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Sunday 24 February 2013
Wednesday 13 February 2013
Review: Amore
Amore has been a firm favourite with some members of my family for a while so we decided to pay the restaurant a visit. On arrival, for those of you who aren't familiar with the restaurant, it's perched on the far corner of Ingram St, off street level so you have to walk up stairs to get to the door.
It was apparent when we arrived they didn't have our booking but the restaurant had plenty of empty tables despite sounding very busy. We decided to sit in the bar area as it was next to the window & I like to watch the world go by. One thing Amore is not short of is choices! The menu is absolutely huge, with over 10 options in the starters, pizza & pasta. Most of it is a variation of typical italian dishes giving the menu an authentic Italian feel. One dish that drew my attention was a pizza with cheese, italian sausage, chicken & red & green chillies which stated you got a free glass of wine on your next visit if you could finish it.
Our starters arrived & we were greeted with large portions. We had ordered hot chilli gambretti (garlic & chilli prawns on garlic bread) and mussels marinara accompanied with garlic bread. There were plenty of prawns, which is a big plus given you usually get 3 or 4. The sauce that the prawns were in was lovely, with a nice spice hit to it. The mussels were also a bit hit. They were big fat juicy mussels & plenty of them. The marinara sauce was pleasant, although no different from any standard italian restaurant. I also loved the bowl the mussels came in, a tilted white bowl, which made it easier to get the sauce the mussels were in.
When we ordered our mains, I had noted that the menu stated that they use "De Cecco, the finest pasta in italy" and it required 15 minutes to cook. What I hadn't bargained on was that the 15 minutes was from when you ordered as our pasta arrived 5 minutes after our starters had been taken away. The mains were a big disappointment. The linguine was accompanied by a large number of prawns but the hot & spicy sauce stated on the menu was missing. Instead, it was relatively plain tomato sauce. Similarly, the chicken & pepper pasta did not taste of much. The main flavour from it was the roasted peppers & none of the "rich cream & tomato" sauce stated on the menu. From what I could gather, the restaurant appeared to be using the same sauce for most of their pasta but unfortunately, it is completely lacking in any flavour.
Given how quickly our mains arrived, the time taken for our meal after being seated was only just over an hour. I'm not a fan of restaurants who do not let you take your time between courses & feel they have to rush the next course out of the kitchen as soon as you are finished.
This visit was a tale of two halves, with the starters being a delight but the mains severely lacking in any flavour. Given the amount of Italian restaurants available in Glasgow, I doubt Amore would make the top 5. Saying that, I may be tempted to go back to try their hot pizza challenge one day!
Our starters arrived & we were greeted with large portions. We had ordered hot chilli gambretti (garlic & chilli prawns on garlic bread) and mussels marinara accompanied with garlic bread. There were plenty of prawns, which is a big plus given you usually get 3 or 4. The sauce that the prawns were in was lovely, with a nice spice hit to it. The mussels were also a bit hit. They were big fat juicy mussels & plenty of them. The marinara sauce was pleasant, although no different from any standard italian restaurant. I also loved the bowl the mussels came in, a tilted white bowl, which made it easier to get the sauce the mussels were in.
When we ordered our mains, I had noted that the menu stated that they use "De Cecco, the finest pasta in italy" and it required 15 minutes to cook. What I hadn't bargained on was that the 15 minutes was from when you ordered as our pasta arrived 5 minutes after our starters had been taken away. The mains were a big disappointment. The linguine was accompanied by a large number of prawns but the hot & spicy sauce stated on the menu was missing. Instead, it was relatively plain tomato sauce. Similarly, the chicken & pepper pasta did not taste of much. The main flavour from it was the roasted peppers & none of the "rich cream & tomato" sauce stated on the menu. From what I could gather, the restaurant appeared to be using the same sauce for most of their pasta but unfortunately, it is completely lacking in any flavour.
Given how quickly our mains arrived, the time taken for our meal after being seated was only just over an hour. I'm not a fan of restaurants who do not let you take your time between courses & feel they have to rush the next course out of the kitchen as soon as you are finished.
This visit was a tale of two halves, with the starters being a delight but the mains severely lacking in any flavour. Given the amount of Italian restaurants available in Glasgow, I doubt Amore would make the top 5. Saying that, I may be tempted to go back to try their hot pizza challenge one day!
Monday 4 February 2013
IceDelight - fat free goodness!
Throught the wonderful world of Twitter, I was approached by IceDelight & asked if I would like to review their iced dessert products. I would've been silly to turn that down!
For those who haven't heard of IceDelight before, it's a natural, fat-free (yes FAT FREE) dessert created from natural ingredients by Belhaven Fruit Farm. All of the fruit is grown on the land & then turned into the iced dessert.
I picked up my tubs of IceDelight, which come in 5 flavours: Strawberry, Raspberry, Blackcurrant, Lemon & Elderflower & Gooseberry. Having never tried the latter as a flavour combination before, I decided to try that first. I have to say I was pleasantly surprised given I wasn't sure if I would like it. It didn't have an overly sour taste that gooseberry can give. Instead you get a wonderful combination of slightly sour yet sweet taste of the gooseberry followed by the perfume of the elderflower. It may not sound great when put into words but you have to taste it to understand! Texture-wise, it is very soft & I would go as far as to say it is in-between the texture of a sorbet & ice cream.
I tried all of the other flavours as well. The raspberry did not have as strong a flavour as I was expecting, not that it's a bad thing! It still has a distinct raspberry taste to it, as did the strawberry which has a taste quite like a strawberry & cream lollipop! The blackcurrant was a tad strong for my liking but I'm not the biggest blackcurrant fan so slightly biased there! The biggest surprise for me was the lemon dessert. I am not big on citrus flavours, yet despite this being quite tart, I really enjoyed it! I decided to have it with some wholemeal pancakes & it went very well with them. Perfect for Shrove Tuesday next week!!
Overall, I would say that IceDelight have something very unique & wonderful available. The best part for me was how natural & full of flavour the desserts are without being chock full of calories. In fact, 100ml of each dessert is around 90 calories, YES 90 calories! I couldn't believe it when I read it either!
You can pick up IceDelights in Waitrose as well as individual delis such as Peckhams in Glasgow. A full list of stockists can be found here.
For those who haven't heard of IceDelight before, it's a natural, fat-free (yes FAT FREE) dessert created from natural ingredients by Belhaven Fruit Farm. All of the fruit is grown on the land & then turned into the iced dessert.
I picked up my tubs of IceDelight, which come in 5 flavours: Strawberry, Raspberry, Blackcurrant, Lemon & Elderflower & Gooseberry. Having never tried the latter as a flavour combination before, I decided to try that first. I have to say I was pleasantly surprised given I wasn't sure if I would like it. It didn't have an overly sour taste that gooseberry can give. Instead you get a wonderful combination of slightly sour yet sweet taste of the gooseberry followed by the perfume of the elderflower. It may not sound great when put into words but you have to taste it to understand! Texture-wise, it is very soft & I would go as far as to say it is in-between the texture of a sorbet & ice cream.
Overall, I would say that IceDelight have something very unique & wonderful available. The best part for me was how natural & full of flavour the desserts are without being chock full of calories. In fact, 100ml of each dessert is around 90 calories, YES 90 calories! I couldn't believe it when I read it either!
You can pick up IceDelights in Waitrose as well as individual delis such as Peckhams in Glasgow. A full list of stockists can be found here.
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