Restaurant review: Taste of Italy, Edinburgh

IAM sick of hearing about Taste of Italy’s spaghetti bolognese. My friend Claire is a big fan of this restaurant’s version of the dish, which she slurps up like Tramp (from Disney’s Lady and the Tramp).

It’s her fail-safe lunch, dinner or elevenses, when she’s in the right postcode, which is the top of Leith Walk, near the Playhouse Theatre.

“Take me to the Taste of Italy,” I said, “so I can learn your ways. But you can’t have the spag bol, because it’s too boring for a restaurant review.”

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She seemed okay about that when we met at this diner, with its vibrantly unpretentious red and green walls, bar stools by the window, and booths up back. It’s owned by the Crolla family, whose portfolio of Edinburgh eateries includes the Vittoria pizzerias and the upmarket Divino Enoteca.

This place is an all-day affair, open from 8:30am-11pm during the week, and until midnight at weekends. The menu is quite basic – there’s a lot, but many of the offerings are in the casual breakfast, panini, pizza, burger and Italian-American-style snackage vein.

“I love their pizzas,” said Claire, wistfully.

“Too boring for a restaurant review,” said I, savouring my infinite power.

I allowed her to try the BBQ pork ribs (£4.95) instead. Alongside a tokenistic salad (lettuce, red onion and tomato), were five squat, meaty little rods slathered in a rather thin but sweet and chipotle-y, chestnut-coloured sauce. My dining partner gave them the thumbs (coated in icky brown goo) up.

It’s hard to criticise my antipasto, the Sicilian dish, caponata (£3.95), as it was so cheap, and came with – surprise bonus – a slice of squishy garlic bread. What else could I have spent the money on? Six and a half first-class stamps or a pair of support tights.

Those things are always useful but I would probably rather have this. It was a huge bowl of soft chopped aubergine mixed with strips of peppers and kalamata and green olives, in a tomato sugo. The latter was rather acidic, so I would’ve liked some more seasoning or herbs – garlic, parsley, or more black pepper – to take the edge off the tinned ratatouille-esque bitterness. Although, the Parmesan the waitress grated over the top helped a bit.

Once the remains had been whisked away, our mains came quickly. This place is impressively speedy and unusually well staffed. There was always a waiter’s eye to catch.

My gnocchi gusto (£6.50) was unremarkable but adequate. A generous portion of soft, uniform-sized gnocchi was slicked in a clingy and glossy ‘goat’s cheese’ sauce, which tasted more like carbonara to me, with none of nanny’s muskiness. It contained plenty of neat, confetti-sized squares of soft bacon and chopped leek. Fine.

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Claire had the tortellini romagna (£6.50). Again, a huge gathering of matching pasta parcels, each containing a little dollop of minced meat, which was visible in their semi-transparent abdomens. These were covered with a chunky tomatoey sauce and dotted with cross-sections of chestnut mushroom and nibs of ham. She ate the lot. I couldn’t quite believe so much stuff could be decanted into a human body so quickly. Fascinating.

The puddings here are, generally, unashamed ice-cream follies like caramel fantasia (£4.20), with vanilla pod and caramel ice-cream, caramel sauce, fudge chunks, shortcake crumble pieces and wafer.

Tempting, but as neither of us is 12 years old, we thought we’d have cake. I opted for coffee pecan cake (£2.95), and Claire went for the award-winning carrot version (£2.95). They didn’t specify which award the latter had won, but it was awful good, with chunks of walnut, soft, cinnamony sponge and a thick layer of trowelled-on butter icing.

Mine was a shamefully sugary beige beast of a thing, with a lovely wet texture and a tinge of proper espresso.

It’s not bad here, and it certainly serves a purpose, especially when it comes to efficiency and affordability. Not sure if I’ll ever be a regular though. “You wouldn’t be saying that if you’d had their bolognese,” said Claire.

TASTE OF ITALY

9 Baxter’s Place, Edinburgh (0131-557 9998, www.vittoriagroup.com)

How much?

Lunch for two, excluding drinks, £27.80