Posts tagged Meatballs Puttanesca

Meatballs Puttanesca £7.55 – “Hand made meatballs with chillis and onions served on a bed of penne pasta in a classic tomato, olive, caper, anchovy and garlic sauce topped with melted mozzarella (you can also ask for dairy free if you’re so inclined)”

Eight of us decided to try this place for a lunchtime birthday celebration.  Eight people stood in their doorway politely waiting to be seated.  Despite booking our table ahead of time, it took staff about 10 minutes to notice us.  They were dealing with maybe 4 other tables of customers, max.

When we were finally seated my initial dish of choice was a classic spicy chicken pizza as I wanted to try the intriguing and unique “wholemeal base” that their menu highlights.  Healthy pizzas?  Surely not!  I was quickly disappointed when they promptly informed me that they did not have any wholemeal bases at all.

I don’t know what the other tables had ordered (Mermaid’s Tit on Toast maybe?) but it took the best part of an hour for our food to arrive.  Make sure you have a few hours to spare if you ever hit Dough as a quick lunchtime visit is not recommended.

When at last it came, the food was delivered by smiling but unapologetic staff, and all 8 orders were provided at roughly the same time.  The meatballs were quite tasty, the mozzarella generous and thick.  The sauce was interesting, an unusual and pleasant combination of flavours.  The pasta wasn’t great, it had the plastic rubberiness of microwave meals but the whole dish was plentiful and filling.  I shared a garlic bread and was glad I didn’t order a whole one for myself.  It was dry and slightly stale, to moisten it we had to baste it in garlic butter which we robbed from someone else’s salad.

Manchester offers a plethora of Italian restaurants and you’d think this healthy competition would keep restaurateurs on their toes.  But the prevailing attitude seems to be much like the curry mile in Rusholme: if we sell it they will come anyway.

Interestingly, dairy free and gluten free diets are catered for so one individual who was ordinarily unable to eat pizzas was delighted at being able to eat a goat’s cheese version.  Frankly however, the table’s overall opinion was that we should have just gone to Pizza Express.  Eyeballing their menu online had my mouth watering at the possibilities, yet the experience as a whole was a disappointment.  There is no excuse for service that slow, there was no apology or concession offered, and the food was good but not outstanding.