Armonia Pasta Bar is Parkdale's spot for lovers of Italian food. It's housed in a sleek, monochromatic space, previously occupied by no-tipping restaurant Then and Now.

Owner Raffael "Raff" Virdo tells me that one of the reasons he chose to start an Italian restaurant was to get in touch with his heritage. The other was to fill a niche that he felt the neighbourhood was currently lacking.

As its name might suggest, Armonia Pasta Bar's menu consists primarily of pasta dishes.

Starters — such as bruschetta, focaccia and arancini — are available, along with a selection of rotating desserts, but for the most part, pasta is Armonia's main focus.

Raff explains that this wasn't his original plan. When the restaurant first opened, the menu included a wider variety of Italian dishes, such as lasagna and chicken parmesan. To his surprise, the pastas outsold all of the other menu items.

Though Raff suspects that this may be because of the restaurant's name — joking that "you don't go to a pasta bar and order something other than pasta" — the incident nevertheless convinced him to pare the menu down.

Each meal begins with a plate of crusty bread, with a side of olive oil for dipping.

Saffron arancini ($15) are stuffed with rice, peas and mozzarella and coated with breadcrumbs, then fried until golden brown.

The balls are then dusted with shaved grana padano and served in a pool of pomodoro sauce.

Rigatoni bolognese ($29) is a classic dish, made with beef and pork ragu and grana padano.

The meat is tender and mildly spicy, making it a perfect counterpoint to the light, crumbly cheese.Gnocchi gorgonzola ($29) is a sweet and savoury dish that combines potato gnocchi with gorgonzola cream sauce, balsamic vinegar and radicchio.Linguine shrimp sambuca ($34) is a hearty seafood dish that features shrimp, leeks and herbs, as well as a rich, buttery sauce made from sambuca cream. Pasta e ceci ($28) consists of strascinati, chickpeas and herbs, served with pomodoro sauce and grana padano.

The oddly shaped noodles are covered in small ridges, making them ideal for picking up vegetables and sauce. The sbagliato ($14) is a strong, sweet drink, whose hard to pronounce name means "mistaken" or "botched" in Italian. This is because the cocktail was reportedly created by accident.

Legend has it that the sbagliato was created when an inexperienced bartender combined prosecco with campari and sweet vermouth, resulting in a drink that could best be described as a "botched" negroni.The sospiri di amaretto ($16) is an amber-coloured cocktail, made with amaretto, gin, cardamom syrup and rosemary. Orange, lemon and grapefruit are added to cut the bitterness, giving the drink a light, citrusy aftertaste. Armonia Pasta Bar is located at 1316 Queen Street West.