Western Daily Press (Saturday)
Bridging gap with an authentic taste of Italy on your doorstep
THE Ponte Vecchio – or ‘old bridge’ – is a medieval stone arch straddling the Arno River in Florence, but on a balmy summer’s evening, the view from the Bath restaurant of the same name makes for a convincing substitute for the Italian original.
Close to Georgian-built Pulteney Bridge, Ponte Vecchio looks out across the weir and the River Avon, which means tables outside on the terrace are highly prized.
So sought after, it would seem, that as I sat down at my window table for dinner, the distracted waiter had to break off from scribbling my order into his notepad to politely evict a bunch of tourists who had walked up the stairs to the terrace to sit down and eat their ice creams.
Ponte Vecchio has gained a reputation with locals and tourists as one of Bath’s most reliable Italian restaurants as well as having one of the best views of any eatery in the Roman city.
Always packed and with live jazz on Fridays, it’s always busy and it’s one of those authentically Mediterranean restaurants where it genuinely feels like you’re already on holiday.
When I arrived, a few diners were diving into goldfish bowl-sized glasses of Aperol for a truly Italian start to the evening and I followed suit with a well-made Negroni offering a kick like a mule.
The background music also added to the Brits abroad feel with back-toback 1980s chart hits – everything from Ashford & Simpson’s Solid to Spandau Ballet singing True. It was clearly bringing back plenty of mistyeyed teenage memories for the chap on the next table who decided to mime and perform a few actions to Culture Club’s 1982 chart-topper Do You Really Want to Hurt Me? – much to the head-shaking embarrassment of his wife and two teenage sons. It was like watching a sketch from a Harry Enfield show.
At the far end of the high-beamed building – it must have been a boathouse in a former life – a battalion of panda-eyed chefs were gearing up for another hot and frantic night in the open kitchen.
The silver-haired man in charge – I assume he was the head chef as he had a white uniform and the others were dressed in black – had the grizzled, stoical appearance of somebody who has spent his life in professional kitchens.
The menu at Ponte Vecchhio is extensive but not as vast as many Italian restaurants where huge menus are often a sign that the hardest-working members of the kitchen are the freezers and microwave.
There is a dedicated pizza chef in the kitchen banging out decent pizzas and a few main courses including steak and chicken dishes, as well as a vegetarian-friendly Parmigiana of oven-baked aubergine slices layered with basil, tomato sauce, Parmesan and mozzarella.
I started with the tongue-in-cheek ‘Calamonki’ (£10) – which was, you guessed it, a combination of piping hot and tender calamari and monkfish encased in light, greaseless batter with plenty of crispness and swirls of lime and paprika mayo for dipping. It was well executed and a substantial starter for the money.
The kitchen only serves fresh pasta, rather than dried, and my main course of paccheri Genovese (£16) was a hefty, gutsy dish of thick pasta rings folded into a sauce of beef cooked slowly with onions for seven hours.
The sauce was almost broth-like and there were only five pieces of beef – not including the one that was just fat – but the meat had imparted a deep flavour into the slightly watery sauce, which was flecked with fresh basil and topped with a flurry of grated Grana Padano cheese. The pasta was thick and cooked al dente, which made for heavy going by the end.
Desserts are also homemade and the torta caprese (£7) was rich and bitter flourless chocolate cake with a pleasingly coarse texture from the ground almonds.
As I paid the bill, one of the blackclad waiters swaggered over with a complimentary shot of ice-cold Limoncello, a generous gesture that transported me straight back to restaurants in Italy.
It might be a long way from the real Ponte Vecchio in Florence, but when it comes to authentic Italian food and hospitality, this Bath namesake certainly bridges the gap.
RATING
3.5/5