A short while ago the lovely folk at Bocconcino got in touch and asked if myself and a few other bloggers would like to pop in for a review. Gladly, was obviously my answer.

Thus on a cold, miserable Wednesday evening, I found myself in the good company of some of my aptly coined ‘internet friends’, namely Angie, Lauren and Catherine, in a really rather beautiful & cosy restaurant, versus eating a basic dinner in my pyjamas on the sofa.

Things were already off to a good start.

The staff were fabulous and so, so friendly. So as to give us a little taste of a number of dishes, we received platters of the following to share:

Buffalo mozzarella with tomato (£12.00).

A solid classic.

Parma ham with deep fried cheese pastries (£16.00).

The thin sheets of cured ham were so fresh, soft and tasty.

The difference in flavour & texture when you’ve only had shop-bought for a while is quite remarkable.

Deep fried calamari with tartare sauce (£14.00).

I absolutely love calamari and found Bocconcino’s serving very enjoyable, although not quite on par with Scalini’s sensational (ginormous) offering.

Tiger prawns and courgette tempura (£14.00).

This dish didn’t really do it for me. The batter was rather limp & greasy, letting down what had the potential to be an otherwise very good plate of food.

Angie had spied one of her favourite starters of yellow fin tuna tartare, slightly spicy (£18.00) on the menu prior to arriving, so kindly ordered one for us to share.

I think it’s fair to say that we were all disappointed with this dish, particularly considering its high price. The tuna had been finely minced, versus chunked, which is all of our preference, and was simply lacking something. It did have a peppery kick so as to live up to its ‘slightly spicy’ description, which Lauren & Catherine both found overpowering, but this still wasn’t enough for me.

Both the texture & flavour were too one-dimensional to be very enjoyable. I would seriously recommend that they check out my (honestly AMAZING – one of my favourite quick, healthy, yummy dinners to make at home) tuna tartare recipe.

Tell me you don’t just want to face plant into it.

Moving on to mains…

Bocconcino gave us a choice of four main courses.

Both Catherine & Lauren opted for the pizza con salame (£14.00).

No one can turn their nose up at a huge, exceptionally thin-crust pizza, generously topped with slices of meaty salami. Especially one made in a clay pizza oven in the centre of the restaurant.

Angie & I both chose the seabass fillet with potato crust (£18.00).

The fish was beautifully cooked, flaky & moist, but a tad under seasoned. Thankfully a good dose of salt & pepper can fix that one.

I really enjoyed the powerful Kalamata olives and cherry tomato accompaniments, which lent the delicate white fish a great deal of flavour.

Our choice came with sides of chips (£5.00), spinach (£6.00) and broccoli (£4.50).

The ‘chips’ were potato wedges, rather than chips, but they had a good, crisp edge, though they were a little dense for my personal preference.

The spinach and broccoli were cooked as they should be. I’m a bit of a garlic fiend so enjoyed its notable presence in the latter, but Angie wasn’t as keen.

The staff left an appropriate wait before suggesting dessert, allowing us to catch up on each other’s latest news and find out what we’ve all been up to.

I do find it quite amazing to think that people I now call my genuine friends I met on the internet.

It’s a weird & wonderful world out there.

Dessert came in the form of two.

Angie & Lauren had tiramisu (£6.00).

For me, the balance of ingredients was off, with too much cream and coffee, and not enough chocolate or lady fingers (if there even were any).

Whilst Catherine & I had the New York style cheesecake with passion fruit compote (£8.00).

Cheesecake isn’t a dessert I’d usually ever go for but, with no chocolate in sight, it was the lesser of two evils.

In fairness, I quite enjoyed it. The ratio of biscuit base to cream cheese definitely needed upping but, flavour wise, the passionfruit was firmly present and the compote had a delightful sticky-sweet thickness to it.

Entirely satisfied, we finished off our drinks and made our separate ways home. It was a school night after all.

I had a really enjoyable evening at Bocconcino. The restaurant & staff were absolutely lovely, the food was good and the company even better. Not bad for a Wednesday night.

7/10

I dined as a guest of Bocconcino, but all opinions are my own.