Browse Sections

• Magazine 
• Food and drink

Dinner Detective

3/11/2006

Amelio's

29 Shaw Road, Heaton Moor, Stockport, SK4 4AG, 0161 442 1891

Open:

Monday to Thursday 6pm to 11pm

Friday and Saturday 6pm to 12am

All day

THE lights dimmed ... the flicker of a candle emerged from the darkness atop a chocolate birthday cake. The silhouette of a snake-hipped waiter with the aura of a very curly perm was just visible. Then the lights came on to the strains of Happy Birthday with the waiter - wearing just a thong - moving towards a table of giggling girls.

Welcome to Amillio's. Believe it or not, this well-established Italian restaurant is extremely popular and even the Chippendale-inspired birthday celebrations don't put diners off their calamari. Amillio's offers simple Italian food in the glitzy surroundings of Eighties décor.

The gold-effect and smoked glass wall surrounding the upstairs gallery always makes me wish I had dragged my Joan Collins shoulder pads out from the back of the wardrobe.

Fortunately for my dining companion, I opted for a more contemporary outfit, although the shoulder pads would have been useful for barging our way through the crowds in the bar area.

It was a busy Saturday night and all the tables were full, so we were wise to book in advance. The large menu offers all the safe Italian dishes but there's always a great specials board. From this I chose the mussels in creamy white wine sauce (£4.95) which were succulent and flavoursome.

Across the table, a generous portion of costini (lamb spare ribs) with a rich, sticky barbecue sauce, was also going down well (£5.95). Being carbohydrate freaks, we can never resist the allure of a soft, piping hot garlic pizza bread, and the pomodoro version with tomato and oregano (£3.60) did not disappoint.

For main courses we opted for pasta - penne alla vodka and penne salsiccie (spicy sausage) - bargains at £6.25 and £6.50 respectively.

If I had one criticism about the pasta, it was cooked slightly more al dente than I like but that was probably due to the busyness of the place, as we had to wait about half an hour for our main course. However, both sauces were robust and tasty and we were quite happy ploughing through our Chateauneuf du Pape (£22.50) and Pinot Grigio (£15.50) ,watching the Chippendale side-show while we waited.

As usual, no dessert for us after the huge carb-fest but the homemade tarts and trusty perennials, such as tiramisu, looked tempting.

The bill came to a very reasonable £70.65 which, considering it included two bottles of good wine, is the sort of place you might want to go for an off-the-cuff night out, or even an inexpensive birthday treat.

You'll even get some entertainment thrown in for free.