Eating in Waterloo (Day 1)

A very dear friend of mine was visiting me at school from Toronto, so I tried my very best to take her to some good places to eat. Our first stop was lunch at the Bauer Kitchen, one of my favourite lunch spots in Waterloo.

There wasn't any sandwich specials for the day, so I had a chance to order from their regular menu. I opted for an indulgent Croque monsieur with black forest ham, Emmental cheese, Gruyère cheese and Dijon crème fraîche on grilled egg bread. Compared to their other sandwiches, this one was a lot smaller, but I didn't mind at all since it was very rich. All in all, the sandwich was very enjoyable, other than the fact the the bottom piece of bread was slightly burned. I paired my sandwich with a side Caesar salad in an attempt to eat healthier (although I'm painfully aware that Caesar salads are anything but healthy!)

My friend loves salmon, so she chose the smoked salmon sandwich with dill cream cheese, asparagus, red onions, frisée and champagne vinaigrette on multigrain bread. Her sandwich was a lot bigger than mine, and she had to pack half of it home. I took one bite out of this sandwich and it did not disappoint! The vinaigrette had a nice tang that complemented the smoked salmon and cream cheese. I would definitely consider ordering this sandwich the next time I come. My friend commented that she really enjoyed the spongy bread. I also gladly helped her finish her side of sweet potato fries.

For dinner, my friend expressed a desire for pasta, so I decided to try out Casa Rugantino after doing some research online.

The family-owned restaurant was small and charming.

The bread wasn't very good. It tasted like the ones that I can buy at the grocery store and then warm up in my toaster oven.

I took a picture of the pizza from another table because it looked really good! I would definitely return to try their pizza.

We went with lasagna layered with ricotta, romano and mozzarella cheese, ham and a meat sauce baked in the oven. My friend commented that there weren't enough layers of pasta, and I would agree with her. The ham was also nowhere to be found. Nevertheless, the flavours were authentic and delicious, even though it wasn't the best lasagna that I've had.

The other pasta that we tried was the sacchetini alla gorgonzola cheese: tiny shell like pasta stuffed with ricotta cheese tossed in melted gorgonzola cheese. The pasta were really cute and reminded me of wontons stuffed with ricotta cheese (which I love). The sauce was absolutely scrumptious and perfectly cheesy, but unfortunately it was also overly salty. Nevertheless, we finished both of our pasta and enjoyed it wholeheartedly.

By the end of the meal, we were pretty stuffed and couldn't get any desserts. All in all, it was a great day of eating and I had a lot of fun!