Friday, March 16, 2007

Pulcinella, Hope Street, Glasgow

We've walked past Italian restaurant Pulcinella on Hope Street so many times while hunting for a place to dine for no obvious reason other than maybe just because it's in the middle, between the more obvious centres of Sauchiehall Street and Argyll Street. Anyway, this time we thought we might as well go in and give it a try as we had loads of time before the movie we were going to see started.

First off, once you're inside, it's much larger than it looks from the street. It can seat 70 so maybe that's why the window seats were always empty when we passed before, which probably didn't help make us think it was popular. There were plenty of people sitting eating but we got a table easily enough and the staff were really friendly and inviting. The decor is a bit odd as one complete wall consists of a not particularly good mural of an Italian carnival and the other has an assortment of carnival masks. Still, it goes with the theme as the name Pulcinella is a character from popular Neapolitan puppet theatre.

The unusual decor aside, we really couldn't fault the food or service as both were excellent. The menu is pretty traditional Italian fare with antipasti, pasta, carni, pesce and pizza to choose from. We'd just missed the pre-theatre menu so started with meatballs cooked with fresh basil & garlic bread (polpetinne al sugo) and deep fried mushrooms in breadcrumbs (funghi fritti). I had penne amatriciana and Lorna had spaghetti with tomato, basil and meatballs for main courses, washed down with a nice bottle of sangiovese red. We still had plenty of time on our hands so, once the wine had been polished off, we had a slice of apple pie and ice cream and a piece of strawberry cheesecake to finish.

Well stuffed and nicely satisfied with the meal, we headed off for the movies hoping that we wouldn't fall asleep in the warm and dark cinema.

Cuisine: Italian
My Rating: 7/10

1 comment:

Darren said...

Dear Allan, thank you for your blog review of Pulcinella. Could we please quote and link your blog on the Pulcinella website? Please reply to contact@pulcinella.co.uk. Hope to see you again soon.