REVIEW: PREZZO

People in the UK love an Italian restaurant. You can tell just by looking at the sheer volume that dominate every city centre or appear on the main street of every town. Maybe it's our nation's love of a good pizza or a rich & creamy carbonara, but if there's one thing we know about this country's appetite - it's that we dig an Italian joint.

Me? Not so much. Italian restaurants don't usually appeal to me and are normally last on my list of 'places to try'. Yes, I have a list. Which is so much a thing that when I arrange to go out for dinner and politely enquire as to where my company for the night would like to go they automatically reply "wherever's next on the list Dawn..."

 Perhaps it's because as a general rule of vanity I don't consume a lot of bread or pasta that Italian gaffs aren't usually my go to of choice for a bite to eat. There was that one first date Italian place about 13 years ago however where I ate the best chicken of my life. It had tons of grapes through it and a creamy yet tart sauce and to this day I can still remember more about that amazing main course than I do about the resulting boyfriend that came with it. Which probably tells you pretty much everything you need to know about me. But moving swiftly on....

Despite Italian restaurants not strictly being my first port of call, I was offered the chance recently to review Prezzo and I promptly and swiftly accepted because what single mother doesn't relish the chance to get out on a school night? And I'm glad I did because the food ended up being pretty good.

We opted to share the antipasto starter and it was the perfect thing to set us off. Not too heavy nor too light, we nibbled on an array of cured Italian meats, some tasty olives, sun-blushed tomatoes, some pretty decent olive oil (I judge every restaurant on the quality of their extra virgin) and some really tasty burrata mozzarella which I took great delight in piling onto chunks of sourdough then dredging in balsamic. All in all a pretty nice starter. You can't really go wrong if you are literally just placing things onto a sharing board however you can if the quality of your ingredients isn't good and the quality was definitely there.

Next came our mains. And a shed load of jealousy. I eventually went for chicken in a marsala sauce with a side of fries. Which was good enough. The fries were perfectly crisp and salty and the chicken moist and well-cooked. The sauce lacked any depth or seasoning although the mushrooms and spinach tossed through it did give it a nice amount of texture and taste. All in all it was an ok dish but not one I would order again. My friend went for the lobster & crab tortelli which is deep down what I really wanted and boy should I have went with my gut. I managed to steal a couple of bites and can confirm the pasta was cooked al dente and with the perfect bite and the filling was insanely good. The balance of slightly salty seafood, with just a hint of chilli and the subtle taste of saffron through the sauce made this pasta dish one of the nicest I have ever tasted. And I can confirm that I will be returning soon so I can devour a bowlful of my own.

Being typical girls we opted for a glass of wine each instead of dessert so I can't comment on those but the bloke sitting next to me who managed to eat both his & his girlfriend's seemed pretty impressed.

Prezzo is not somewhere I would automatically opt to go under normal circumstances. However if one pasta dish is so good it can make this 'anti-Italian restaurant' gal make a point of returning then they absolutely have to be doing something right. 

Prezzo, 35 St Vincent Place, Glasgow, G1. 0141 248 9815

I was invited as a guest of Prezzo. You can read more about my disclosure policy here.