Food Review: Rossini, Glasgow

rossini patick west end glasgow italian

Family Italian dining at Rossini

From the family behind the exceedingly tasty and friendly North Star cafe (a marriage of North and South Italian cuisine) on Queen Margaret Drive comes Rossini, a more formal affair, on Hyndland St in the Downhill / Patrick area of Glasgow. It used to be the Tinto Tapas Spanish restaurant not so long ago.
Rossini Partick westend Glasgow ItalianInside, the restaurant is clean, non-cluttered and white – instantly it looks like it’s aimed at an older crowd than North Star – but it’s comfortable with music playing in the background at just the right level with a low hubub of chatter.

Rossini Partick westend Glasgow Italian

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Food Menu

Chef Maurizio Rossini hails from Bari, the capital of Apulia / Puglia, so the menu features dishes from this region, which is the ‘heel’ in Italy. This is a part of Italy we’ve never been to, we’ve not been anywhere south of Naples, so we were looking forward to see what was in store.

menurossini patick west end glasgow italian

 

menu rossini patick west end glasgow italian

rossini patick west end glasgow italian

Drink Menu

rossini patick west end glasgow italian

We were here on a deal (shh) and both picked the red, a Merlot, to go alongside our meals. Mrs Foodie enjoyed it, and helped herself to my glass as well (cheeky ****!).

Service at this point was very laid back, with many utterings of ‘prego’ and ‘certo’.

The Food

I had the panzerotto (£5.95), the crescent moon shaped street food calzone thing filled with cheese and a tart tomato sauce for dipping on the side. It was a tasty fried, fluffy, doughy snack. 😍

Rossini Partick westend Glasgow Italian

Mrs Foodie pinched some of the sauce for dipping her starter into; so some sauce instead of salad would work wonders for…

Rossini Partick westend Glasgow Italian

…the arancini (£5.95). Rice balls filled with (one each of) saffron, scarmozza and nduja plus a meat ragu. A good sized portion for a starter.  The scarmozza & nduja arancini had a nice kick to it whilst the others were much more subtle in flavour.

Rossini Partick westend Glasgow Italian

Inside they were pretty densely packed…

Rossini Partick westend Glasgow Italian

We sat back and relaxed with our glasses of wine…minutes past…so we ordered another couple of glasses of wine with no sign of the food…’Your mains will be ready soon’ we were told by a waiter rushing past. More time passed. ‘Your mains will be here in 4 minutes’ said the same waiter dashing in the opposite direction…they finally arrived at 10 to 8 even though we had been there since 6pm (and it wasn’t busy as you can see from the second photo above)!

Rossini Partick westend Glasgow Italian
Pappardelle with lamb ragu (before pic)

Pappardelle al ragu di agenello (£12.95) or pappardelle with slow-cooked lamb ragu for me. Simple Italian food done well. Firm strands of eggy pasta ribbons with meaty lamb; homely and filling.

Rossini Partick westend Glasgow Italian

Mrs Foodie ordered the paccheri, scamorza e guanciale (£10.95). If like me you’re a little lost there, pacheri is big tube pasta, scamorza is a (usually) smoked mozzarella-type cheese and guanciale is cured pork cheek.

So…slightly undercooked pasta, bearable but noticeable. The guanciale was salty but not crispy enough and was a bit too much like pork belly than a tender pork cheek.  The scamorza was lost underneath the pasta and stuck to the plate.

Rossini Partick westend Glasgow Italian

We also shared two sides, firstly, Sgagliozze (£3.95) AKA fried polenta. I always feel like you really need to cover polenta in seasoning, say pepper, chilli, or whatever, and what we had here had a good crispy exterior but was ultimately bland so into the ragu they went!

Rossini Partick westend Glasgow Italian

Our second side was Cime di rapa (£3.95) or ‘turnip tops’ with chilli and garlic.  Also known as sprouting broccoli; the leafy green part of turnip put to good use (or are they just called that because they look the same?) Either way, this side dish packed a punch. Not just with the chilli and garlic but also the “greenness” of the dish. Strong flavours, fresh and very tasty.

Rossini Partick westend Glasgow ItalianAfter 2 hrs 15 mins passed we decided to call it a day so dessert would have to wait for another day.

Verdict

Not completely impressed with Rossini which was sad as we loved the homely cooking at North Star. I think they were just having an off night as reviews are generally very positive so we’ll give it another go at some point as the prices are decent. Although it was slow, staff were still friendly so they get a plus point for that. Toilets were fine.

TL;DR
+ Specialises in Puglian / South Italian cuisine
+ Homely, warming food when they get it right
+ Friendly service
+ Surprisingly tasting ‘turnip tops’

– Long wait for reasons unknown
– Stronger flavours or a dip with the arrancini would be welcome
– Disappointing pacheri

 

Where

39-41 Hyndland Street, Partick, Glasgow

 

Book

To book a table call 0141 337 3135
or go towww.rossiniwestend.com

Rossini Partick westend Glasgow Italian

Mr Foodie

Mr Foodie

Likes to travel, eat weird things and read three books at the same time.

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