L'Italiana St Albans - Restaurant Review

I recently visited L'italiana restaurant in St Albans. Voted restaurant of the year in 2009 and 2010, this cosy restaurant is tucked away in French Row in St Albans. My kids visit here with the parents in law quite often and I have visited this restaurant before also. Being an Italian restaurant, there is a wide range of vegetarian dishes to choose from and so you are guaranteed to be able to find something to eat here. I ordered the Tagliatelle Boscaiola: Courgettes, Mushrooms, Aubergines and mixed Peppers served in a napoli sauce for main course and a tomato pizza bread.

When it arrived, I actually thought that the portion size was a little on the small size for the £8.95 they were charging for it. Although well presented, I was also a little disappointed at the taste. It tasted very bland and the sauce needed a bit of a kick to give it some flavour. For Dessert I ordered coconut and toffee ice cream and again was a little dismayed at the £4.45 price tag for the ice cream as we got the ends of the tub and the ice cream tasted very bitter and unpleasant.

Everyone who had a meat course said that their food was delicious, so maybe they just need to give a little more attention to the dishes without meat in them. I am actually a little dismayed to have to give the vegetarian food a bad review at L'Italiana as I love everything else about this restaurant. The ambiance is lovely, the decor is inviting and modern and the service is impeccable. They are so attentive, especially to the children. Their week day offer of pizza or pasta for £5.95 is great value for money but I just think that their main course and dessert dishes are a little overpriced for what you get. There are other Italian restaurants around offering better Italian food, although as I said, the service and ambiance of L'Italiana cannot be beaten.