Donatello, Brighton

Whilst food, either cooked at home by my superbly talented wife, or eaten out could be regarded as something of a passion of mine, writing foodie or restaurant reviews is not.

Neither am I myself much of a cook I'll have you know!

However having discovered Donatello Ristorante two years ago, we have eaten there, probably a dozen times in the last eighteen months, this is at least twice as many times as we have eaten ...
...case it is obviously high time to tell you all about it.

This very well known Italian restaurant, situated in the most historic part of the city of Brighton & Hove i.e. Brighton Place in The Lanes, certainly requires no plug from me in order to drum up trade. I will not give you detailed instructions here on how to find it - pop into any shop in the Lanes area and ask - they will point you in the right direction. Locally, it is an ... more

Whilst food, either cooked at home by my superbly talented wife, or eaten out could be regarded as something of a passion of mine, writing foodie or restaurant reviews is not.

Neither am I myself much of a cook I'll have you know!

However having discovered Donatello Ristorante two years ago, we have eaten there, probably a dozen times in the last eighteen months, this is at least twice as many times as we have eaten out anywhere else during the same period. That being the case it is obviously high time to tell you all about it.

This very well known Italian restaurant, situated in the most historic part of the city of Brighton & Hove i.e. Brighton Place in The Lanes, certainly requires no plug from me in order to drum up trade. I will not give you detailed instructions here on how to find it - pop into any shop in the Lanes area and ask - they will point you in the right direction. Locally, it is an extremely well known and established family run business, which has over the last ten years or so undergone rapid expansion. So much so indeed, that rather than expand this establishment even further, they opened last year, just around the corner in Market Street "Fat Leo", an entirely new restaurant.

Having not eaten at Fat Leo - the prices are the same, the menu almost identical, this review is about the original - Donatello Ristorante. Well, maybe not quite original due to the fact that over the years from a small one room start it has grown to incorporate every small shop within this historic "island site" at the very heart of the city. Here in a sense lies part of the charm of the place, regular diners, like us, have their favourite "room". In all there are five rooms, spread over three floors, plus two pavement dining areas and a small roof terrace. The pavement areas can be very busy with passing pedestrians, but the area is pedestrianised so there are no car fumes to contend with.

This is then actually a large restaurant, with 400 seats inside, plus a further 50 for al-fresco dining. Due to its layout and the fact that none of the rooms are over large you never have the impression of "mass dining" here. Each room also has an individuality about it which means that you can enjoy a different experience here on each occasion.

Décor, apart naturally from on the pavement(!) is what I can only describe as subdued Italian - I have an intense dislike of "over-forced" nationalistic décor in places that we are eating, I don't know about you but we find the ambience an integral part of the eating out experience. Here at Donatello there is nothing to disturb your senses whilst enjoying the meal in front of you…..

…..and enjoy it you will!

At peak times, even in this large establishment, you may find yourselves being asked to wait in the bar for a table to be vacated. On a couple of occasions we have waited up to fifteen minutes to be seated. Recently we have taken to turning up early, at midday, or in the mid-afternoon period when it is a little quieter. Having been offered the choice of a smoking, adjacent to the bar, or non-smoking table we usually take up a favourite window table downstairs where we can watch Brighton's fascinating society pass us by.

Back in May, we celebrated our Polish (we have two each year - long story!) wedding anniversary at Donatello and dined in the evening for the first time, upstairs overlooking Brighton Square. Due to the occasion, it was a "no expenses spared" evening meal out. In all of our visits here, strangely this was the one that I least enjoyed.

RICHADA'S tip here at Donatello: less is definitely more!

This was not the first time that I have discovered this, particularly in restaurants of a foreign 'flavour'. Very often you are better off, quality wise, sticking to the basic house menu, which in this case is frankly cheap - no other word for it.

For our anniversary celebration meal I decided to go all al-a-carte, paid more than twice as much for it, then ended up envying my wife her more basic "Donatello Special" meal which was frankly better cooked, better tasting and better quality. My sirloin steak was tough and disappointing in flavour, her pizza of the very best quality.

And there lies Donatello's greatest forte - at least for the pair of us.

My wife and her sister (who is 11 years old and adores this place!) both love pizza. I however, am not a lover of pizza. Donatello is a proper Italian Ristorante, not just a pizzeria. Yes, it serves a perfect pizza, with the choice of just about any flavoured topping that you could dream up, but it also offers up a huge variety of other Italian dishes too, traditional and modern.

For whatever reason, well actually they are just superb, we always finish up choosing the mushrooms cooked in butter and garlic. The alternatives, a good old fashioned prawn cocktail or a fresh salad from the self service, eat as much as you like, salad bar, both look equally good, but so delicious are the mushrooms that we stick with them.

You already know about Mrs R's usual main course - pizza, although she has also tried a variety of pasta and spaghetti dishes here. I am slowly working my way through the whole, very comprehensive, main course menu!

The sea food risotto is excellent, the meat and vegetarian lasagne outstanding, but extremely filling, too. Avoid the last two if you wish to indulge in a sweet! Probably my favourite main course to date here has been the much lighter tagliatelle funghi e proscuitto, strips of green and white pasta smothered in a delicious ham and mushroom cream sauce.

Lest you think that I am waxing too lyrical, I have to say that there have been a couple of dishes along the way that I would not order again. Unfortunately the two that spring to mind are Italian staples; spaghetti bolognaise and ravioli. Both tried recently have proven disappointing, flat in taste and in all honesty not as good as you could produce at home.

Now to the sweets. Well, this being a pukka Italian restaurant we tend to stick to my great favourite and speciality of this house - that being tiramisu. On one occasion, the first Sea Life trip, I splashed out (Sea Life get it? Oh well…..) and ordered a tiramisu ice cream cocktail, which compared to the basic dish I found rather disappointing - it cost £1 more too!

Please do not let my criticisms here put you off of trying this superb restaurant. I am merely attempting to steer you away from the average and towards the exceptional here. A manoeuvre which, if followed, will actually save you money too!

This is a truly classless restaurant; I mean that in the very best sense of the expression too. We have entertained a diverse selection of guests here, all have enjoyed the experience, and our - on occasion their - pockets too, have not taken a big hit either. Stick to the "Special" menu and you will enjoy two courses for £6.95 or three for £8.95.

RICHADA's tip No.2: request jugged water. It is very good, served with ice and a slice of lemon and will save you a fortune (around £4) on a litre bottle of genuine Italian mineral water, which frankly tasted less palatable than the Brighton tap water with a slice of lemon in it!

One of my petty hobbyhorses in life, regrettably remains, the application of service charges to the bill. My policy is always to pay the bill with my credit card, leaving a tip in cash, rewarding the waiter with an amount appropriate to the level of service received, or not. OK, I know that legally you are not obliged to pay an included service charge on a restaurant bill, but in all honesty how many of us are going to cause a scene by demanding its removal? Not me that's for sure! Here at Donatello the service is always excellent, no matter how busy it is. The service charge is included in the already modest bill. In fact this is one place where this policy actually works due to the simple fact that you do not receive the attention of a dedicated waiter(ess).

All in all then, in this town, packed full of eating places, good, bad and indifferent and with prices to match, Donatello has to stand out as probably THE best value for money / quality choice available.

As those of you who have read some of my previous reviews will know, one of my golden rules in life is that; "there is cheap and then there is value for money and that they are seldom one of the same".

Donatello is, I am more than happy to tell you, a shining exception to my golden rule!

 

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