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Tasting Menu at Botanist
Foodie Experiences
Handmade Pasta at Il Corsaro
Chef-owner Giovanni Pagan has kept his parents' Maple Ridge pasta bar going since 1977, and the food, apparently, does the persuading.
Foodie Experiences
Chef-owner Giovanni Pagan has kept his parents' Maple Ridge pasta bar going since 1977, and the food, apparently, does the persuading.
Il Corsaro has been doing the quiet, intimate date-night thing in Maple Ridge since 1977, which in suburban-restaurant years is roughly the Pleistocene. Chef-owner Giovanni Pagan kept his parents' pasta bar alive and made it his own: the dishes are house-made, the room is dim enough to be honest, and the wine list does the heavy emotional lifting you'd normally have to manufacture yourself. Reservations only, dinner only, Tuesday through Saturday. This is the right kind of constraint: it means the place takes itself seriously, and you have to take the decision seriously too. Book the table, dress like you care, and arrive knowing the kitchen has already done most of the work. It's the most convincing argument Maple Ridge has ever made for not driving all the way into Vancouver on a Friday night.
