Da Luciano in Bothwell

The Commonwealth Games in Glasgow is coming into an end tommorow. I heard on the radio the other day that about 800,000 people flocking into the city of Glasgow!  Wow, lots of people.  I have managed to stay away from the city during the games and have been watching the actions on TV.

This also means that we don't go to Glasgow for almost weekly fix of Italian food at Sarti. So where else do we go....?

I have recently gone out for dinner with my friend, Dace. We originally thought about meeting up in Glasgow for dinner but decided to avoid it all together as we thought it would be very busy because of the games.

Dace found this Italian restaurant in Bothwell called Da Luciano (http://daluciano.co.uk) in Bothwell. We don't need to drive through the town, in fact totally avoids Glasgow; that would work.

I was driving to get to the restaurant after work. It was allegedly the most hottest day in Scotland. I know as I could feel my make up melting, even if my windows were open whilst driving (the air con does not work that well in my car...).


Dace and I decided to dine alfresco - in fact there was no one eating inside anyway. I don't usually do this as it's too cold to sit outside (if in Scotland) or I don't want to get sun tanned. But I made an exception that day. It was really hot but the garden canopies gave us a nice shelter with occasional pleasant breeze. My make up was already melted so I might as well get some colour to my cheeks.

The restaurant had bar snack menu. Interesting... many items are not really Italian, for example Chicken Pakora, King Prawn Tempura. I guess they would be nice if you just want to have light bites to eat with drinks.  But I was hungry.  I found it also has Teble D'Hote menu, for £13.95 for two courses and £15.95 for three courses including a large glass of House Wine (http://daluciano.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/august-tdh-menu.pdf).  That sounds nice too. Knowing me, probably I can't handle full three courses. I pictured myself driving home with full fat belly, feeling uncomfortable. Better be with something lighter.

In the end, Dace and I decided to go for pasta for main course from A La Carte menu and maybe would have desserts later.

I had Linguine Allo Scoglio (Linguine pasta with king prawn, mussels, calamari, clams in olive oil and garlic sauce) and Dace had Linguine pasta with broccoli, courgettes, peas with goat cheese.

Pasta was good ... I would have liked it with more juice from seafood in my pasta however I enjoyed it. It was colourful (I like that in my food!) and its light taste made it quite perfect for such a hot day. Dining alfresco makes everything tasty anyway.  I am sure Dace enjoyed hers, certainly her pasta looked nice.

We then decided to order desserts after all.  I spotted 'Warm Nutella' and pecan crepes with vanilla ice cream. I like Nutella, so that's what I had.

Dace had Tiramisu. It looked interesting ... it looked more like a 'de-constructed' Tiramisu. Tiramisu (tira meaning pick or pull and misu, I think means me) means "pick me up" or "lift me up" in Italian, made of savoiardi finger biscuits dipped in coffee, layered with a whipped cream, mascarpone and cocoa.  Were there any coffee dipped finger biscuits in the jar of cream? I forgot to ask Dace how was the dessert as we were too busy talking. I hope it did, otherwise, it would be Tiramissed as no coffee dipped biscuits to give a kick... ha ha ha.

We enjoyed our dinner and conversation that night. Weather was also great too and it was really lovely to dine alfresco.  Dace told me that we have not met each other for more than 10 years. 10 years, that long!!!  That's terrible. We had so much to catch up with.  Great thing about our friendship is that, no matter how long we might not have seen each other, we can pick up our friendship where we left off last time to pick up just like that as if we only have seen each other recently.

Well, Dace's Tiramisu might not have pick her up but we surely did pick up our friendship right away and our spirits were lifted up!  We really enjoyed our dinner. Next time we must meet sooner than 10 years time, definitely!


That's all forks.