Jamie's Italian - St Albans

I'm pretty lucky really. I work in Soho and live in St Albans which means i'm surrounded by good independent restaurants to pop into.  But every now and then I also enjoy a trip to one of the bigger chains such as Pizza Express or even Pizza hut on occasion (I know, I know, but when you are a child of the 80s, it was the best we had on offer!)

So, I was looking forward to trying out Jamie's Italian, now it has finally reached St Albans.  It was our 2nd wedding anniversary and we decided to save a bit of money and just pop out somewhere local.

We started the meal with a chacuterie platter between the two of us, which was pleasant enough, but ended up costing a ridiculous amount as you are charged per person and not allowed to share!

My other half had the fritto misto as a main, which was presented fantastically. See the image below and had a good mixture of fried fish.  However, it was a little bit 'too much' and would have been nicer if it had come with some salad or something to break up the 'friedness'!

I chose the squid ink spaghetti with scallops. (See image below) Again, presented really well but was incredibly disappointing. The Spaghetti was chewy and plastic like and the scallops were watery and unpleasant.

All in all, really not a wonderful experience i'm afraid to say, which is a shame. Although maybe we just chose the wrong dishes?

I don't think we'll be going back again to be honest, when there are plenty of other fantastic restaurants in the area and it isn't cheap.

http://www.jamieoliver.com/italian/

L'Italiana, St Albans

Since we moved to St Albans, a full year and a half ago, there were two places we didn't hear the end of - The Waffle House and L'Italiana. Well, we've made it to the waffle house once already (review to go up soon I promise) but until Friday night, we had tried and tried but not been able to get a table at L'Italiana. Amazed that we finally managed to pin down a table, we were pretty eager to get started and arrived ten minutes before our booking.

We were told to wander around town for ten minutes before we could take our seats - which was a little strange, but I felt the food would be worth it, so didn't mind too much.

We shared some calamari to start, which was melt in your mouth delicious. Followed by a L'Italiana pizza on my part (rocket, parma ham, cheese and tomato) and a prawn and scallop pasta for my other half. Both were fantastic - in particular the pasta.

We finished up with an irish coffee and a creme brulee (as all my friends/readers know, i'm a bit partial to a creme brulee!)

Overall the dinner was pleasant and well put together but neither of us could understand quite why the restaurant was so busy.

I think this is one of the places you go to for the atmosphere more than anything...singing along, clapping to the music and dancing all make for a great night out.

Definitely one to go back to!