It feels like an age since our last date night at Saiko Kitchen back in July! August as a crazy with trips to London and and Bristol and some crazy flat hunting. The good news is that we found a flat, its not far from our current rented flat so the move should be easy and it has a second bedroom so we'll have a bit more space to breath (and craft). So brace yourselves for more DIY tutorials for the new place. I've already starting new Pinterest boards you can check them by clicking the badge on the side bar.
The Rules of Date Night
Martyn and I started ‘Date Night’ over a year ago when we were still living in Tollcross, Edinburgh. There are so many lovely independent restaurants in Edinburgh we are completely spoilt! In a quest to work our way around some of these places we declared ‘Date Night’.
The Rules of Date Night;
Once a month after pay day.
Must be local (walking distance from the flat).
We take turns on who pays.
When he is paying I choose the location.
When I’m paying he chooses the location.
We never go to the same place twice for date night.
It feels like an age since our last date night at Saiko Kitchen back in July! August was a crazy with trips to London and and Bristol and some crazy flat hunting, thank goodness its over now. It was September before we managed the next date night, we went back to local and headed towards Easter Road again for some Italian.
About Al Dente
Al Dente is a tiny wee restaurant right on Easter Road it's after the first up on shops just before you go over the rail tracks going down the road. It's been there for a while but if you blinked you'd miss it. They pride themselves on 'Pure Italian food' and that means fresh made pasta and traditional Italian flavours. They have a wide ranging menu of the usual suspects; pasta, risotto salads etc but also a large specials board too.
The Food and Drinks
So I've recently joined a slimming group so I was trying to make 'wise choices' on date night, by the main course that was out the window and a glass of the house red was en route to our table. FYI the house red was delicious and next time I'll be ordering the bottle.
To start I had the Bruschetta Classica and Martyn ordered the Sformatino di patate e salumi. The bruschetta was beautifully, fresh bread topped with tasty tomato, basil and garlic. Martyn's starter was an oven baked potato tart with cured meat and topped with mozzarella. Our starteds disappeared into our faces so fast I didn't even get a chance to photograph them...
For our mains we went very traditional, Spaghetti alla Carbonara for Martyn and Pumkin stuffed Ravioli with Sage and Parmesan for me.
Round up and Atmosphere
Well as I'm sure you can tell I was quite impressed by Al Dente, apart from one hiccup, they were amazing. They were short staffed but everyone was getting the attention they needed and the food was fresh and seasonal.
We both thought it would be a great choice for a big family meal or a big bunch of friends catching up over great food and wine.
They also do pre theatre and great deals. If you pop down and check it out let me know what you think of it
xxx
Al Dente -139 Easter Road Edinburgh EH7 5QA - Tel: 0131 - 6521 932
About Al Dente
Al Dente is a tiny wee restaurant right on Easter Road it's after the first up on shops just before you go over the rail tracks going down the road. It's been there for a while but if you blinked you'd miss it. They pride themselves on 'Pure Italian food' and that means fresh made pasta and traditional Italian flavours. They have a wide ranging menu of the usual suspects; pasta, risotto salads etc but also a large specials board too.
The Food and Drinks
So I've recently joined a slimming group so I was trying to make 'wise choices' on date night, by the main course that was out the window and a glass of the house red was en route to our table. FYI the house red was delicious and next time I'll be ordering the bottle.
To start I had the Bruschetta Classica and Martyn ordered the Sformatino di patate e salumi. The bruschetta was beautifully, fresh bread topped with tasty tomato, basil and garlic. Martyn's starter was an oven baked potato tart with cured meat and topped with mozzarella. Our starteds disappeared into our faces so fast I didn't even get a chance to photograph them...
The carbonara was served in a good sized portion of spaghetti with cheese, pancetta, and plenty of black pepper, it was gone in no time! My ravioli was stuffed with smooth and sweet pumpkin, very seasonal and smothered in, not very slimming, sage butter and parmesan.
By this point the wise choices were out of the window and the vino was in hand as well as the Desserts menu. As you'll know from the Origano review I'm a sucker for tiramisu so it was ordered along with a Gelati misti, Chocolate ice cream with hazelnut and chocolate sauce, for Martyn.
Unfortunately the cream in my tiramisu had turned, I mentioned it to the waiter (the only waiter) as soon as I realised and he was very apologetic and took it straight away returning to apologise again and ask if there was anything I'd prefer. He also pointed out he'd forgotten to mention the dessert special which was an amaretti semifreddo. Boom! Done! I love anything amaretti and ordered it without seeing the menu again.
It was delicious, creamy, sweet and all I could have asked for. I finished it off with my glass of wine feeling satisfied and full.
Well as I'm sure you can tell I was quite impressed by Al Dente, apart from one hiccup, they were amazing. They were short staffed but everyone was getting the attention they needed and the food was fresh and seasonal.
We both thought it would be a great choice for a big family meal or a big bunch of friends catching up over great food and wine.
They also do pre theatre and great deals. If you pop down and check it out let me know what you think of it
xxx
Al Dente -139 Easter Road Edinburgh EH7 5QA - Tel: 0131 - 6521 932
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