Traditional fare from Italy is buono at Mono

Italian food fanatics can get a true taste of the Med at Mono on South Bridge for a fraction of the price with the launch of a new menu ideally suited to enjoy alongside a crisp glass of wine.
Perfect pairing: The menus bread category includes sourdough with Lardo di Colonata  and pickled onionPerfect pairing: The menus bread category includes sourdough with Lardo di Colonata  and pickled onion
Perfect pairing: The menus bread category includes sourdough with Lardo di Colonata and pickled onion

The city centre restaurant, which opened last summer, is owned by Joe Crolla and headed up by Michelin trained executive chef Maciek Zielinski.

In a bid to peddle the more sophisticated side of Italy’s ­cuisine, the team are offering diners 25 percent off the enoteca – the Italian word for wine repository – menu until February 24.

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Joe said: “People think they know Italian food but Scotland still only knows half of it.

“There’s more to it than just pizza and pasta and our new menu has been carefully put together to draw out a more contemporary approach to Italian food and drink with hero ingredients like Lardo di Colonata.

“There’s a wealth of Italian culinary heritage but at its core is a respect for the very best ­ingredients.

“It is designed to encourage people to think again and ­understand more contemporary Italian cuisine.”

The menu meanders through five categories from bread, through cheese, sea, land and sweet options.

Forget pizza and pasta, this is an ingredient-led tour of Italy’s very best produce and regional gastronomy.

It includes a Parmesan flan with Parmesan sauce and ­crumble (£7.50), octopus, chickpeas, fennel and grapefruit (£8), onion bun with ox tongue and salsa verde (£8) and chocolate cannolo and hazelnut (£7).

The restaurant is housed in a unique building on South Bridge where diners can choose to watch the world go by at the street level and bar, or downstairs where the rooms form part of the bridge itself overlooking the Cowgate.

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It is also home to one of the country’s best kept dining ­secrets – a completely open kitchen which flows right into the dining room allowing a handful of diners to enjoy the best chef’s tables in town.