Tags

, , , , ,

Eating Italian food at Jamie Oliver’s restaurant 

img_2690

This year, I made a list of casual restaurants I would like to try in Canberra and Jamie’s Italian was one, so with two of my friends we met and tried the food at this franchise.

One friend and I sat at the bar enjoying a glass of wine while we waited for our other friend and when she arrived, we were seated at a little booth which was comfortable with a huge chandelier above us and an array of cured meats and hanging garlic above the kitchen area.

img_2692

img_2691Our waitress allowed us to sample a couple of wines before we bought, as they were Italian and we had not tasted them before.

There are great small plates to share on the menu and whilst we wanted to eat them all, we decided on just one dish which was the crispy polenta chips – they were good!!

img_2695

I ordered the margherita pizza for my main course and it was nice; a reasonable looking pizza with a tasty base and even though it was not the best I have ever had, it was still enjoyable.  There were many dishes to choose from for vegetarians but this day I felt like pizza as had seen one being delivered to another table and it looked pretty good.

img_2696

My friends ordered the prawn linguine which consisted of fried garlic prawns with fennel, tomatoes, chilli, saffron, fish broth & lemon rocket and the squid and mussel spaghetti which had  flash-fried squid and mussels with octopus, capers, chilli, anchovies, tomatoes and white wine.  My friends both said they enjoyed their meals.

img_2697

img_2699

Food was ok and service very good, but I think I need to return to try an eggplant dish that I think has my name on it which has so many ingredients that make it sound really interesting (roasted eggplant with a ragù of lentils and tomatoes and smoked paprika with a garlicky yoghurt dressing, toasted pine nuts, lemon rocket and pomegranate).

Jamie’s has so many vegetarian dishes on its menu which all sound delicious including:

  • pasta filled with roasted squash, ricotta and parmesan in a pumpkin, chilli and rosemary butter
  • a tomato based pasta with garlic, basil, chillies, vegetarian pecorino and herb breadcrumbs
  • pasta stuffed with zucchini and mint and
  • a truffle risotto

 It’s always nice when a restaurant has so many options for vegetarians!!