted garlic, burricotta, spiced walnuts, marinated olives and forno bread.

My only complaint is that I didn’t really like the forno bread with everything. It’s very similar to our burrata and prosciutto platter.

Burrata & prosciutto ($10)

I’m a big fan of burrata cheese so I had to order this. This appie comes with prosciutto di parma, pesto, marinated tomatoes and forno bread.

So here I like the forno bread more than when I had it in the bruschetta platter. The burrata was not bad but there wasn’t a lot of it (enough for the platter though!). I didn’t really like to add pesto because I like the taste of burrata by itself with some prosciutto. There’s a lot of prosciutto!

Sicilian calamari ($10)

I looove deep fried squid. This calamari has Sicilian olives, capers and a spicy tomato sauce. I’m glad the calamari is still deep fried because I’ve had some calamari that isn’t breaded and it’s kinda just cooked in the sauce. I like the spicy tomato sauce and how it didn’t drench or make the calamari soggy.

I don’t like olives so that could’ve been totally removed.

Beef carpaccio ($10)

The beef carpaccio features pepper crusted beef, truffle vinaigrette, arugula, crispy capers, parmesan and even more forno bread. By now you can probably tell I am tired of all this forno bread. I wish they replaced it with something lighter like a toastini or something.

I think this appetizer is probably the best bang for your buck. $10 for beef carpaccio? What a steal. The portion is big too even though the beef carpaccio is sliced very thinly (as it should be!). they could have added a bit more parmesan but I don’t mind and I like the arugula on top. The truffle vinaigrette wasn’t very strong so if you were hoping for a strong truffle taste, it’s more subtle than that.

Brussel sprouts ($5)

I love roasted brussel sprouts so we ordered this as a side. It is topped with lemon, capers, chilies and parmesan cheese.

I found the brussel sprouts to be too salty so I wasn’t a fan of it.

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Final thoughts

Loewe’s rating: ⭐⭐⭐

I came here for happy hour twice and I was initially seduced by their very extensive menu. By extensive, I mean their happy hour doesn’t just include drink specials, but different food specials as well. All of their antipasti is $10, which is a VERY good price for the portion size.

Given this price point, the food is not bad but it’s not extraordinary. I think my top choices for appies are the beef carpaccio and the burrata & prosciutto. Also their pizzas are all $13 so that’s also a really good deal. We ordered a pizza to go to bring home to my boyfriend and they devoured it.

To summarize, great menu with lots of choices for food and drinks. Very reasonable prices and a good ambiance/environment. The food itself I would give around 3/5 stars.

Sincerely, Loewe