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Trattoria Brussels Sprouts and free dessert promotion

Trattoria Italian Kitchen Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato Dropped by Trattoria Metrotown tonight for a snack with a friend. We were snooping around the neighbourhood for a not-too-busy place for her to have a drink, and finally settled on the patio here. Yes, it was cold out, but the overhead head lamps did an admirable job.
I had eaten earlier, so I opted for just a snack. I had initially wanted the honeycomb dessert I had tried before, but I was told it was actually a sometimes-available item from their Nosh deli next door, and tonight they were all out. Our server Clarisse did offer to look in their fridge "just in case", but I sensed that was more an appeasement than any real hope of the dessert being available.

My second choice was the Brussels Sprouts which I had tried incidentally as part of another dish last time I was there. It had been good, so I was curious what the side dish was like.

Brussels Sprouts ($7.95 as side dish) lemon, capers, chillies, parmigiano reggiano; server offered fresh-ground parmesan after plating
  • As mentioned before, they do a really good job of making a deep-fried-till-black bitter dish tasty. However, the salting was inconsistent and more than half the dish was extremely salty that I eventually gave up.
  • TIP: Mix it up well early and sample it. If it's super-salty like mine turned out to be, consider sending it back. Not sure if the saltiness was a fluke. I reported it to the server with that caveat and did not get any follow-up or bill adjustment, so presumably it was "normal" to be so salty, which is terribly unfortunate.
2016-Apr-2 Trattoria Burnaby - Brussel Sprouts side dish

2016-Apr-2 Trattoria Burnaby - Brussel Sprouts (with parmesan)

Te Verdu a Fiori ($3.50) green tea & citrus syrup, apple juice, mint, basil, lemon juice, soda
  • Pretty decent for a virgin cocktail in taste and portion for price.
  • Not as interesting as far as flavour is concerned compared with the description. Mostly tasted like a sweet soda unless you really pay attention to get the apple notes.
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Interestingly, our server also mentioned a temporary customer-service promotion:
  • In exchange for a free dessert, patrons are asked to post a review of Trattoria Burnaby on TripAdvisor while they are at the restaurant. The review must include the server's name.
  • Apparently the server has the opportunity to win something from the restaurant, no doubt based on positive feedback on their service.
  • Free WiFi is available (password "internet") but if you are on the patio, the signal can be weak or spotty.
A scan of TripAdvisor showed many recent positive reviews, but no mention of the promotion, so I declined to take them up on the offer. That said, our server Clarisse was friendly, energetic, and attentive. She had to split her attention between patrons inside and our single table outside, so I suppose it was unavoidable that it was harder to locate her and get her attention.

They probably chose TripAdvisor because on Yelp and Zomato they've been sunk by negative reviews that are now very old, so it's their chance to start fresh and maybe with a more accurate review reflecting whatever management and service improvement have been implemented since their earlier days.

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