One of my blog's biggest fans, my lovely aunty Annie, took me for food today after work. We headed up Gloucester Road at about 5:30pm and went to Salvatore's Kitchen, which is now Don Camillo. Although rebranded and under new management, we were assured that the chefs and staff are still the same as they have always been, but this didn't mean anything to us anyway as neither of us had been here before.
5:30pm sounds very early to go for dinner on a Thursday evening, and it is, but both of us had had long days and were very hungry. Despite the time, the restaurant had about 3 other groups by the time we got around to ordering and had a nice relaxed atmosphere. Just what we needed.
We were presented with the menus and felt pretty spoilt for choice with a range of pastas and pizzas from meaty to vegetarian and even a good choice of seafood dishes and risottos too. For starters we ordered the Bruscetta Tre Colori (£4.50) to share (pictured above). For those that don't know what this is (I didn't), this was 3 pieces of crispy bread, not quite toast, but not as soft as bread either, topped with aubergine and peppers on one, tomato and mozzarella on another, and a tomato salad on the third. Extra salad was positioned in the middle which consisted of red onion, a slice of pepper, and two slices of lemon. My favourite of the three was the bruscetta loaded with aubergine with it's subtle yet tasty flavours blended carefully together, compared with the others which were heavily tomato based and in my opinion far less flavorsome. Though saying that, my aunty favoured the tomato and mozzarella.
The starter was just light enough to keep us going without making us too full, but I was excited for the mains. They didn't take too long to come swooping our way on the hands of one of the two members of the staff working there tonight. For mains I ordered the Salsiccia (£9.50) with Linguine, and Annie ordered the Pomodoro Basilico (£8.95) and requested extra chili, which the lady was more than happy to add.
Unfortunately out comes the amateur in me as I must shamefully admit that I was too hungry to remember to take photos of our mains for my review write-up, but I will do my best to be as descriptive as possible.
I was impressed with the amount of sausage that was in my Salsiccia, described as 'Italian sausage with mixed peppers, onion and black olives in a tomato sauce', sliced generously over and within my linguine pasta. Added to this was a generous amount of black olives, tomatoes and soft (just the way I like them) onions and peppers to complete the flavours. We were offered Parmesan to add to our dish, which I gladly accepted. To my surprise, the vegetables were not dominant over the sausages in this dish, which I was very glad about as I had been in need of a good meaty meal. I often find with meals like these that I run out of the meat and am left with a load of vegetables to try and get through, but this wasn't like that, and the sausage extended itself right to the last forkful. Annie enjoyed her main too - 'Tomato and fresh basil sauce' - but said that she was glad she had asked for the extra chilli as it may have been quite bland without it.
Unfortunately I cannot give you an account of the desserts as quite frankly my aunt and I did not have the stomach capacity to even share one due to how filling the main was. The portion had been large, but not so large that it was daunting, and we only realised how full we were after we began to waddle back up the hill to where the car was parked. We did, however, have a hot drink each - a tea for me and a cappuccino for Annie. We had a lovely meal, and loved the food, but had I been with someone with whom conversation was a struggle the meal may have been awkward, as there wasn't much of a musical atmosphere. The atmosphere of the restaurant relied heavily on chatter, the location, and the company one was with, which luckily were all of a good standard so it didn't matter too much that the restaurant lacked in music.
This did not in any way let the experience down, though, and the staff were friendly and attentive, and were very easy going and flexible. It was nice to be sat by the window and watch the backdrop of low sun evening meet darkness as the goings on of Gloucester Road passed us by. It wasn't the best Italian I have ever tasted in Bristol, but considering the large portions and reasonable pricing, it was a lovely meal, which I definitely very much enjoyed eating, and was very satisfied with what I had filled my stomach with. In my experience, it is hard to find nice Italian food on a budget as Italian restaurants tend to be pretty top end wherever you go. But Don Camillo is great food on a budget, and you wont be disappointed, I can assure you that. And my aunt felt the same, and coming from someone who cooks extremely tasty dishes herself, and religiously (she won't agree) watches/reads/researches celebrity chefs and their dishes, that's pretty darn good.
5:30pm sounds very early to go for dinner on a Thursday evening, and it is, but both of us had had long days and were very hungry. Despite the time, the restaurant had about 3 other groups by the time we got around to ordering and had a nice relaxed atmosphere. Just what we needed.
We were presented with the menus and felt pretty spoilt for choice with a range of pastas and pizzas from meaty to vegetarian and even a good choice of seafood dishes and risottos too. For starters we ordered the Bruscetta Tre Colori (£4.50) to share (pictured above). For those that don't know what this is (I didn't), this was 3 pieces of crispy bread, not quite toast, but not as soft as bread either, topped with aubergine and peppers on one, tomato and mozzarella on another, and a tomato salad on the third. Extra salad was positioned in the middle which consisted of red onion, a slice of pepper, and two slices of lemon. My favourite of the three was the bruscetta loaded with aubergine with it's subtle yet tasty flavours blended carefully together, compared with the others which were heavily tomato based and in my opinion far less flavorsome. Though saying that, my aunty favoured the tomato and mozzarella.
The starter was just light enough to keep us going without making us too full, but I was excited for the mains. They didn't take too long to come swooping our way on the hands of one of the two members of the staff working there tonight. For mains I ordered the Salsiccia (£9.50) with Linguine, and Annie ordered the Pomodoro Basilico (£8.95) and requested extra chili, which the lady was more than happy to add.
Unfortunately out comes the amateur in me as I must shamefully admit that I was too hungry to remember to take photos of our mains for my review write-up, but I will do my best to be as descriptive as possible.
I was impressed with the amount of sausage that was in my Salsiccia, described as 'Italian sausage with mixed peppers, onion and black olives in a tomato sauce', sliced generously over and within my linguine pasta. Added to this was a generous amount of black olives, tomatoes and soft (just the way I like them) onions and peppers to complete the flavours. We were offered Parmesan to add to our dish, which I gladly accepted. To my surprise, the vegetables were not dominant over the sausages in this dish, which I was very glad about as I had been in need of a good meaty meal. I often find with meals like these that I run out of the meat and am left with a load of vegetables to try and get through, but this wasn't like that, and the sausage extended itself right to the last forkful. Annie enjoyed her main too - 'Tomato and fresh basil sauce' - but said that she was glad she had asked for the extra chilli as it may have been quite bland without it.
Unfortunately I cannot give you an account of the desserts as quite frankly my aunt and I did not have the stomach capacity to even share one due to how filling the main was. The portion had been large, but not so large that it was daunting, and we only realised how full we were after we began to waddle back up the hill to where the car was parked. We did, however, have a hot drink each - a tea for me and a cappuccino for Annie. We had a lovely meal, and loved the food, but had I been with someone with whom conversation was a struggle the meal may have been awkward, as there wasn't much of a musical atmosphere. The atmosphere of the restaurant relied heavily on chatter, the location, and the company one was with, which luckily were all of a good standard so it didn't matter too much that the restaurant lacked in music.
This did not in any way let the experience down, though, and the staff were friendly and attentive, and were very easy going and flexible. It was nice to be sat by the window and watch the backdrop of low sun evening meet darkness as the goings on of Gloucester Road passed us by. It wasn't the best Italian I have ever tasted in Bristol, but considering the large portions and reasonable pricing, it was a lovely meal, which I definitely very much enjoyed eating, and was very satisfied with what I had filled my stomach with. In my experience, it is hard to find nice Italian food on a budget as Italian restaurants tend to be pretty top end wherever you go. But Don Camillo is great food on a budget, and you wont be disappointed, I can assure you that. And my aunt felt the same, and coming from someone who cooks extremely tasty dishes herself, and religiously (she won't agree) watches/reads/researches celebrity chefs and their dishes, that's pretty darn good.