All posts tagged: Italian Restaurant

IL Vicolo Cafe, Galway

Published by

Il Vicolo Cafe is a lovely Italian cafe and wine bar located on the corner of St. Augustine Street and Buttermilk Walk in Galway. I visited for lunch on a busy Saturday of a bank holiday weekend.  The cafe is very small and we had to wait a few minutes for a table – but it turned out to be well worth the wait.  The cafe serves breakfast, lunch and dinner but you can also pop in for coffees and cake or a glass of wine.  The lunchtime fare consists of soups, two pasta specials and a selection of paninis, bruschettas and salads. There were two of us for lunch and we ordered the two specials.  My dish consisted of penne with spicy sausage, pancetta and chard in a cream sauce.  It was incredible – cooked to perfection and definitely one of the very finest pasta dishes I have ever tasted and well worth its E9.50 price tag.  The second special was gnocchi with a quattro formaggi sauce and pesto and was also pronounced very …

Sirocco’s, Tullamore, Co Offaly – Top class Italian Restaurant

Published by

Sirocco’s is an Italian restaurant located on Patrick St, Tullamore, Co Offaly.  The restaurant has recently won Best Restaurant Offaly 2011 and Best Customer Service Offaly 2011 in the Restaurant Awards of Ireland – accolades it also won in 2010.  I remember it from years ago in its former guise of Senor Rico’s and was looking forward to dining there again last weekend. The restaurant is small but inviting.  It was busy when we arrived and we had to wait a few minutes for our table but there was a little bar area where we could sit and browse the menu and order drinks.  Having ordered the wine, a carafe of the house Sauvignon Blanc for me and a half bottle of Shiraz for my friend (both priced around the e13 to e14 mark), we settled back to review the menu before being led to our table. The menu is extensive with about 15 each of starters, pasta dishes, pizzas and meat/fish dishes. For starters, my friend chose the Calamari Fritti (Deep fried squid rings with lemon & tartare dip) …