November 11th, 2008
Last night had me dining with my colleague Mark at the Old Amalfi Italian Restaurant on Southampton Row in London. A short walk from my hotel in Bloomsbury, we chose this restaurant because of its looks primarily. I could also see a number of tables in use at around 8.30pm so felt that it must be good. We ventured in and sat near the window. The restaurant has seats for around 40 covers and as I mentioned there were a number of other diners enjoying what looked like very nice food. The smell of garlic was strong in the air as we sat down and this only made me even more tempted by the menus given. After choosing an Italian wine at £14.95, I ordered up a vegetable soup (£3.95) hoping it would sooth my poorly sore throat. For my main I opted for the Baked Pork Shank (£13.95). Mark went for the Scamorza Forna (£4.55) to start and the Carbonara (£7.95) as a main.
As we waited for our food to arrive I noticed the kitchen at the end of this small restaurant was open to view. I could clearly see it was clean and seemed to be professionally run which gave me some further comfort. The decoration throughout was tasteful; not overdone, but clearly Italian in style. The stone floor did however make it a little noisy and the paper napkins were a bit of a let down.
The food arrived and within minutes we both agreed it was good. My soup was very welcome and with the atmosphere developing amongst all the diners, a fine evening was getting under way. The mains followed and you could instantly see care and attention had being paid both to the choice of ingredients used and the way in which they had been prepared. My Baked Pork Shank simply fell apart from the bone and was delicious. I could see the carbonara being enjoyed by Mark had a fantastically creamy sauce and we were both happy with our lot.
The total bill came to a stroke of £60 including 10% service charge and given we had just picked this restaurant from walking by, were pleased to have chosen well.
Pryordurkin rating. 3 Stars Tel 0207 636 5811
Posted in Food and Drink