Valentinos, Loughborough

My first restaurant review. Chosen restaurant was Valentino’s on Nottingham Road in Loughborough.

Our table was booked for 8pm and we arrived to see just 1 other person there and he left shortly after we arrived. The restaurant itself is quite small with about 20 seats in total but beautifully decorated to a high standard. Music was playing which also helped create an ambiance despite us being the only table in (for most of the night).

Valentino’s is an Italian/Mediterranean restaurant with heavy Greek influences.

Before you sit there judging, I will openly admit that we had 3 starters between 2 of us. As my first review I wanted to make sure we get a good overview! So, garlic doughballs, meat balls in tomato sauce and grilled halloumi arrived quickly to the table. All homemade and very reasonably priced at between £3.50 – £4.00.

Grilled Halloumi – photographed on the sly!

For my main I had Chicken Souvlaki which was grilled chicken kebabs served with greek salad, home made chips and a twist on tzaziki. Dave had their ‘Roman meat feast’ which consisted of the Chicken Souvlaki, Marinated Lamb Cutlets and a Lamb kebab, also served with chips and a side salad. The lamb kebab was a little on the chewy side but the cutlets and chicken were beautifully marinaded and very tasty (obviously I helped myself to some of Daves!).

Chicken Souvlaki

Roman Meat Feast.

The Lamb Cutlets were the nights winners..

For pudding Dave had a vanilla cheesecake, again homemade and very tasty –  it was also a massive portion which suited Mr fatty fine (only joking gorgeous!)….

As previously indicated, the restaurant was very quiet tonight but the service was quite slow. There was a wait to pay whilst they sorted the other table out but the bill was very reasonable at just over £42 for 3 starters, 2 beers, a bottle of house wine, 2 mains and 1 pudding. We used a Gourmet Society card which gave us a 25% discount so the bill should have been around £56.

The one thing that let the whole evening down was the Glacier Fox mints left on the bill plate. I popped mine straight into my mouth and then watched Dave in slow motion open his wrapper to reveal 2 ants stuck to the mint. 2 hours later, I’m still wondering if I ate one.. .or two… well I guess its all protein!

Overall here are my scores:

Would we return? Probably not, although I feel quite sad about that. I wanted it to be great – this is a small local business which has the potential to be amazing but small attention to detail points let it down.