PALASAD/LA FIAMMA ~ London ON

It's that time of year again, AJ's birthday. And you know what that means - Pizza and Bowling! Just about every year she has her birthday with family and friends with pizza and bowling in our hometown, but this year we were in London and it was going to be just the four of us.

For supper we headed to the Palasad, a cool looking bowling alley that has a wood-burning pizza oven restaurant called La Fiamma. While the gang had been before, I had only been once before, and that was over a decade ago.

Funny story; while in high school when I could drive but not allowed to leave town onto the highway, I was hanging out with my buddy Kevin and his older sister. I don't remember why we were hanging out, but they said we should go out for supper and should go to London. I was nervous about breaking my parents rules, but they argued that the only way parents would believe you could drive on your own, was to just do it and prove it. The theory sounded good, and a chance to hang out with Kevin's older sister sounded good to me. Long story short, she took us to the Palasad, and after this trip, while my parents weren't exactly thrilled, I was allowed to drive on my own outside our town!

We may not look like we were thrilled to be there, but we were. No really, it was a good time.

The Palasad is retro-50's with a hip, modern feel. Bowling images like giant pins are everywhere. The bowling alley has it's own menu items (more pub-grub type food).

La Fiamma's has a little classier feel. Stylish chairs, hip lamps, and smartly dressed servers, this seemed like a nice place for a date, or hanging out with hipsters. Not really a kids pizza place atmosphere.

In the back corner you can see the oven, and beside it is an open kitchen where you can sort of see the kitchen staff at work.

Our waitress was Elle, and she was friendly and willing to put up with our crazy antics. For example, Brad, Amanda and I all ordered soft drinks, and the carbonation was way off. I mentioned this to Elle, and she asked that Bramanda check their drinks. "How is it?" Elle asked, to which the B-Day girl replied "Revolting!" - we kind of laughed about her blurting out like that, but Elle didn't take it the wrong way. Shortly we had excellent drinks, and ones that were refilled over and over.

Another server brought over a basket of bread and a plate with a cup. She put the plate face down on the cup, flipped it upside down, providing the most dramatic presentation of oil and balsamic vinegar I think any of us had seen before. There was also a small cone of sweet potato fries that was ordered for the table, but they seemed to have disappeared before I could take a photo.

Brad went with Ribs and fire roasted chicken, with veggies and rice. I didn't find much out from him about his food, but he did give the thumbs up on the ribs.

Both Rick and Amanda got wood oven pizza. I was really tempted to go this route, but I had a real hankering for wings. The pizza was thin crust and looked great. Amanda's was just cheese and mushrooms I believe, but Rick went with the special of the night (which in itself was funny because Elle had to repeat the special 3 times for us to get it all). I don't remember what was in it, but I think they both enjoyed it.

Oh, and as mentioned above, I got the wings. Double order. Rick also got a side order.


The wings come in either 8 or 16 to an order. Veggies is an extra cost, as is dip. As is extra dip or other dips. The wings are breaded, and deep fried.

They advertise these as jumbo, and unlike many other liars, this place actually served jumbo wings! They were big, and meaty. Not very crispy as the sauce melded into the wings.

I ordered 8 wings as hot, 8 as Cajun, and a side of suicide for sampling. Rick went with the Maple BBQ.

MAPLE BBQ

Sweet. Very sweet. BBQ sauce is sweet to begin with, but toss in some maple and you have sweet wings. If you like sweet, you will probably enjoy them. Not my cup of tea, but they weren't bad.

HOT & SUICIDE

Hot was mild and suicide was medium at best. Even Brad could handle the suicide. The sauce had a nice flavour, but just no zing.

CAJUN SAUCED

Most places these days are offering Cajun wings, but they are dry seasoned. Nothing wrong with that, but Palasad/La Fiamma advertised Cajun Sauced, so I was intrigued. Ok, I think this was just Cajun seasoning tossed into the hot sauce, but whatever it was, it worked. I think this was the table favourite. There were many layers of flavour, a little kick, and it was unique enough to keep me interested. Thumbs up.

FINAL SCORE:

The wings were big, meaty and pretty tasty. Definitely try the Cajun. But I have to admit, I think going next time I would get the wood oven pizza. If only they had a pizza and wing combo!

7/10

Palasad / La Fiamma
777 Adelaide Street, London ON

palasad.com


For photos of our bowling and glo-golf escapades, head HERE to the Wing Bucket. And no, we didn't actually bowl at the Palasad. We went to Fleetway bowling. Crazy night!