As soon as you enter this popular restaurant, you’ll feel the buzz. Tucked away in a small square off the northern end of Main Street, and without any obvious signage, it may not be the easiest to find but once you get there, you'll find yourself in a bright and spacious high-ceilinged room with tables full of happy diners, usually including young families.
Nicely divided (and softened with potted trees), the large room is set up in smart-casual style, with bare-topped wooden tables, bentwood chairs and simple table settings sporting promising big wine glasses, and - suspended from the ceiling and over the bar - dramatically grouped filament lamps cast a warm glow over white walls lined with black and white photographs. An atmospheric setting for an enjoyable dining experience.
Italian staff are very welcoming, and eager to showcase the best of their country, cooked by Italian-trained chef Niall Halligan and his team.
A wide ranging menu offers all the regular fare – pasta, arancini, salads and their trademark sourdough based pizzas - and a blackboard proclaims the daily specials, notably fish. Vegetarians are well looked after - there might be a delicious pea purée risotto with goats cheese, for example, finished with a sprinkling of crushed Amaretti biscuits - and, for anyone who may not feel like eating Italian, other steak, fish and chicken dishes are also offered.
Desserts are classic Italian – panna cotta, tiramisu and homemade ice cream, for example - and very good they are too, and there are also some other treats, such as sticky toffee pudding, or chocolate brownies for chocolate fans.
The short but quite informative wine list is mainly Italian, but with a couple of French and New World bottles, and there’s an interesting cocktail list – including a Long Island Iced Tea - and a gin and tonic list that includes Irish gins such as Gunpowder, from Drumshanbo in nearby Co Leitrim, and Dingle Gin from Kerry.
A smaller back room caters for groups with a special set menu, reasonably priced at €29.95, and a takeaway menu not only offers pizzas but also some of the restaurant’s most popular dishes – tagliatelle Bolognese, spaghetti matriciana and pene pollo rosa.
There's a simple reason why this Italian restaurant is so popular – good food, friendly staff and reasonable prices.
