L'Artigiano in Ivanhoe - a good Italian

Last night we finally got around to treating our ex 'daughter-in-law' and mother of our grandsons to a birthday dinner - a month late, but that's how it seems to be this day. Busy, busy, busy. I tried feebly to find somewhere, but then turned it over to her to choose. She came up with a list and after a bit of dithering we picked this one, L'artigiano, mainly because of the location - about halfway between us and her.

We think it is comparatively new. It's housed at one end of the main street in Ivanhoe in the old fire station. The interior is warm and inviting in a modern sort of way - exposed brick walls, timber floors and tables. Bottles and arty vintage photographs of Italian peasants on the wall. Nothing surprising I guess but very pleasant none the less.

Mind you when we arrived - having booked - we were offered the front table - in front of the door - only to see a couple come in who had not booked, being given a table for four against the wall with the more comfortable banquette. So my husband requested a table at the back - which, I have to say, we were willingly given. A slightly poor start I guess but during the meal the maitre'd became chattier and friendlier. So the poor start was remedied. And I think this is the table we eventually sat at.

"Our mission is to produce high quality artisan style food that has been carefully crafted and perfected, using time honoured methods."

So says the blurb on their somewhat basic website. Well I suppose the website has everything you need - the menu, the wine list and a booking form (though this did not seem to work for us). But not many pictures. Do you need them? I guess not.

L'artigiano means The artisan I think. And that's what it does. Carefully prepared, source and presented food. We have often said of Italian food that you should stay away from the mains because they tend to be pretty plain and a bit boring. However, we went against our rule and did go for the roast beef fillet with a rocket salad and also the slow cooked lamb with caponata couscous. And it sort of confirmed our thoughts but then again it didn't. Because both the beef and the lamb were pretty delicious, as was the salad - indeed the beef in particular was beautiful. But when you think about it afterwards they were both fairly plain I suppose. And for me the caponata couscous was the star here. The third dish we ordered was a porcini and pea risotto. Now one couldn't complain about that either, but I think we had all forgotten how rich porcini is. You only need it in small quantities. It also had to compete with a mushroom risotto (made with porcini) that a friend makes. I hate to say it but his was better. The three of us shared the dishes by the way - a third each of all of them, so we all got to really taste them. And I think we all agreed.

However, I do not mean to criticise at all because really the stars of the evening were the smaller things. It was just that the main dishes were not quite as good - and we did not try either the pasta or the pizza which may well have been superb.

And a nice touch was that the basket of bread one gets in good restaurants was brought with the mains rather than before we had anything. This way one had bread to soak up the sauce and, moreover, we had not filled up on bread before eating anything.

The small dishes we had were some crumbed sardines and some little crumbed and fried croquettes of porcini - now they were the star and the sardines tasted of the sea. And although both dishes were crumbed and fried they were totally different and they were so light. And let's not forget dessert. We shared two - the vanilla pannacotta with passionfruit and a chocolate mousse. Both wonderful.

We will go there again and then I will try the pasta. And we recommend too. Oh and the Italian pinot grigio - Andrea di Pec from the Friuli region was super too. Not cheap but not overpriced either - a mid-range delight.