Bottega: Montreal

Montreal Dining: Bottega
We read about Bottega on the internet, it was listed in the eat shop local Montreal book in our apartment and our apartment hosts recommended it. It seemed a must go. It’s located just a few blocks from the apartment, on the edge of Little Italy. Four or five white tableclothed tables are outside and a much larger dining area inside opens to large windows facing the street. Unlike the places we’ve been lately, there was a plethora of waitstaff. So many, I couldn’t count them.
The menu is known for its pizza and that’s most of the items on the menu, but we did start with a meatball in red sauce and a fried rice ball in red sauce. Neither of these was particularly good. They weren’t bad; they were just mediocre. The rice ball was not greasy which is a plus, but it didn’t have much flavor. Neither did the meat ball. We ordered two pizzas: one was rapini and mozzarella, the other was pepperoni and mozzerella. Both pizzas were tasty; the rapini tasted of the bitter green taste of the vegetable which I like; the pepperoni pizza was dominated by the pepperoni taste. The cheese on the pepperoni was a bit too much. The crust was wood fired and flavorful but not as thin and crispy as A16 (but then whose is?).
The wait staff was attentive but a goofing off with one another. We had some red wine. They only had four wines by the glass.