The Italian Club

Despite my love of Italian food, I’d never made it into The Italian Club, a bright welcoming Italian cafe come restaurant. I’ve eaten at their sister outlet, The Italian Club Fish, on several occasions and really enjoyed it. So, for today’s lunch, a bowl of gnocchi was my chosen meal, in Bold Street’s newly expanded independent italian venue.

Gnocchi is a personal favourite of mine, and something I make at home from time to time, its beautiful be it with potato or, a recent discovery, with ricotta. This Gnocchi Alla Sorrentina was very nice, served with tomatoes, shredded basil and some mozzarella. This classic Italian combination was well made, and worked with what was good quality bought in gnocchi. Freshly made gnocchi, although delicious and far better than the packeted kind, could be tricky to make and serve in large quantities. Thus, for this smaller relaxed venue it is an understandable choice, although the dish could never reach its true potential. For £7.50 it is a good price for what was a well sized lunch, and it really should have been the end of this post.

However, typically when someone sits a tempting looking cake right in front of me, my will power crumbles to almost nothing, and today was no exception. Placed on the counter for all to see was a very pleasant looking cake, that I soon ascertained was amaretto and almond. My will power all but shot, I ordered what was beautifully soft cake with a layer of custard in between and crunchy amaretto biscuits on top. It was bursting with fragrant amaretto and almond flavours, for £3.50 it was very very good and worth every penny. It’s just a shame it came served with some cheap spray cream that did it no favours what so ever.

The Italian club is good food and good prices, with a menu offering a wide selection of dishes, it’s certainly worth a visit.