Metro Vendôme and then a 10-minute walk west along Upper Lachine. Closed Sundays. reserve on Weekends. Ambulatory access: the restaurant is a few steps down from the sidewalk and the washrooms are small. Everything is on one level once you get in. Major credit cards accepted. Tips are in cash. Tel: 484-5303
Shortly after WWII, Upper Lachine Road in NDG was home to a large Italian neighbourhood. A truncated community is there with an Italian mass on Sundays at St. Raymonds, bocci in the park on warm evenings, a couple of food markets strong on the prosciutto and provolone, an Italian hardware store with winemaking supplies, and local bars serving correctos on request (a short espresso with a shot of sambucca or something similar). La Trattoria, a new restaurant, fits smoothly here like a hand in a glove.
This restaurant, under at least a couple of previous names, ended up as a down-at-the-heels kind of place with few basic dishes: pasta, Italian sausages, a veal dish or two, etc. and never found a following. La Trattoria is the new incarnation and, judging from the RSVP crowd on the weekend, it is going to do well.
If you are familiar with some of the BYOB pizza and pasta places in Little Italy, you'll understand what La Trattoria is trying to do. The menu is simple: a dozen kinds of thin-crust pizza, a similar number of basic spaghetti, penne, and similar dishes. A couple of daily specials with soup or salad and a fish, veal and chicken protein base. A homemade dessert (tiramisu when we were there) or lemon granita for dessert. Two hours after you come in, you are back out the door.
The food is okay, the prices are good (about $10 to $15 per plate) and it is BYOB so the liquor cost comes way down. The atmosphere is Italo-American circa 1960: checkered table cloths, fake brick and warm tones, an accordion player on Friday and Saturday nights belting out French and Italian cabaret circa your father's rec room. The staff is boisterous and the place gets packed quickly. There is the feeling that you've wandered into someone else's party, but that's OK.
This is a family place that makes any family feel welcome.
We tried several of the pasta dishes the night we were there and they were all unremarkable. The soup (straciatella—egg drop in chicken stock—had too much salt and not enough flavour, the salads were good,the pizza with peppers freshly sliced jalapeños and serranos) packed a wonderful wallop. The veal dish was cream covered and overcooked.
My advice is to stay close to the basics. The business card pushes pizza and pasta and I wouldn't go far from there on a repeat visit. If you want great Italian food there are dozens of better kitchens in this town. But if you just want to come in from the storm and feel like family, La Trattoria is hard to beat.
—Reviewed by Barry Lazar
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