Piccolo Grande visit to Mackay my visit in December. Thumbs down!

Usually I enjoy going to Piccolo Grande in the Byward Market during the warmer months and always make it a after dinner (or anytime) treat.
When I saw a deal on a local website for a half price lunch and gelato that seemed like a good opportunity to try a new location.
Here are the details of my visit. I don't have too much else to add to the description as I have not been back to this location.
This was previously posted by myself on another website and is being added to my blog to give a heads up to people who enjoy gelato.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Last week I went to Piccolo Grande at 411 Mackay st.
I had gotten a coupon deal from the website Koopon.ca
For $12 you got a soup, sandwich, coffee and cup of gelato.
-thought that was an ok deal and had never been to that location, so bought one of the coupons for lunch.
You could buy unlimited coupons, but figuring how it is not so close by to me and I usually buy gelato at a nearby store (5 minutes from my place), I only thankfully bought one of these "deals".

Usually I like to support local stores and if service is somewhat bad one day I might give the store another chance.
But my visit that time, too many things were annoying and doubt I will be going back to that area for ice cream.
--------------------------------------------------------------
The soup they had 2 choices today-roasted red pepper and the other one lentil soup.
Service was kind of slow as there is only 1 lady working there and I think she is the owner.
There was 2 people eating lunch there already and the lady finished serving them before even taking my order.
She could have gotten me my coffee while I waited 5 minutes (not a huge deal though).
Then as I am waiting for my food some other customer comes in and the lady working there makes the food for that person instead of my food-that I did find annoying as I was there first (but my being not rude,did not say anything about this).

So finally I get my food. Had ordered the tandoori chicken wrap, roasted pepper soup,coffee and cup of gelato.
The wrap was made with a tortilla and had tandoori chicken breast,tomato,lettuce and a kind of curry mayo.
There was not tons of chicken on the sandwich-but the quality of the meat was good. Lettuce and tomato were fresh and I could hear the lady chopping the lettuce for my sandwich.
Soup was good and had lots of little bits of carrot in it,some corn kernels and a good red pepper taste-was not spicy.
Coffee-I was under the impression that it was any coffee on the menu and not premade drip coffee.
I did ask for a cappuccino and the lady there she just told me all they were making today was drip coffee.
Kind of felt ripped off on that-it is prob not more than .50 for a cappuccino in cost to make.
Now finally I get to my gelato-got a pistachio and vanilla cup.
The ice cream was no longer in the display freezer-but was in the storage freezer as I was told they would be putting out chocolates for holiday sales.

So after waiting for the gelato to defrost so it could be scooped I had my dessert.
The pistachio ice cream was a bit gummy and seemed like it had been there a while. The vanilla was fine.
I do not think I will be getting pistachio ice cream from Picolo Grande-I like the place on Bank st I go to a lot more (as it has actual nuts in the ice cream).

Overall I can say my lunch was alright.
But before I forget, there were a few other things that annoyed me.
The lady had a bit of a cough and she also did not wash her hands in between serving customers and handling cash and making other items.
Then I also asked about the price of the Leonidas? chocolates that were in the display as they did look good. She tells me $1.50, another person came into the store and she tells that person that is was $1.
That's not really cool!

Ok went back to look at my offer online (I've bought so many from coupons or auctions,hard to keeptrack).
But my deal was from Koopon.
Also forgot to add that I do not think it is a value of $24.
Normally soup is $5 and a sandwich is $5 or $5.50- but there is a special of soup and sandwich for $8.95
Coffee is around $1.50 and ice cream around $4.50 (was not a big cup).

I'm still very disappointed with my meal at Piccolo Grande.
Lousy service, the owner of that location really seems to cheap out on everything.
But not washing hands at all and seeing the woman lick her fingers when she put the ice cream containers back??
Really....YUCK!
I didn't put that in my earlier review,but really just yuck!
Also that my pistachio ice cream seemed like it was old and was kind of gummy.
Then the refusing to make me any coffee except what was already there-premade coffee in a thermal server.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Sorry to make this long, but this was from my post and follow up post on another site.
Also forgot to add that as the woman was making my food she was hacking and coughing too.
Hopefully she did not cough too much on my food?

The only good things of my visit were that on the way back I stopped at Epicuria and bought some cheese scones and macarons (macarons were not made right..were too crunchy,not gonna complain for a .70 item. would get those again if they have them as they were tasty).
And that I also finally saw where Da Bombe bakery is and went to buy a peanut butter mousse dessert (and their lunch menu looked good too).

*Just wondering has anyone else visited this store?
I also find it a bit odd that even though Piccolo Grande is known for gelato, they will have none on display?
I could understand if their freezer broke or was being cleaned (happened at the place I go to this summer).
I'll also add the soup was good at Piccolo Grande Mackay st, but not enough to make me go back there.

Also, did contact the website Koopon.ca that sold me the deal and they told me that the woman is running the store by herself and her son is away-still not a good excuse for lousy service like the day I was there.
Was also hoping to get a partial refund or credit and nothing was offered,which is not that good either.
------------------------------
My last thought on this is why the heck would a GELATO SHOP that is known for ice cream and supposedly sold hundreds of these deals recently NOT have any ice cream on display.
Especially if their offer now is gelato and a chocolate piece for $6???
Really?

If anyone goes to this store I'm curious if they actually have any ice cream out now.

 

Malak Pastry Gelato and Ashta ice creams review! Yum!

I've been passing by this small pastry shop on Bank street for quite some time and finally found the time to stop and try the gelato and baklava that is freshly made in store.
I've sampled and bought at least a dozen kinds of gelato and sorbet and will write about that for this post.
For people who do not like dairy products there is usually a large selection of different sorbet made daily.
There is a pineapple sorbet that is very refreshing and has small bits of pineapple in it. I really noticed that this sorbet is different from what you find at the grocery store as there was real bits of fruit and no artificial colors in this sorbet was a white shade.
Mixed berry sorbet- that one was a dark purple shade and I'm guessing there was raspberry,blueberry and blackberry in it. It was quite sweet,but also nice with all the fruits in it.

The gelato I tried on my last visit was Banana gelato!
I did not buy this as I already had 2 small containers of gelato to bring home,but sampling this in the store the banana taste was very light and refreshing almost.
The banana gelato was a light beige shade and it seems there was a lot of real fruit in that too.

Now onto my gelato purchases!
Ashta "gelato" this is a type of Arabic custard like cream that is seasoned with rosewater and has either pistachios or roasted almonds in the mixture.
As well Ashta ice cream is thickened with a kind of tree gum that comes from Balsam (found this out speaking to the older man that works there).
This ice cream is very different from what the other places in Ottawa are making and I really recommend that people in that area of Bank st make a trip just to try this treat!
The Ashta ice cream was also nice after a dinner that was very spicy and really cools off your mouth too.
If you are having a dinner party, some of the ice creams from here would surely be a hit.
You can get a small cup for around $3 and other than that the ice creams are sold by the weight and I'd say a 250ml container is around $6
(The picture above,the one with the white ice cream, that one is the Ashta "gelato")..

The next two flavors I bought were Dark Chocolate and the lighter one in this container is Cappucino.
The Cappuccino gelato was quite light in texture and had a rich coffee flavor.
Usually at the grocery store the coffee ice creams there are always quite weak in flavor.
I did not always see this flavor there, so I guess the flavors change weekly.
The darker ice cream in this container was Dark Chocolate gelato.
The ice cream has a much thicker texture similar to the Ashta ice cream. It was also sort of "chewy" for an ice cream,and that made it very different to eat.
Now onto the taste...I found this ice cream to be extremely rich and full of dark chocolate flavor.
Almost like a frozen dark chocolate.
I had a few "chocolate experts" sample the Dark Chocolate ice cream (someone called "Monsieur Chocolat" from out of town) and this chocolate expert thought the ice cream was as rich as a 70% cocoa chocolate bar.
I'd have to say that this would have to be one of the richest chocolate ice creams I have eaten.
For people who do not like such rich chocolate ice creams, there is also a Milk Chocolate version (that I have not tried yet).
I've also been to their Carling Ave store and they did not seem to have any ice cream a few months ago-not sure if that has changed or not as I do not frequent that area often.
The website for Malak Pastry can be found at:
http://www.malakpastry.com/ice_creame.html

Malak Pastry is located at:
1216 Bank St, Ottawa (in the Sunnyside area near Riverdale ave and across from the Subway restaurant).
tel: (613)526-2002