L'Unico Restaurant Wednesday 21 November

Pizza Marinara

Pizza L'Unico

Panna cotta

Mousse

Pork belly

Gnocchi

Pizza dessert (chocolate)

I’m not sure why we ended up in an Italian Restaurant.  I think it was because at the last dinner we couldn’t decide where to go and we happened to be walking past L’Unico in Kingston, looked at the menu and decided it looked good enough.

I’m never really sure about Italian restaurants.  To me,  Italian food is something you cook at home, and thus Italian restaurants are never all that exciting unless they are top of the range  such as Dieci e Mezzo, (closed) or Italian and Sons, (excellent except they won’t take bookings for groups, and anyway  they have two sittings a night, grrrrr).

So it was with some caution that I went along. 

All of us were present for a change, Karen, Jim, Megan, Kim, John, Andrew and Ron

Wine: 2011 Bella Riva King Valley. Pinot Grigio Vermentinl

Wooing Tree Pinot Noir 2008, Central Otago

Pasadena Zinfandel 2007 Pony Express.

Food:

Rocket and Parmesan Salad

Berkshire pork belly

Roasted pumpkin Ravioli

Gnocchi Sorrentino

Fettucine Carbonara

Pizze, Marinara and L’Unico.

We started with some bruschetta, which filled the hungry tums, then after a bit of a wait all the food came out at once.  The pumpkin and the pork seemed to be the pick of the bunch. The pumpkin was deemed “spectacular, outstanding” and the pork, lovely, “to die for” etc.

The rest of ordinary but okay, the gnocchi “not bad” the fettucini very nice to okay, light not too creamy, done well but not spectacular.  The gnocci was ordinary, not very light.

All in all the group liked the restaurant, said they would come again.  Maybe I’m a bit of a snob, but most of these dishes we could have cooked at home with little effort, even the pork.  If I’m going out I prefer something a bit different, even challenging.  This is probably best for families, people wanting something basic and filling.

We did find the service a bit too slow, which was surprising because the restaurant was nowhere near full.

Our next dinner will be a special one (Xmas) and we’re hoping for Aubergine, woohoo.