Laura was invited along to Jamie's Italian in Liverpool to try out their new Evening Favourites Menu and she kindly took me along. Both of us are fond of the restaurant and have been numerous times to ones in different cities over the past few years with the two of us both having Gold Cards, which are well worth getting if you are thinking of visiting. As this was a new menu, I was keen to see how it matched up to the food I've had before. The restaurant has quite rustic decor with a nice layout such as the open kitchen so you can see the chefs at work. This is something I like to see as you can watch them put a lot of care into the meals, which is definitely reflected in the taste. The evening menu costs £18.95 for three courses and is available Monday-Thursday from 6pm. The only extra you need to buy is your drink.
Starters
One of the perks of having a gold card is that you get a free taster every time you go, and this one was a Italian Nachos, which are fried ravioli filled with mozzarella, ricotta & bella lodi that is served with a spicy tomato sauce. These were a really nice start and would be something I'd have as a normal starter another time.
For my starter I went for the Cured Meat Plank which is exactly as you'd expect from the name. It's served on a long wooden plank rested on top of two chopped tomatoes tins, a nice touch to make it different to what you usually get your food served on. There was a good selection of meats which were: fennel salami, pistachio mortadella, prosciutto & schiacciata piccante with mini buffalo mozzarella, pecorino & chilli jam and a selection of pickles and olives. All this just for a starter is really impressive with a nice range of meat types for a mixture of flavours and generous portion size. Laura went for the Tomato and Ricotta Bruschetta, which is slow-roasted cherry tomatoes, whipped buffalo ricotta with basil & extra virgin olive oil. I tried some of this and it was full of flavour and you could tell it had been made with fresh ingredients.
Mains
When I noticed the steak as one of the choices I was surprised, as you don't tend to get the more expensive dishes like steak on a set menu. This seemed like too good a chance to miss, so I went for the Italian Steak and Fries, which was a flash-grilled prime beef steak with herby heirloom tomato salsa, rocket, aged parmesan and spiced fries. The steak was a decent size with plenty of flavour, and it wasn't too tough or chewy which I liked, with the fries being crispy with a nicely seasoned. I had a pot of mayonnaise on the side, and even this was really nice and tasted freshly made.
Laura went for the Spicy Sausage Casarecce pasta, which was a free-range pork & fennel sausage ragu with British Cobble Lane 'nduja, served with herby breadcrumbs & shaved parmesan. It was a very generous portion, so I wasn't surprised that she had some left over. She normally goes for the lunch portion meals as this is normally plenty and still a good portion size, so with this evening option you are getting plenty of food for your money. It looked so nice that I decided to try some and wasn't disappointed. There was a good amount of sausage in the pasta which was nice to see as sometimes big portions are down to extra pasta and not enough sauce and filling. It was flavourful with a good amount of spice so that it was tasty but not too overpowering.
Dessert
There were two desserts that we both couldn't decide between so the sensible choice was to get both and split them. Our first option was the Baked White Chocolate Cheesecake, which is a crunchy biscuit base with velvety white chocolate mascarpone, fresh raspberries & smashed amaretti. I think I may go as far to say it's one of the best cheesecakes I've ever had, with the ratio of biscuit base to topping was really good so it didn't end up being too dry. Our second dessert was the Molten Chocolate Praline Pudding, a warm chocolate cake with a liquid praline centre, served with vanilla ice cream & praline. I was really impressed with the cake, as it was moist enough with a nice rich taste and praline sauce, and didn't taste cheap like some of these melt in the middle cakes tend to.
Overall I was really impressed with Jamie's new evening favourites menu. It's really well priced for what you get, with a good range of options and generous portion sizes. The food is all full of flavour and really enjoyable, and matches up to other times I've visited in the past. I was so impressed by the Evening Favourites Menu that we are going to head back to Jamie's to try out their Super Lunch Menu.
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