Vino Rosso Leaves its Diners Happy
Although it clearly helps to be a carnivore
When the editor of ChiswickW4.com invited me to have dinner with her I was delighted. Our editor is charming, witty and all round good company. The venue was Vino Rosso in Devonshire Road. What was there not to like?
Vino Rosso classifies itself as modern Italian and that just about sums it up. The menu is Italian food with a modern twist. And the restaurant itself is sophisticated and elegant with pale walls and clever lighting giving an intimate and classy ambiance.
It’s also very smooth. Almost as soon as we sat down complimentary Bellini cocktails appeared on the table with olives and some tiny bread rolls to nibble while we perused the menu.
I was really looking foward to it and my expectations were largely fulfilled but there was one bum note.
As a vegetarian I’ve always trusted Italian restaurants to have a choice of things for me to eat, and I didn’t expect Vino Rosso to disappoint but disappoint it did. The only starter which didn’t contain meat, fish or seafood was insalata di lattuga, a dish which, while it would gladden the heart of any denizen of Watership Down, left me nonplussed. It consisted of a lot of lettuce and several croutons in a Gorgonzola sauce. To be fair the sauce was delicious but the lettuce was lettuce, the croutons were croutons and at £7 it was overpriced. I didn’t finish it because it’s difficult to eat one’s way through a lot of lettuce.
I know I’m getting on my hobby horse here, but vegetarians are no longer kaftan-wearing, aging hippies with pony-tails and Cornish pasty sandals. There are lots of us and we come in all shapes and sizes, something most restaurants recognise and they offer at least one decent vegetarian dish for each course. There’s nothing fundamentally wrong with lettuce salad except that it’s boring and I would have liked a choice - roasted vegetables, goats cheese, avocado (minus the mozzarella and tomatoes of course) all would have been well received. A restaurant of Vino Rosso’s calibre should really do better in this department.
Editor’s starter was rather more successful. She had aubergine and scallop rolls with tomato coulis and basil oil which was were declared delicious. They certainly looked good. Tiny, shiny black rolls nestling rather artistically in the red coulis, they didn’t stay there long and were declared wonderful.
The meal was lubricated with a bottle of organic Sauvignon Blanc, wine that was in a class of its own. Very cold, it had the right amount of lemony, grapiness to start and a distinct hint of iron filings to finish – delicious. And at £17.50 it was also very reasonably priced.
So on to the main courses. I had ricotta and pecorino tortelli with summer truffles and Editor had pan-fried red mullet with potatoes and sage veloute and we shared a rocket salad with Parmigiano cheese shavings.
My pasta was lovely. Pasta is a very flexible ingredient which can be as plain or as fancy as the mood takes. At Vino Rosso it was fancy – rich, cheesy, buttery with the pasta cooked to perfection and topped with sliced truffle. This was the first time I’ve ever eaten truffles and I was a bit wary at first but they were actually rather lovely too.
Editor polished off her mullet and all the potato and sage veloute so I think it ticked all the boxes. She muttered something about having to go for a run in the morning to work it off and I have to admit she does stay slim for one whose job is to eat her way around Chiswick.
As the wine slipped down and the meal progressed we settled into our girly night-out with lots of girly gossip: are men genetically predisposed not to understand washing machines; what present she was going to bring me back from her holiday; shoes, sparkly tops and Chiswick.
When we’d finished eating we sat back and wished we had room for a desert: tiramisu; wild berries in riesling with vanilla ice cream; honey infused frozen cream with white chocolate and strawberries; and lemon tart were very tempting but we resisted. Instead we had coffee with Limcello liqueurs, those sunshine yellow stickies that pack rather more alcohol than you’d think. We left the restaurant very happy!
The menu at Vino Rosso changes regularly so they can offer seasonal ingredients which gives you a good excuse for returning. And at lunch time there are two special offers: the express lunch which consists of one course with salad and a glass of wine for £10, and a set lunch with either two or three courses for £13 and £16 respectively. Very useful if you are hungry and in Devonshire Road at around one o’clock.
Our bill came to £85.50 which included service.
October 19, 2008
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