Mediterraneo, Glasgow - Restaurants in Glasgow | s1play.com

This glass act is a place to be seen

Review published on 01/12/2009 © Sunday Herald

Ingram Street was the home to Scotland's first "pop-up" champagne bar thanks to the owner of Café Gandolfi, and although it only lasted the weekend, it did briefly steal the thunder from Mediterraneo, a new venture from restaurateur Mario Romano, who also runs L'Ariosto in the city centre and Da Luciano in Bothwell.

A stone's throw from the Italian Centre, glass-fronted Mediterraneo is well placed for passing trade. Nestled between the Old Sheriff Court and Glassford Street, it was warm and inviting as we arrived on a rainy Wednesday evening. We were shown into the restaurant, which serves classic pizza and pasta dishes, but we decided to move into the Champagne Bar area, which is more subdued in its lighting and a less formal dining experience.

Perched at the only high table, we ordered champagne cocktails and oysters to start, which seemed terribly decadent for a midweek night. Both the Kir Royale and the eponymous Mediterraneo (orange juice, Cointreau and champagne) cocktails were very drinkable but at almost £9 each it is probably not the place to choose for a night of rounds.

As I was attacking an oyster a friend who had spotted us through the huge picture windows popped in to tease us for being outrageous enough to be having champagne and oysters on a school night.

Mediterraneo is certainly a place to see and be seen by passers-by, as our chance encounter proved. Great if you like that sort of thing, and most Glaswegians do.

We were heading out to a gig and thought we should have something more substantial than three oysters apiece, so we tried to get the attention of the waiters behind the bar.

This might be the main problem for the Champagne Bar operation: they weren't sure whether to leave you alone or be attentive in case of a food order. In our case, we were craning our necks and trying to make eye contact for about 10 minutes before we were acknowledged. Our order was then taken very slickly and the table set in the same manner.

The kitchen is apparently the largest state-of-the-art open kitchen in Scotland and when our food arrived, it seemed that Chef Angelo Musio knew what he was doing. We had ordered quite a few dishes from the Bar Cocktail 'Spuntini' menu and the risotto balls (Arancini di Risoi) were the first we sampled and they were absolutely delicious and piping hot.

The spicy tomato dip was also the perfect accompaniment, with a touch of sweetness to add some balance. One thing about all the dishes was that they were slightly over garnished but that might just be my own lettuce aversion rearing its head - and the fact we ordered what was probably too much food.

Seafood was the staple ingredient of the rest of our choices with lots of king prawns and scallops, as well as the only disappointing dish, the calamari fritti. The Spiedini Imperiali (king scallops and king prawns on skewers) were cooked to perfection with the fresh seafood coming from Glasgow supplier Bernard Corrigan.

The Fritturina Di Calamari and Gamberi (fried squid and prawns to you and me) was the only dish that wasn't served at the right temperature or consistency. Too cool and almost soggy, even the lemon mayo was too bland to give the calamari the lift it needed. Some classic crostini finished off the selection and gave us our garlic fix; overall we were sated by the selection of fine Italian produce, which was all very fresh and well cooked.

What Mediterraneo will have to watch, is that with 130 covers over an expansive and awkward-shaped space it'll be easy to neglect the Champagne Bar area - and as our light selection and drinks cost about £50 that would be lucrative custom to ignore.

For us, we had to go up to the bar to pay our bill as we were in a rush to get to our gig, but almost against expectation we had enjoyed a relaxed and tasty meal, a lovely drink and an interesting - if slightly quirky - atmosphere.

Mediterraneo will be a welcome addition to the Glasgow dining scene, especially if they crack their service issues, which were almost understandable in the first few weeks of business.

The exceptional proves the rule

Review published on 11/01/2010 © Sunday Herald

Pasta? I’ve got a cousin who lives for a good plate of the stuff. Forget everything else; just one big, delicious plate of pasta every day. And I can see where he’s coming from. Done right, pasta can be the simplest and best food on the planet. Done wrong, it’s rubbish. I mention all this because it’s only in Italy it’s ever guaranteed to be done right.

In this country it’s extraordinarily hard to get a really good bowl of pasta – there are too many soggy pre-cooked spaghettis and heavy prepared sauces. I’ll be honest: that’s what I expected in Mediterraneo, and I was wrong.

In fact I nearly walked out on my first visit. It was at lunchtime on Christmas Eve. I wandered in – drawn by the big plate-glass windows, glittering Champagne bar sign and bustling open kitchen – and slid into a booth by the window. Two minutes later I was trying to slide back out, my feet skidding on the tiled floor as the waiter tried to cajole me into ordering from a £16 festive menu. Frankly, I’d rather barbecue my own tongue than eat from a festive menu.

It was only when he reluctantly flourished an a la carte menu that the problem was resolved, and soon I was polishing off quenelles of aubergine with mascarpone on melba toast. Good? The fact they were not quenelles, it wasn’t strictly melba toast, the fresh oregano was chopped parsley, it was served chilled from the fridge and the starter cost £6 was not technically a good sign.

But then the orecchiette with spinach arrived. A deep bowl, those little pasta shapes glistening in olive oil, cheese, spinach and almonds all mixed together appetisingly, the pasta cooked properly and the sauce full of flavour. It was delicious. By then I had tuned out of the Glasgow princesses’ chat about the St Mungo’s Ball coming from the next table and tuned into the all-Italian chat coming from the open kitchen. Another bowl of pasta then, please. This time paccheri con calamaretti, big tubes of more properly cooked pasta, white wine, chillies and baby squid. Again, it was delicious. Surprised, I headed off to Inverness for the soon-to-be-cancelled-but-nobody-told-me Hogmanay party.

Four days later, after battling blizzards and ice, here I am drawn back for yet more pasta, this time spaghetti con zucchine e zaffarano – spag with courgettes, onions and saffron. Doesn’t sound promising, does it? Well, it’s fabulous – simple and full of balance, flavour and lightness. That’s the secret of a good bowl of pasta: it doesn’t need cream or expensive ingredients, it just needs to be made with an understanding that the pasta and sauce ought to hang together.

So, that’s three good pastas in three visits. Amazing. But there’s a kitchen full of Italians on show, which means it’s time to try a pizza, a simple marinara with tomato, garlic and oregano which, at £6.95, is about the only bargain here. There’s no comparison between this light, thin, crisp-based, chewy-crusted, intensely flavoured masterpiece and the cack my children order from Domino’s. By any standards it’s an extraordinarily good pizza: fired hot, flop free, the sauce not sliding off the top like a watery landslide.

Now, I should point out that I have also had a starter of mozzarella in carrozza. It was a disaster, bearing no resemblance whatsoever to what it should be. It came as balls of crisp, deep-fried mozzarella when it should be like a french toast sandwich of mozzarella. That’s how it is correctly described on the menu, so they surely know what they should be serving.

I should also say there are a number of main-course steaks, fish and so on which at around £17 are expensive for lunch and may even be a bit richly priced for dinner. And yes, it is the same menu all day.

The key question is would I come back, the answer to which is definitely. The only danger is that if customers don’t order pasta or pizza they might get entirely the wrong impression about this place.