15th February 2008
lively little italian
We just about made it in time for last orders in this lively Italian restaurant at five to ten. I don't think our waiter was very happy about it though. He served us with a stroppy mood throughout our meal even though we only had a main course and a quick coffee each. There were still plenty of customers in the restaurant by the time we left! Apart from the bad service from the one waiter, the atmosphere was buzzing with dinner chatter and snippets of Italian coming from the waiters and chefs in the open kitchen.
One of the good things about this place is that it's suitable for any occassion. Looking around the room, there was large groups out for a celebration of some sort, an old italian couple who were after authentic food and a suited couple who were on a romantic date after slaving away all day in the city.
We had a window seat by the main road and because you sort of walk down a few steps into the restaurant, it was slightly lower than street level. It was a bit strange seeing the feet of people walking past as you're eating but I wouldn't say that it'd put me off going back.
The menu is vast. They have a plethora of pizzas (the dough is freshly made), pastas and meat/fish dishes on their a la carte menu as well as having a specials board. I'd actually already had dinner at work at about 6 o'clock (naughty me..) so I was hoping the portions would be small for once but oh no, that was not to be. The portions are really generous and I can't really see how anyone could have 3 courses here.
I had a pasta dish called agnolotti fantasia which was basically pasta shapes filled with asparagus puree layered onto (slightly overcooked) baby asparagus with a tomato-based sauce. It was quite nice, the pasta was well made and cooked perfectly but the accompaniements were a bit average.
My friend had gnocchi quattro formaggio which was luxuriously rich and extremely cheesy! Not for the faint-hearted. Absolutely fantastic in flavour but for me, it would be more suitable in a smaller portion as it was so powerfully flavoured or accompanied with something lighter (dare I say it, a SALAD perhaps?).
I was too stuffed to have any but the desserts that I spotted floating around the room looked superb, maybe I'll just have one of those next time?! Our 2 meals, a bottle of red wine and 2 double espressos came to £31 which is extremely good value for money.
Oh, almost forgot, I saw something really impressive in here. It's an electric cheese grater and works in a similar way to an electric pepper grinder. You just hold it over your food and press a button and hey presto, freshly grated cheese comes out! It would be so cool for dinner parties so I'm gonna make it my mission to get one :D
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