I visited a traditional Italian restaurant with a West Midlands sparkle - here's my verdict
A traditional Italian restaurant has added a West Midlands sparkle - here's how our visit went when we dined there recently
Birmingham and the Black Country are blessed with some pretty spectacular Italian restaurants offering some amazing pasta and pizza dishes for reasonable prices.
There is also an abundance of pretty standard chains around too, of course.
But the region is lucky to be home to some traditional independent venues which are super-keen to showcase their authenticity with home-made linguine, olive oil nectar, genuine wood fired pizza ovens and the like.
One of these is Trentina on Mary Street in the Jewellery Quarter in Birmingham which has been winning some rave reviews.
It’s got a 4.5 star rating on Tripadvisor with one diner telling how they stopped three strangers to tell them about their ‘amazing dinner’ and how they were ‘almost tempted to drive back from London just to go there again’.
I didn’t have to travel as far as London to check out the recommendations of this beautifully bijoux venue, which I discovered on my way to another renowned Italian nearby called Pasta di Piazza. Trentina caught my eye with its huge floor to ceiling welcoming windows and charming chalkboards announcing ‘fresh pasta handmade daily’ outside.
It looked so busy – clearly a popular spot which I decided was simply a must to visit as soon as I could.
We arrived on a sunny Saturday early evening with the windows wide open amid the warm weather. An ideal climate to enjoy some genuine Italian fare.
Mindful of it being so popular – and not very big – we booked in advance and were welcomed with smiles and swiftly shown to our table on arrival.
Within minutes we were served with an ice chilled glass of tap water to settle in ahead of the important business of perusing the menu. The atmosphere was buzzing. Most of the tables were taken with some dining in pairs and others in larger groups.
At times there was quite a lot of noise as people chatted all around us – although the tables were comfortably spread out around the venue.
As you may expect from a smaller venue there wasn’t a huge amount of dishes to choose from – but quality is always better than quantity.
