Dinner at Sarti, Glasgow

Well, I was meant to write this blog last weekend but I have not got around to do so till today. I think it's too late to refer this as Valentine Dinner, especially all restaurants have now moved on and start promoting Mothers' Day menus, so I just call it Dinner at Sarti but it was not just a dinner, it was fabulous as always.

Originally we were not thinking about going out for dinner on Valentine's Day until a week before that we found out what would be in their Valentine's Day menu.  Grilled swordfish was on the menu.  I normally do not like fatty or oily fish but I do like grilled swordfish. It reminds me of Italy too as that was where I first tasted it grilled with herbs and lemon sauce. You hear about health and ecological concerns about this fish (e.g. mercury level and sustainability).  But... you don't get swordfish on a menu that often and that was another thing that got me - I had to have this.  So we booked a table on Valentine's Day.

We like dry, refreshing white wine, so with Sarti's recommendation, we tried Tufflolo Cortese from Piemonte in Gavi. The description on the label mentions delicate hint of lemon and perfect with fish. That sounded great. I ordered pan seared scallop for starter and grilled swordfish so it would go very well with them.

As we left it too late to book our table, out reservation was for 5pm, yet the restaurant was already busy with valentine diners. That was however fine with us as we were enjoying this refreshing wine whilst snacking Sarti's delicious focaccia.

Our first courses arrived. Mine was Capesante dell'Amore which is pan seared scallops served in the shell in white wine and garlic with wilted spinach. I am not usually a big fan of scallops however I really enjoyed this starter - I thought scallops were cooked perfectly and could tastes its lovely sweetness.

My husband had Risottino Cupido which is creamy Arborio risotto with artichoke and toasted pine nuts. He likes artichoke. I tried this risotto and liked the addition of pine nuts. The portion size was really generous too.

Very rarely I cook risotto at home and thought I have done a very good job of it till I come to Sarti, try their risotto and realise the big difference in the level of al dante or the existence of 'bite' and creaminess in their risotto rice in comparison to mine.  Maybe I should cook risotto more often at home to perfect it. Practice makes perfect, you know.  That also means, literally, slaving over a hot oven, keep stirring and adding ladleful of stock little by little....  this is a lot of ask for me being a lazy cook if I have to do this frequently.
I think I am quite happy to come to Sarti to have their perfect risotto instead....

We then move on to the main course - the arrival of my long anticipated Pesce Spada Dolce Amaro which is grilled swordfish with lemon sauce served with radicchio and baby potatoes.  Here, radicchio was served grilled. It has a bitter and a bit spicy taste but I thought it goes very well with the grilled swordfish with lemon and herb sauce.  I never tried radicchio before till that night. I have seen Giorgio Lcatelli cooked radicchio and red wine risotto on a TV cooking programme many years ago (http://uktv.co.uk/food/recipe/aid/512129) and always wanted to try this vegetable.  Well, maybe I shall practice making risotto using his recipe - it uses risotto rice, radicchio and red wine. It sounds rather apt to choose this recipe if I were to slave myself over a hot oven.  After all, the recipe uses 250ml of red wine! It would be much enjoyable too....

My husband had Linguine Degl' Innamorati which is linguine in a white wine and garlic sauce with pan fried red mullet.  Red mullet is a delicate and beautiful fish. Very generous portion of two fillets of this beautiful fish were served on top of tasty linguine.

What I liked about Sarti's Valentine menu was that they had swordfish and red mullet which you don't often see in a menu at many restaurants.  You often get salmon, sea bass, monkfish or even lobster. Because we don't eat meat, sometimes selections could be limited so it was a welcome change for us.

We really enjoyed our starters and mains and moved on to desserts.

I wanted to have something refreshing so I opted for Sgroppino, pronounced 'score-pee-noe' which is a hybrid of cocktail and dessert often served after meals in Venice, made with lemon sorbet and prosecco. According to internet, the name came from a word meaning 'untie a little knot' referring to the state of one's stomach after a large meal and relaxing it.  It was really refreshing.

I have just realised, having written thus far, everything I have consumed had lemon, even in the wine! Suddenly I feel healthy and don't feel too bad about my over indulgence. (Hope I can still fit myself into the mother-of-bride dress that I have recently purchased for Emily and Craig's wedding.... diet from tomorrow ...???)

My husband had Formaggio di Cleopatra, traditional Italian cheese platter with biscuits and honey.  I forgot to ask them what kind of cheese they were, sorry.... but we did notice there was a big drop of balsamic vinegar in the honey.  That was interesting. It never occurred to me to do that so we may try this at home.

After that we had coffees to finish off our wonderful meal.

The restaurant gave us lovely and chilled limoncello as digestive. Lemon theme continued. I feel not only 'healthy' but also 'happy', thinking about all these wonderful foods we managed to consume that night.  Definitely diet tomorrow ... oh no, I can't as we are meant to go for an afternoon tea tomorrow afternoon, so diet after this weekend.... maybe....

As we were leaving, I also received a lovely single rose to go home with. What a lovely gesture!

Well, we have had a lovely dinner at Sarti, as always. Everyone works there is really friendly and very attentive no matter how busy they are and food is always fantastic. And we really enjoy varieties of choices we have in menus on special occasions and advice on wine selections to go with it.  Eating dinner at Sarti is not just about eating food for the sake of it, it's a lovely dining experience as a whole. That's why we keep going back to Sarti.  This means that I can never go on diet.... I hope I can fit myself into the dress for the wedding or squeeze myself into it with a little help of spanx if I have to....

That's all forks!

Chanterelle Risotto at Sarti's in Glasgow

My husband and I were going back to Lisbon for holiday shortly. Food in Lisbon is just heavenly, not to mentioning the weather.... that being said, I have never come across any good pizzas in Lisbon. Obviously you don't go to Lisbon to eat pizza really, but after having so many fish/seafoods and custard pastries every day, one sometimes needs a change, hence a notion of good stone baked pizza, even in Lisbon. For such a ubiquitous dish like pizza, one would think 'you can't go wrong with pizza, anywhere', albeit pizza in Italy being still the best in the world. Alas, not in Lisbon, or at places we have been to in Lisbon ...

So, naturally, we decided to go to Sarti, our favourite restaurant in Glasgow, to have a really good pizza before we go back to Lisbon for imminent holiday. Yes, we love pizza at Sarti's. In fact, the first time we went to Florence, we went to this restaurant to order some stone baked pizza. It was really good but also we said to each other, 'just like the one at Sarti's!'

Anyway, before we got to Sarti, I had already decided that I was going to have a tuna and red onion pizza.  Then, one of the chefs, Martin, came over and told us that chanterelle risotto was really good that day ....

I had a big dilemma ... do I have a pizza or the risotto.... the chef said it was really good .... and I had never tried chanterelle mushroom properly before.
In the end we were persuaded; we could have pizza any time but not the chanterelle mushroom risotto, and we did not regretted our decisions.

The risotto was really delicious, so creamy and with lovely flavoursome mushrooms!!!  How could they make the dish so beautifully ...
If they had this on a special menu in future, we would definitely have this again!

This was half-portion size risotto, sprinkled with freshly grated Parmesan cheese;
there were lots of chanterelle mushrooms, mmmmmm.

Well, just as well I only ordered as a half size portion so that at least I could manage to finish this, because we already had some focaccia whilst waiting for starter, and then had roasted red peppers with mozzarella cheese for starters, both were fantastic!

Mozzarella cheese was really soft and creamy with lovely and warm roasted peppers with balsamic glaze 

Ok, we are not going to have a pizza for a while but we can still look forward to going Sarti's pizza when we come back from our holiday in Lisbon, unless they create another scrumptious dish that would make it difficult for us not to have their pizza...

That's all forks!

Sarti for Birthday

It was my birthday last month and my family took me to Sarti (http://fratelli-sarti.co.uk/index), my favourite Italian restaurant in Glasgow, for my birthday dinner. 

The highlight of the evening was the main course asparagus ravioli in tomato sauce. Chef Lydia knows that I love asparagus and when we were seated, she told me I could have asparagus ravioli. No need for checking the menu, I have that one!

I always love Sarti's ravioli. I really enjoyed this one too. Each ravioli was quite a good size, perfectly cooked - not too soft and not too hard with lots of tasty asparagus and ricotta cheese fillings, covered with tasty tomato sauce.  I also love Sarti's tomato sauce in general, whether it's pasta sauce or pizza sauce, I think their tomato sauce is just gorgeous.  Anyway, back to the ravioli, it was soooo delicious, I actually ate all, considering the generous portion size (and also that I usually never manage to finish whole plate and end up eating half and getting the other half to take away...). 

Just looking at the picture of my ravioli, I could still remember the taste of it, mmmm, yummy. 

For starter, my husband and I shared Antipasto di Mare Tiepido (prawns, octopus, cuttlefish, mussels and clams sautéed in white wine and garlic) between us from the menu. This was also really delicious. 

While my husband and I were enjoying our asparagus raviolis, Maria was enjoying her Penne al Mascarpone (soft mascarpone cheese melted through tomato sauce with a hint of chilli) with lots of grated parmisiano. She loves cheese so this was an inresistable dish for her (and let's not talk about calories here...).  

Penne al Mascarpone

Emily in the meantime enjoyed Pizza Ortolana (zucchini, peppers and red onions) with extra topping of an egg in the middle.  For some reason she fancied an egg on pizza that night.  It looks really yummy and I think she really enjoyed it. Again, pizza is another dish we love about Sarti. We think their pizza base is just perfect - lovely, fluffy and light at the same time.  When we first went to Florence, we went into this pizzeria and ordered a pizza. It was really good, of course. We said to each other, "Just like the one in Sarti's!"  Ha ha ha...

Yummy pizza!

We enjoyed our main course with one of our favourite wine - Bardolino Chiaretto, lovely light rose.

No matter how much you are full, it's funny you always manage to find a space in your stomach for desserts.  My husband had tiramisu.  I always wanted to try Torta della Nonna (Grandmother's Torte) so I ordered this. This is a traditional Tuscan dessert of double custard tart filled with pasty cream. It was really delicious, it tasted how I had imagined. I read it somewhere on internet afterwards that it would go with a glass of dessert wine. That sounds really nice ... I must try that way one day....

Torta della Nonna

Tiramisu

To finish off the meal, we all had wee limoncello. Salute!

Another lovely meal at Sarti, and Happy Birthday to me.....

That's all forks!

Love Sarti - Glasgow .... lunch menu

Everybody who knows me knows I love Fratelli Sarti (http://fratelli-sarti.co.uk), so much so my husband and I alternate our almost weekly visits between Renfield Street restaurant and Wellington Street Restaurant for my Sarti-fix! They also have Bath Street restaurant but unfortunately we don't have enough body to split our time to include that branch!

What I like so much about them is that the quality of food they serve is excellent and always consistent, service is excellent - everyone works there is really friendly and gives you such a warm welcome. Sarti is like my 'Little Italy' that every time I go there, I want to go back to Italy for holiday or reminisce about the great time we had in Italy!

Considering the numbers of times we have been, I tend to order same things off the menu so I have recently declared to my family that I would start ordering dishes off the menu top to toe!  So far,  I am not doing that well as I am kept distracted by the lovely selections of dishes available in lunch menu.

The other day we went to Renfield Street restaurant and ordered from lunch menu.

For starter, I have chosen Insalata di Calmari Calda (warm marinated calamari served on a crispy salad).  I love squid and this is really a delicious dish!

Oh, I also like their focaccia to mop up the sauce and with a glass of Rose! 

For main course I had Raviolli del Contadino (large hand-made ravioli filled with grilled vegetables and served in tomato and cream sauce).  I really really enjoyed this one!

To finish off with fine meal, I like to have a lovely cafe macchiato. And they gave us a bit of freezer cold limoncello  as digestivo!  Yummmmm!

You see, this is the reason why I keep trying different things in lunch menu.

I promise I will order something off the main menu next time....

That's all forks!

Lunch at Sarti's

Since we returned from our holiday in Sicily, I have not got around to update my blog... as soon as I open my laptop, instead of updating this, I have been busy looking up information of small dogs for a possible family pet for our home. My husband is not convinced - no more holidays in sunny Italy or Spain, instead it would be a daily walkie with a pet dog in British weather that can have 4 seasons in one day!

Neverthless, my husband reluctantly agreed to come with me to visit some dog shelters. We have seen gorgeous white Alaskan Huskies, huge mastiff with adorable face and laid-back rottweiler but all too big for us. Last Saturday, we went to Dogs Trust and saw cute Lakeland terrier that has some serious problem with socialising, which mean that he is too difficult to be re-homed. We also met absolutely lovable 9 month old staffordshire bull terrier, but unfortunately still a big for us and a bit too energetic.
I am now thinking of Bishon Fries or Shih Tzu - they are small, cute and low shedding, AND they don't need much exercise that would suit me! However it is very unlikely that I can find them in a dog shelter so I would need to start looking elsewhere. Search continuous, I declare, while my husband shaking his head in dismay. So, we did not come home with any dog after all.

Anyway, back to main business. Before we went to the Dogs Trust, we went back to Sarti's for lunch. This time we opted for set lunch menu. The restaurant gave us a basket of complimentary focaccia bread to start with, which was really really delicious! We like to dip it into olive oil and balsamic vinegar but sometimes we may have it with olive oil and chilli puree or olive oil with garlic puree...

We ordered 2 glasses of house rose but as this was running out, the Manager recommended us to try something different - we tried this Bardolino rose, Bardolino Chiretto, which was really really nice. (Bardolino is by Lake Garda, north of Italy.)

For main course my husband had a generous portion of lovely mushroom soup and I had roasted red peppers and mozzarella salad, and as usual, the cheese was so soft and creamy it just melted in the mouth...

For main course, we both had penne with tomato sauce with roasted peppers, cherry tomatoes and mushroom and we asked for lots of parmesan on top!

And to finish off, we both had cappuccino. Cappuccino is breakfast coffee so Italians don't have this for lunch or after lunch as it's too heavy. We don't mind and we are not in Italy, so we had it anyway!

To tell you the truth, halfway through the main course I was so full and could not finish the pasta that I actually asked for a doggy bag! Yes, I know, how could I ask for a doggy bag at Sarti's!!! I have no shame ... plus the pasta was really tasty and it would be an absolute crime and shame not to finish it.

So in the end, we did not come home with a doggy but we did come home with a doggy bag!!!

Great seafood spaghetti!

I am updating this blog while cooking dinner. Menu for this evening is grilled salmon fillet glazed with light soy sauce and ginger, with mixed vegetable stir fry and savoury vegetable rice. Ever since I watched Gok Wan's Chinese Cookery programme on TV, I have been using Thai Fish Sauce when stir frying vegetables. It really does add extra dimension to the ordinary stir fry but be careful not to use too much, otherwise your stir fry vege  would end up too salty to eat.

Anyway, we went back to our favourite Italian restaurant, Sarti (http://sarti.co.uk), for dinner last Friday night.
As soon as I walked into the house, after long day at work and when all you wanted to do was to relax and sit in front of TV to catch up, perhaps with a glass of vino, my husband asked me if I wanted to go to Sarti.  Of course I want, why not, how can I refuse!!!  There was a slight catch though - I got to be the designated driver after the dinner.

We did not book the table but we were lucky enough to get a nice table, considering how busy the place was already for early evening.  I had their Tomato and Mascapone penne before and as it was so delicious, I was thinking about ordering this again. When my husband declared that he will have seafood spaghetti, I was easily influenced by his choice and decided to order one for myself too.

Well, it was an excellent choice! There were so many varieties of seafood - langoustine, king prawns, salmon, scallops, mussels, squids, octopus and small prawns, which were all cooked to the perfection with spaghetti in very delicious tomato sauce.

Well, the photo says all, it was absolutely delicious and we had a very fantastic meal. I wish you could taste it or even wish there is a smell-vision (instead of television) with this blog so that you could smell this!!!

Now, thinking of food makes me really hungry and just as well, the dinner is ready. Better go and eat before it gets cold. It's nowhere near restaurant food but I love salmon and I surely enjoy it!

Sarti's Birthday Dinner

Monday, 20th August 2012 was our favourite Italian restaurant, Sarti's 20th Birthday, so my husband and I went to the restaurant for their special dinner.  The place was packed with regulars.

As aperitif, we were served a glass of rose procecco, a basket of focaccia and a bowl of olives.

We then ordered my favourite Sicilian white wine to start with our course, and half way through we ordered another one!!!  Just as well we took a day off the next day!

The first course would have been a meat platter however as we don't eat meat, the chef gave us a big plateful of grilled vegetables with mozzerella, crostini with pesto and tomatoes with basils etc.

For main course I had grilled sea bream with garlic roasted potatoes, courgetts and some greens (the name of this escaped me...).  The fish was grilled to the perfection!

My husband had mushroom risotto, which was very creamy and tasty.

For dessert, we were served tiramisu.

At this point it was getting late and we were so full (and a bit tipsy???) we could hardly walk, so we ordered a taxi to go home. The taxi came in 5 minutes so we had to leave right away. Just as we were walking toward the door, they were about to serve Birthday cake so we missed this. I wish we stayed a bit longer for this but maybe just as well as we could not possibly eat anything further at that point.
Anyway, we had a lovely meal.

Ate too much...?

Every Saturday morning we go to Starbucks. I have WHY BOTHER - skinny de-cafe Mocha Latte with cream on top with a newspaper to relax.

We then went to Sarti in Renfrew Street for lovely lunch.
As aperitif, we had focaccia, dipping into chilli oil, garlic, olive oil and balsamic vinegar, olives and blocks of parmesan cheese. Also ordered my favourite bottle of Sicilian wine!!

As starter, we had a crispy salad with roasted peppers, sun dried tomatoes and mozzarella cheese! Mozzarella cheese just melted in my mouth!

For main course, my husband and my daughter had pizza each but I opted for oven roasted salmon with  courgettes and onions with salad.

We were tempted to have desserts for the sake of it but resisted that temptation and just had coffee to finish the lovely lunch!  I had cafe machiato in a cup.