Paperino's, Byres Road, Glasgow

Friday saw about 120 of us heading out to our annual work's Christmas lunch and this time, it was the local Italian restaurant Paperino's that had to cope. As usual, mostly everyone sat in their own little groups and didn't mix very much.

Lorna and I have eaten in their Sauchiehall Street restaurant and really enjoyed it so it seemed a good choice to try out their new Byres Road venue, which only opened in May 2005. It had been a Kentucky Fried Chicken and before that a Burger King so this was a bit of a step up the ladder for the building. It's a good size as well, easily handling our numbers with lots more space left over for the passing trade. Not that too many ventured in, seeing as our horde was monopolizing the kitchen and serving staff.

The menu looked pretty good but it was Christmas and I didn't fancy pasta so I'm afraid I had good old turkey (Tacchino Natalizio) followed by Christmas pudding (Budino Natalizio) but at least they had Italian names and it was all washed down with a few bottles of Sangiovese. It's difficult to judge a restaurant based on festive fare like this but they did a really good job, the food came pretty quickly and was still hot, even with over a hundred to serve. Tasted good too and we all pretty much enjoyed it, didn't here anyone complaining!

Then we all went to a pub and again, pretty much split into work groups and proceeded to drink and drink. Well I hate to say it but I don't have the stamina I used to and gave up after about eight or nine hours so we went home via Burger King in town.

Gone are the days when we used to have the "do" in-house and you could quite easily find yourself dancing with the CEO, well if you were young and female you could. We'd get a bar in and hire a disco and you wouldn't feel it as a real event unless there was at least one fight or the Police stopping in to see what the hullabaloo was.

Anyway, that's the season under way and I think I've just recovered from Friday night and there's about two more weeks of this... aaaaagh!

Cuisine: Italian
My Rating: 7/10