It’s not that often that I get to do food posts but every so often I manage to get a few restaurant reviews and I love it because food and drink are my best models. They are incredibly photogenic and every time I take photos of food, I always squeal with excitement after taking a snap – I know, I’m very sad. Last month, we went to Paris for Sam’s birthday and stopped off at Carluccios for a delightful afternoon lunch before hopping onto the Eurostar.
Carluccios has only recently become a favourite chain restaurant/deli of mine since we went and had a celebratory breakfast for my birthday last November. Their coffee is heavenly and their breakfast options are plentiful and delicious. You may have seen recently that the founder of Carluccios, Antonio Carluccio sadly passed away at the ripe old age of 80 but his legacy is living on through this chain.
I’ve only tasted one of their ‘lunch/dinner’ options and that was the Tomato Bruschetta starter which was EVERYTHING, so I was pretty excited to taste some of their other dishes. As we were likely to eat a big meal in the evening in Paris, we decided to share a starter and then share a platter.
Our starter was calamari – which is very typical of us. This was a generous serving of warm thinly battered calamari rings which came with a wedge of lemon and a side sauce of lemon mayonnaise.YUM.
What I loved about this dish was how thinly fried in batter, the calamari rings were. Often enough, when we order Calamari, it tends to come out with onion ring dense batter which for me, ruins the flavour of the calamari. This ratio of batter was a lot more pleasant and we quickly scoffed them down. The dip was a refreshing cleanser on the palette for when our next course came out.
Now feast your eyes on this platter. Isn’t it just the best thing you’ve ever laid your eyes on? With a mixture of cured meats, olives, chutneys and bread, the Grandioso Board was the perfect platter to share. My favourites from this platter has to be the baby peppers stuffed with pesto and the 14-month aged prosciutto of which I could easily eat my whole body weight in.
The Grandioso Platter
Platters for me are probably the most suitable dishes for sharing. There’s normally two/three/four of everything so you don’t miss out on get a helping of everything on the plate. Carluccios is certainly one chain eatery that I would happily recommend to friends and family because it’s so affordable for the great quality food that you get. The service is always amazing and I’m finding any excuse now to eat here.
I also want to try out their deli side as I’ve seen some of the sandwiches that they do and they look mouth-watering to say the least.
Have you tried Carluccios before? Let me know in the comments below and be sure to pop in to try their coffee, it’s one of the best I’ve tried in London.
