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Jamie's Italian
Dec. 18th, 2010 09:21 pmThat apostrophe implies possession rather than contraction. This is Jamie [Oliver]'s Italian restaurant, one of many, in what used to be the Fopp building in Guildford. (And kudos for saving that; it was very sad to see it all shut up, because it's a very endearing little roundhouse.) We all got booked in there for the works Christmas do, and the set menu was as follows:
- glass prosecco: very drinkable
- antipasto 'planks' - propped up on cans of tomato purée in a terribly twee-rustic fashion. No complaints about the content, mind - and, given most of the people at my table were off pork for one reason or another, I got more than my fair share of rather fantastic ham.
- main: well, there was pork, bream, chicken or gnocchi. I had the pork, which was slow-cooked, very tender, with very nice stuffing. With polenta chips (dull), spinach (jolly good, I thought, though one colleague thought it a bit over-garlicked), butterbean/carrot/tomatoey broth. Not bad at all.
- pudding: again, a choice. Mine was 'tutti-frutti tiramisù', which definitely contained many fruits, but, not containing any coffee, wasn't really what I'd expect of a tiramisù. It was effectively a trifle. That said, I think I had the best of the three. (I like trifle, after all.) The other choices were chocolate cake with red wine sorbet (I tasted the sorbet, which was a bit odd and not really as effective as it was trying to be, but not the cake), and lemon curd (I would have been very disappointed with this; it wasn't lemony at all.)
- mince pies - made with filo pastry, but otherwise inoffensive. A bit rich after all the above, though.
In short: a pleasant meal, but not so overwhelmingly great that I'd be falling over my feet to go there again. I'm rather pleased that work paid half. It was pretty good for fifteen quid, but I'm not sure that I'd say the same for thirty. And colleagues are saying, what about having Thai next year?
- glass prosecco: very drinkable
- antipasto 'planks' - propped up on cans of tomato purée in a terribly twee-rustic fashion. No complaints about the content, mind - and, given most of the people at my table were off pork for one reason or another, I got more than my fair share of rather fantastic ham.
- main: well, there was pork, bream, chicken or gnocchi. I had the pork, which was slow-cooked, very tender, with very nice stuffing. With polenta chips (dull), spinach (jolly good, I thought, though one colleague thought it a bit over-garlicked), butterbean/carrot/tomatoey broth. Not bad at all.
- pudding: again, a choice. Mine was 'tutti-frutti tiramisù', which definitely contained many fruits, but, not containing any coffee, wasn't really what I'd expect of a tiramisù. It was effectively a trifle. That said, I think I had the best of the three. (I like trifle, after all.) The other choices were chocolate cake with red wine sorbet (I tasted the sorbet, which was a bit odd and not really as effective as it was trying to be, but not the cake), and lemon curd (I would have been very disappointed with this; it wasn't lemony at all.)
- mince pies - made with filo pastry, but otherwise inoffensive. A bit rich after all the above, though.
In short: a pleasant meal, but not so overwhelmingly great that I'd be falling over my feet to go there again. I'm rather pleased that work paid half. It was pretty good for fifteen quid, but I'm not sure that I'd say the same for thirty. And colleagues are saying, what about having Thai next year?