Caprese – Don Costanzo

I think as a food lover there is possibly no feeling in the world worse than finding out one of your favourite restaurant closing or changing in some way.

This happened to me at the tail end of last year when I received a message to say the Don was retiring at New Year….. My first thought was ‘whit, are you kiddin’ me?’

I couldn’t believed it – I was so upset.

But there was a glimmer of light – I had been to Costanzo’s before when he hasn’t been in the kitchen and it was just as delicious. I had hope that perhaps the Don’s daughters Ilia & Lidia would carry on in his place

And after much soul searching thankfully Ilia decided to give it a go and continue running Don Costanzo’s, with Lidia running the kitchen – thank God!!!

After a break at the start of the year Caprese – Don Costanzo was reborn.

The decor is changed slightly in the form of freshly painted cream walls and a few less photos on the wall.  But other than that the vibe is still the same – it’s cosy traditional trattoria that would have you believing you were in Capri.

It’s the same team in place at Caprese, who continue to be the warmest and friendliest in Glasgow.  They helped to suggest some dishes to me when I couldn’t decide and plied me with delicious wine as soon as my glass was empty. I always feel in this restaurant like I’m family which I love.

For the moment they are continuing to use the old Don Costanzo menu until Lidia finds her feet in the kitchen, but there are plans to change it in future to perhaps a slightly smaller menu.

I order almost exclusively from the specials menu here, not that I don’t love the regular menu, I do very much I just always love the sounds of the specials dishes.

I started with a massive portion of freshly made calami with made in house tartar sauce. The calamari were cooked perfectly – soft centred, slightly crispy batter and slightly tart tartar sauce so fresh and flavourful I would climb over someone’s dead body to get to.

For my main I went with one of my favourite dishes Spaghetti Meatballs. When my dish arrived with the statement ‘Lidia’s not got her portion control right yet’ I’m not going to lie I was a little scared! 🙂

On my plate were 3 massive meatballs which was what I expected and enough pasta to serve about 4 people.

The food was insanely good – meaty perfectly seasoned meatballs that were still juicy, and the spaghetti was served al dente. All of this was coated in a simply tomato sauce which was slightly tangy and heaving with delicious fresh herbs. It’s was gorgeous.

The good news is because the portion was so big I had leftovers to take home for lunch the next day – result!!!

I also had sides of gorgeous zucchini fritters and sauteed potatoes – the zucchini fritters are  brilliant, they’re basically courgette cut into strips, battered and deep fried. It’s one of my favourite things.

Naturally there is no way I could leave without dessert…normally I’m a tiramisu fiend, but there is a new go to dessert for me at Caprese. Homemade apple pie with salted caramel and ice cream – sensational!

Sweet thin short cut pastry packed full of soft delicately sliced apples which still had bite, drizzled with lashings of salted caramel and topped with a scoop of porellis creamy vanilla ice cream. It’s my fav dessert at the moment….flippin’ amazing!

For two 3 course meals and a glass of wine our bill came to £65 which for the amount of food we ate is brilliant value for money.

I love Caprese, the food is just as good as when the Don was in the kitchen and the staff are wonderful.

This continues to be my favourite go to restaurant and easily deserves to be upgraded to a 10 star venue for me.