30th March 2010
This is a very small Sicilian Italian restaurant of only about 16 or 18 covers. It is not a typical restaurant environment. I don’t know what the building was previously, but it is a shop layout. They have created a pleasant environment, the music was an appropriate Italian tenor, but it seemed to be on a loop and by the time you get to the coffee stage I felt I had heard enough and wanted some variety.
We had a nice table in the window on the hinge side of the door so not getting any draughts. There is a rather noisy heater unit above the door and the air movement from that felt cool rather than warm, but the temperature was comfortable.
Da Piero seems to be very successful since getting a mention in the Michelin Guide and best new entry in the Good Food Guide, together with some good reviews. On our first attempt to go they were fully booked and that is a good sign for them. On this occasion they were also busy with a nice buzz of contented dining going on.
One of the limitations of the building is that it seemed as though they owned a pet baby elephant at times as people clattered up and down the stairs or the chef was giving his pink veal a vigorous workout with a wooden mallet before creating another ossobuco. He was more than a match for the tenor.
We selected a half litre carafe of the house Pinot Grigio and a bottle of sparkling water. Good bread rolls were served with a nice olive oil. We were served an amuse-bouche of a small cup of a thick soup. Nice gesture, and it is a good thing to give diners a little taster while they wait for the food they have ordered, but this one didn’t really do it for me. It was OK, but didn’t make enough impression for me to remember what was in it.
For starters I had the meat-stuffed pepper and Pam had the crayfish nest. The pepper was nicely roasted and accompanied by chopped, raw red pepper with a well flavoured dressing. The stuffing was a rather dense meatball which for my taste was too bland and heavier than I would really like in a starter. Having said that, I should say that the menu does say that there is no chilli in the stuffing, so I should not have expected anything as piquant as I would have preferred. Pam found her crayfish nest tasty. It would probably have been a better choice for me actually, but I do like a hot starter.
I should say that I am not fond of pasta, but we wanted to get the full Da Piero experience so we both decided to have a primi course of spaghetti with clams. This was a very well flavoured dish with a peppery sensation to the perfectly cooked spaghetti. Clams are fiddly things to eat and there wasn’t a great deal of clam to dig out of those shells, but that is what they are and perfectly good except that there was some grittiness. It would have been useful to be given a bowl to put the empty clam shells in rather than having to tuck them onto your under plate. For a pasta and seafood lover this dish would probably be excellent and it did well to leave me feeling fairly content.
For the meat course I selected marinated beef in the Sicilian-style which was served with grilled tomatoes. This was an excellent dish. The meat was flavoured beautifully. The tomatoes had plenty of taste and were a perfect accompaniment. We shared a side dish of mixed leaf salad. This was fresh and tasty, but it would have benefitted from the thicker leaf stalks being cut out. Pam asked for the olive oil to be left out of the dressing and this was properly noted. The salad was supplied with balsamic vinegar dressing as requested. Always a good sign for special requests to be accurately carried out.
At this point it is worth saying that service throughout the evening was pleasant, attentive and not intrusive. There is no hurrying and it all contributes to a relaxed evening. Pam had the fish wrap for her main dish. This was a good range of fish and shellfish. All well cooked and presented. The justification for bringing this dish to table in its grease-proof paper is to keep the combined flavours in. I am sure that is true, but can't help feeling that it would be more convenient and elegant for the diner if the food was emptied onto the plate at the table and the paper taken away. There was plenty to eat and she couldn’t be bothered to dig the flesh out of her cracked crab claw so I did that job and ate the product. Very nice indeed. Perhaps an odd accompaniment to marinated beef, but I have a tolerant palate and enjoyed it.
Having had one more course than I usually would and not being a great lover of sweet dishes I would normally stop at this point, but the description of the amaretto ice cream tempted us both and we went for it. A good decision. This was a genuinely different tasting ice cream from the standard, mass-produced product. A very rich and complex flavouring that hung on the palate delightfully.
We finished with espresso coffee which was quite satisfactory. Espresso varies enormously from place to place and most of them are not very good. This was above average. The total cost of our meal for two, including wine, was about £100.
The menu has plenty to choose from, the service and ambience are very good and the quality of food is high. Da Piero is one of less than a handful of restaurants within twenty miles of our house that I would want to go to regularly.
Well done.
