Bacco Italia, Shawlands, Glasgow

I love Italian food, though seeing myself as a bit of a culinary wiz when it comes to cooking it, I actually rarely eat it when we go out for dinner.  So, for me to visit the same Italian restaurant twice in two days surely must say something good about the place.  Bacco Italia has been on Kilmarnock Road  in Shawlands for a good few years now.  There’s quite stiff competition in the form of Bella Napoli just a few doors up, but my friend and I were tempted in by the seemingly good value daily lunch deal. £7.95 for two courses and a soft drink seemed like a pretty good prospect on a Saturday afternoon.  

The choices were pretty good.  I opted for the goats cheese and grilled peppers, which came with some nice fresh salad and a balsamic reduction.  Extremely tasty, and pretty filling for a starter.  My friend had the bruschetta – and what a bruschetta it was!!  Huge slab of tasty bread, loads of fresh tomatoes and basil and some sliced salami. For our main we both had the Pasta Aurora.  Lovely al dente Casarecce pasta  in a delicious creamy tomato sauce.  Unfortunately we forgot the soft drinks in our bid for more wine!  Disappointingly, and perhaps irresponsibly, the waiter didn’t offer these to us.  Perhaps my hangover the next day may not have been so bad had he done so – though i doubt it.  One glass of orange juice doesn’t do much when your 3 bottles of wine down!  

Perhaps the hangover and resulting need for food explains why my other half and I decided to make another visit the following day.  Or perhaps I’d talked it up so much he was itching to go.  Either way, down we went for my round number 2.  Couldn’t resist the bruschetta (as tasty as it looked) and my other half had smoked salmon with prawns which he said was pretty good. For main I had the risotto, with tomatoes and Italian sausage.  The sausage was absolutely delicious!  Opted for the soft drinks this time though!

  

I’d recommend a visit here for a nice lazy lunch.  The staff were very friendly (although one waiter was prancing about in shades for some reason at one point) and the food was top notch for the price. ( www.baccoitalia.co.uk )