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Lorenzo's
a Lucky Find
The
Pulse, South London
Press, 21 September
2001
Lorenzo
achieves the rare
balance of being a
restaurant - yet serving
up good home cooking in
a relaxed environment.
The friendly (yet not
over-familiar) service
makes it feel as if you
are being dined in your
own home - without the
chore of washing-up
afterwards. And the food
is exactly as you would
serve yourself at home -
in other words, big
portions.
My mum,
little sis and I chose
Lorenzo as the venue for
our monthly restaurant
meet-up as a last-minute
choice, and it was a
golden find. As ever we
ordered starters and
mains to come all at
once for a mighty
munch-up. Mum ordered
panzarotti (£6.75),
which are chicken-filled
pasta pancakes wrapped
in a scrummy
melt-in-your-mouth
cheese and herb sauce.
Little sis plumped for a
not-so-little sirloin
steak (£9.95),
which was tender and
tasty, and accompanied
by a mountain of
must-have chunky chips
and side salad. I took a
lucky dip and opted for
pollo del giorno
(£7.95), a huge
tender fillet of
chicken, marinaded in
red wine and served with
a taste-bud satisfying
tomato-garlic sauce, and
a mountain of fresh
mixed salad.
With this
we had garlic mushrooms
(£4.50 for four)
and king prawns
(£4.95 four), which
both came with generous
portions of garlic
bread. While the king
prawns were morish and
fluffy in texture, the
mushrooms looked a bit
of a disappointment when
they arrived, placed
upside down and filled
with a garlic sauce. But
it was a different story
once they hit the mouth
- delicious.
Our
tummies were bursting by
the time the dessert
menu arrived, so mum
ordered a parfait
caramel (£2.95) and
we all dived in with a
spoon. This ice-cream
dish, covered in a layer
of frozen chocolate and
oozing an almond-tasting
syrup, was the mother of
all puddings, and the
meal was perfectly
finished off with a
Baileys coffee
(£3.50
each).
In
addition to great food,
judging by the number of
parents and kids tucking
into their meals around
us, this is definitely
the place for a great
family nosh-up. Total
£49.05, including
two diet colas
(£1.20 each) and
two pineapple juices
(£1.30
each).
Kellie
Redmond
The Pulse
visits restaurants
anonymously and
independently
Food
****
Atmosphere ****
Value for money ****
(out of 5)
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