Second night in Phuket.
On Saturday evening, after a lot of pestering from Miss K to call a contact we had, and after a lot of reluctance from our Mr A, Miss K takes the initiative to pick up the phone and call Salvatores.
"Hi is Salvatore there? Yes, we're friends with CP..."
We climb into our van at 8:30pm and head down from Patong beach to Phuket town. It's a bit of a drive, taking us 30 minutes to get into Phuket town and then taking us another good 20 minutes going around in circles, calling the restaurant to direct our driver and then getting out and walking about a little bit aimlessly until the gentle viridian glow of a vertical 'Salvatores' sign, bid us in the right direction.
Salvatore's is an Italian restaurant, recommended by Miss K's family friends in Vietnam and also by Mr. A's friends from around Thailand, so we were quite excited to have some amazing food.
The group of us kept commenting on how we really felt like we weren't in Thailand anymore, the warm rustic decor, the terracotta walls, heavy wooden furniture, it was a little slice of Italy in atmospheric lighting.
We were greeted by Salvatore himself, and almost everything you would expect out of a man who ran an Italian trattoria, a little bit short, very portly and generous and with an abundant mustache, however slightly lacking the loudness typically associated with Italian men.
The boys ordered the wine, I don't remember what it was although I got to look at the label. Was very pleasant though.
Aren't the butter rolls just adorable?
We got an assortment of starters, the beauty of eating in a big group, being able to order more and therefore try more! Although I didn't try the bruschetta...
I did tuck into the fried calamari which was light and springy. Quite moreish. The calamari was cooked so it was tender but still had a firmness when bitten into. Behind that we had the beef carpaccio, a bit underwhelming really, I didn't find the flavours very exciting nor the texture very nice either. Not something I went back for seconds.
The one entree I did insist on, was the eggplant sandwiched with parmesan cheese. Oh it was like an eggplant lasagna (without the lasagna sheets obviously), the eggplant was just incredibly soft and tender, then when combined with the tomato and parmesan? Rich. Rich and more rich. I could have easily made that my whole meal, but fortunately I did have to share it (somewhat reluctantly) so I didn't fill up too much on it!
For my main I went with the grilled steam bass with olive oil and lemon, served with some mixed vegetables. As my friends said, I made the 'healthy' choice, but it was still tasty, the fish was cooked quite well, maybe slightly more than I like it usually and whilst good, sadly I think I was more impressed with how the vegetables were seasoned and wished I had a much bigger portion of them!
Whilst I didn't get pictures of all my friend's food, here's just a small sample:
I think the lamb was from New Zealand...not much point going to Thailand to have that now is there..?
I'm not the only one taking pictures!
All in all, a very pleasant meal and with all the entrees, I was certainly (sadly) too full for dessert. Whilst I can see that Salvatore's does good Italian, I think I'm particularly spoilt in Melbourne with the huge array of amazing places tucked into our laneways.
On Saturday evening, after a lot of pestering from Miss K to call a contact we had, and after a lot of reluctance from our Mr A, Miss K takes the initiative to pick up the phone and call Salvatores.
"Hi is Salvatore there? Yes, we're friends with CP..."
We climb into our van at 8:30pm and head down from Patong beach to Phuket town. It's a bit of a drive, taking us 30 minutes to get into Phuket town and then taking us another good 20 minutes going around in circles, calling the restaurant to direct our driver and then getting out and walking about a little bit aimlessly until the gentle viridian glow of a vertical 'Salvatores' sign, bid us in the right direction.
Salvatore's is an Italian restaurant, recommended by Miss K's family friends in Vietnam and also by Mr. A's friends from around Thailand, so we were quite excited to have some amazing food.
The group of us kept commenting on how we really felt like we weren't in Thailand anymore, the warm rustic decor, the terracotta walls, heavy wooden furniture, it was a little slice of Italy in atmospheric lighting.
We were greeted by Salvatore himself, and almost everything you would expect out of a man who ran an Italian trattoria, a little bit short, very portly and generous and with an abundant mustache, however slightly lacking the loudness typically associated with Italian men.
The boys ordered the wine, I don't remember what it was although I got to look at the label. Was very pleasant though.
Aren't the butter rolls just adorable?
We got an assortment of starters, the beauty of eating in a big group, being able to order more and therefore try more! Although I didn't try the bruschetta...
I did tuck into the fried calamari which was light and springy. Quite moreish. The calamari was cooked so it was tender but still had a firmness when bitten into. Behind that we had the beef carpaccio, a bit underwhelming really, I didn't find the flavours very exciting nor the texture very nice either. Not something I went back for seconds.
The one entree I did insist on, was the eggplant sandwiched with parmesan cheese. Oh it was like an eggplant lasagna (without the lasagna sheets obviously), the eggplant was just incredibly soft and tender, then when combined with the tomato and parmesan? Rich. Rich and more rich. I could have easily made that my whole meal, but fortunately I did have to share it (somewhat reluctantly) so I didn't fill up too much on it!
For my main I went with the grilled steam bass with olive oil and lemon, served with some mixed vegetables. As my friends said, I made the 'healthy' choice, but it was still tasty, the fish was cooked quite well, maybe slightly more than I like it usually and whilst good, sadly I think I was more impressed with how the vegetables were seasoned and wished I had a much bigger portion of them!
Whilst I didn't get pictures of all my friend's food, here's just a small sample:
I think the lamb was from New Zealand...not much point going to Thailand to have that now is there..?
I'm not the only one taking pictures!
All in all, a very pleasant meal and with all the entrees, I was certainly (sadly) too full for dessert. Whilst I can see that Salvatore's does good Italian, I think I'm particularly spoilt in Melbourne with the huge array of amazing places tucked into our laneways.
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