Dinner At Antibo Italian in Derby
Published On Tuesday 4 Aug 2015 by Sticky Beak
See Recent Dining Out Reviews | See All Recent Reviews
The Boy Wonder and I are always poking around on the internet as you know, and every so often a little gem comes up that piques our interest. On this particular occasion it was a voucher for Antibo, offering 2 courses for 2 people for £15, valid Monday-Friday for starters up to the value of £4.95 and main courses up to the value of £8.95, which to be fair offered a great choice of dishes. You could still order the steaks and other dishes and just pay the difference, but we opted to stick within the original conditions just to see what variety there was.
The restaurant itself is fairly large and open plan and decorated very neutrally, but the pictures on the walls and arches give it a nice feel. I also liked the fact that you could see into the kitchen area and watch the chefs at work. There were already some diners in the venue when we arrived just before 6.45pm, and another couple of tables arrived a couple of minutes after us; some diners were also using the vouchers and some weren’t.
Our server Chloe took our drinks orders and left us to have a look through the menu for a couple of minutes. I decided to have the Avocado and Baby Mozzarella for my starter and His Nibs chose the Homemade Brandy Pate served with warm bread. The Pate had a wonderfully smooth texture and rich taste to it, and you could discern the Brandy in it too. The bread was fresh and just nicely warmed through, and the whole dish was nicely presented.
My own starter was equally well received and was very tasty. I always think the simple tastes of fresh Tomato, Avocado and Mozzarella is criminally undervalued and I love the association of the Italian flag in its colours too. Again, my starter was beautifully presented and nicely put together with fresh Rocket leaves and Balsamic glaze finishing it off. As the evening progressed more and more diners arrived and soon the eating area was filled with the quiet hum of chatter.
For our main courses we went for the classic dish of Tagliatelle Carbonara (Bacon, Egg yolks and Cream with Parmesan cheese) and Risotto Milan (luxury seafood mixed with Onions). Both dishes were of a very pleasing portion size and were absolutely piping hot; you could see steam billowing from the tops of the dishes. We were offered Parmesan cheese and fresh ground Black Pepper to accompany our meals. I accepted the Pepper and His Nibs had extra cheese sprinkled over his food.
The Man Birds Carbonara was deliciously creamy and the sauce coated the ribbons of Tagliatelle beautifully, and he said that the Ham was a good quality too. My own risotto was equally yummy with its bountiful amount of Baby Octopus, Squid, Prawns, King Prawns and in-shell Mussels. All the seafood was cooked very well (none of it was at all chewy), and the rice was nice and creamy with just the right amount of seasoning. Needless to say there was a lull in conversation at our table as we tucked in to our food with gusto. We also ordered a garlic bread to accompany our main courses and this had a very nice thin, crisp base to it and a great flavour. As with all good Italian food our little tummies were full to the brim, so we asked Chloe to give us 10 minutes grace before bringing the dessert menu over for us to look at.
After a little bit of deliberation we settled on homemade Profiteroles and the Cherry and Biscotti cheesecake (the homemade Tiramisu had sold out) for our pudding. The Choux buns were lovely and light textured and filled with a really nice sweet patisserie crème; and for once they weren’t absolutely drowned in chocolate, just nicely drizzled with it so that all the flavours could be appreciated. I had several whole cherries in my portion of cheesecake which I really liked, and the texture of the topping was just right; some cheesecakes can be very heavy and rich which is not always what you want at the end of a meal. As is our custom, we finished off our meals with a couple of lattes and reflected on our evening.
I would quite happily recommend Antibo to friends and family for somewhere to eat, and so I feel confident to recommend it to you dear reader. The premises are spotlessly clean and the staff are smartly turned out and very polite. Service was very prompt and questions dealt with most professionally. It is located a little way from the main city centre, close to the train station, so ideal if you come into Derby by this method rather than the bus. Antibo currently has a discount offer valid until the end of August 2015; just visit their Facebook Page to get further details. Keep up the good work team Antibo :)
| Sunday Lunch At The Elm Tree In Elmton It isn't like The Man Bird and Ito be slouches in the work department, but the weather (and time spent Christmas shopping!) was not on our side, so we hadn't earned our Sunday roast... but that didn't Read The Article | |
| Dinner At The Recently Opened Peacock At Owler Bar You certainly can't accuse Rob Hattersley of resting on his laurels! The Longbow Venues owner has expanded his offering of gastropubs and accommodation with the Read The Article | |
| Lunch At The Cupola Visitor Centre And Kitchen, Stoney Middleton My little brain continued to be over-loaded as we tramped around the Stoney/Eyam area; I mean, just how much History, Geology and Architectural brilliance can you cram Read The Article | |
| Breakfast At The Cupola Visitor Centre And Kitchen, Stoney Middleton Having washed under the large, waterfall shower and quenched our thirsts with a good cup of tea in our apartment, we took the short stroll back to The Cupola, crossing Read The Article | |
| Dinner At The Cupola Visitor Centre And Kitchen, Stoney Middleton Never before have I sat at my keyboard feeling such discombobulation; and yet here I am, feeling quite out-of-sorts. The reason for this is a recent visit to Read The Article | |
| Afternoon Tea At The St James Hotel, Nottingham Nothing feels better than a last-minute, cheeky annual leave day, and His Nibs was positively brimming with excitement at his freedom! So was I, I have to say; more so, because The Read The Article | |
| Sunday Lunch At Fairways At Chevin Golf Club, Duffield The Man, Mummy Bird and I have been to Fairways restaurant at Chevin Golf Club before, but it's been about a year (maybe more) since we had a Sunday roast there - time that Read The Article | |
| Sunday Lunch At The Pear Tree Inn, Yeaveley The Man Bird was mindlessly scrolling through Facebook (nothing unusual there), when I heard him exclaim 'eh!'. Curiosity piqued, I wandered over to see what had got him puzzled. Read The Article | |
| Lunch At The Old Smithy At Beeley Normally when His Nibs books a days annual leave, you can pretty much guarantee that it'll tip it down with rain! For once, though, it seemed that the weather gods were smiling down on us Read The Article | |
| Dinner At The Orangery At St Elphin's Park, Darley Dale The Man Bird and I always love being invited back to a venue that we've previously reviewed; whether it's for a change in Chef, owner, a refurbishment, change in menu, or just because Read The Article | |