Archives - Olivia Banc
Italian
CT Eats: Wegmans’ restaurants surprisingly classy
My entree was the ziti alla montanara, featuring luscious butternut squash and a sumptuous porcini and parmesan cream sauce. This dish had a stellar balance of salty, cheesy, earthy, and sweet flavors.
dumplings
CT Eats: Yummy Garden Part II
After months of sorrowful separation, Shagun and I ventured back to Yummy Garden for another taste of glory. This time for the hot pot, as promised. For those unfamiliar with the concept, the hot pot experience is essentially cooking your own food in boiling broth at your table.
sweet treats
CT Eats: Pittsford Farms Dairy provides pastry perfection
The mousse had a light tangy raspberry flavor that paired perfectly with the sweeter white chocolate glaze. The texture was a technical dream: beautifully aerated and fluffy. The layer of cake, the foundation for this pastry, was luxuriously light and marvelously moist. A perfect parcel of pastry.
crawl
CT Eats: The Cocoa Crawl 2K19
The flavor was pure chocolate, none of that sugary Swiss Miss fake chocolate flavoring — just deep, rich ganache. The airy sweetness was paired with notes of a dark chocolate bitterness. To top it off (literally), the fresh homemade whipped cream had a lovely vanilla flavor and the proper richness to stand up to the chocolate.
Cafe
CT Eats: Equal Grounds Coffee House, the perfect Rochester café
Last semester, I was on a short-lived quest to find the perfect cozy Rochester café. After Founders Café totally missed that mark, I moved on, but I’m happy that I resurrected the mission. Cake with sugar, chai with spice, and everything nice over at Equal Grounds Coffee House.
British
CT Eats: The Old Toad has British warmth for the Rochester cold
Pub food isn’t about complexity or culinary perfection. It’s about some good old-fashioned comfort. And The Old Toad definitely comforted me and my soul on one of those -14 wind chill days when I question why on Earth I decided to move further upstate for school.
Brunch
CT Eats: Simply Crepes is simply inviting
Simply Crepes is super cozy with warm tones, wood tables, high ceilings, exposed wood beams, and mini chandeliers that add a touch of class. I’ll decree it country-glam.
CT Eats
CT Eats: Pita’s got a piece of my heart
If the Campus Times were some sort of pagan college newspaper society, I would definitely be thanking the CT Eats gods right now for blessing me with such great experiences of Mediterranean meals.
CT Eats
CT Eats: Founders Cafe nice but not impressive
While there is a gorgeous, bright mural on one of the walls, the overall atmosphere and décor did not lend themselves to that really comfortable vibe I was searching for. The food also seemed to follow this theme of “nice, but not too impressive.”
CT Eats
CT Eats: Yummy Garden Part I
Yummy Garden’s main Chinese menu was so extensive that having the separate create-your-own-hot-pot menu on top of that was just too overwhelming for two 5-foot-very-few-inches gals in the big city.
