Dino's, Glasgow

Walking into Dino's in Glasgow is similar to walking into a museum of Italian kitsch complete with red checked table cloths, pictures of famous Italian sights and trellis fencing probably intended to conjure images of sitting outside on the Italian Riviera. Instead, however, it made me think the place was brash and overstated particularly given that the outside consists of red, green and white glaring signs (I actually thought it was a fast food restaurant for a good few years).

Having not booked a table we did have to wait for a couple of minutes at the door before being seated but the waiting staff were very polite. There wasn't time for us to be offered a drink as a table was ready very quickly. However, after seating us the waiter seemed to disappear for a long time, leaving us trying to catch the eye of any waiter around us. When we did, he said he would go get our waiter which took another 10 minutes or so. Not terrible but a slightly annoying start to the meal. Through the meal the waiter was attentive without being intrusive but then at the end when we wanted to pay he vanished again. I accept they were busy but we were left for over half an hour of trying to get the bill, and as we were going elsewhere afterwards this was irritating.

This is not a restaurant I would recommend for a quiet or romantic meal as I found it quite noisy which I think is mainly because it is quite a small room as the kitchen is not open so the noise isn't due to that.

Food as you would expect is Italian in theme, with a standard selection of pizzas and pastas. As we were heading to the cinema and had limited time we only had one course with a bottle of wine. I had grilled king prawns in garlic whilst my partner had the salmon. The food was served in a reasonable time but I thought it was a little disappointing. The sauce with my prawns was overpowering, and very think rather than the expected light sauce that normally goes with this type of seafood and the salmon was a little overcooked. On the upside the portions were a good size.

This is a city centre restaurant and so paying a little over the odds is to be expected. However, with starters coming in around £8 and mains around £10 without meat, I felt this restaurant was pricing itself as a top of the mid-range place when it is really very standard. Pizzas are reasonable value at around £8-£10 for a good size but I felt slightly ripped off as I could have had as nice a meal in nicer surroundings for the same or less cost elsewhere.

Overall Dino's was not a bad experience and I cannot pick out anything that was terrible. However, a combination of things such as slightly inattentive waiters, slightly too expensive and not quite great food means that I wouldn't recommend this place. Passable and if you don't have another option it will be an ok meal, but don't expect too much.