After one week of doing very little while ONLY wearing a tracksuit, I started to feel myself climb the walls. He – on the other hand – was dying for a night in. Moonlighting as my male Florence Nightingale at both ends of the day while maintaining corporate slogger during the day, He could think of nothing worse than a date night.
‘Just look at your face’ he exclaimed. ‘I can see you NEED to go out’. And out we went, just for an hour or so, to eat at Queen’s Park’s new eaterie, Ostuni.
Ostuni in Queen’s Park
Bearing in mind we share a postcode with Queen’s Park, I must admit I don’t visit enough. Ostuni is on charmingly cobbled no-through Lonsdale Road, just off Salusbury Road. Full of cross-generational locals, the atmosphere in this very new 170-cover restaurant was definitely buzzy. The manager suggested that He and I sat at the bar so that we could watch the chefs russling up their Puglia regional cuisine. (To be honest, bar seats work best for date nights – less pressure, more fun and less chance of a heavy debate.)
sat at the bar in Ostuni
We visited Puglia a couple of years ago so knew that – if Ostuni was true to its claim – we’d be in for a treat. We ordered two antipasto pugliese (£9 per person) to start, before sharing the cavatelli crudaiola pasta (cherry tomatoes, baisl and salted ricotta £11) and purple sprout broccoli with chilli and garlic (£4).
date nights work at the bar
a huge selection of local cheeses and meats from Puglia in Ostuni
My pain killers prevented me from even a sip of anything alcoholic but He REALLY enjoyed his little jug of Primitivo 175 – which at £5.50 shouldn’t be sneezed at!
food envy as our eye catches the salt baked bream
our fresh (typically Pugliese ear-shaped) orechiette pasta
Our food was properly delicious but we still had continuous food envy as we watched the cooking and assembly of some serious Pugliese plates. The restaurant was packed, full of Queen’s Park’s finest: trendy, foodie locals. But I soon got tired and started to crave my tracksuit and the comfort of the sofa. Mission accomplished I saw Him think. Especially when the cool-but-not-too-cool manager sent us home with a generous slice of his lemon tart.
the going home present of lemon tart was devoured on the sofa while we watched Breaking Bad
OSTUNI BAR RISTORANTE 43-45 Lonsdale Road NW6 020 76248035
