The other week me and the wife decided to take a trip to the Swindon Outlet centre. I’m no big fan of shopping but at least with the outlet centre it’s good quality stuff at reduced prices. That and I desperately needed some new shorts for our trip to Malaysia (this weekend), being pantless out there wouldn’t have gone down well with the locals.
Anyway, we had planned to go there early but we were delayed until nearer lunchtime. Me being me, I wanted food as soon as we got there. Sadly the outlet centre only has a food court and while I don’t mind eating there I wanted to make a day of it. Me and the wife hardly get to spend much time together, as she generally works weekends. So after a brief trip to the information desk we were pointed in the direction of Bottelinos nearby.
It’s a nice looking, modern restaurant built out of an old railway building – like most of the surrounding buildings. It mixes old and modern quite well, although inside it does feel a little bit like an office building. It was a quiet afternoon so there wasn’t much of an atmosphere.
A quick scan of the menu told me two things:
- It’s expensive, particularly for lunch
- The menu is fairly basic
It wasn’t looking like a great start but I came to try the food and to sit and relax before inevitably being dragged around the shops. My wife ended up picking Lingunie alla Marinara and I went for Rigatoni con Formaggio. Given it was £10 for a pasta dish or £13-14 for a meat dish and that the restaurant had been recommended to us, I was expecting something fairly nice.
What I got didn’t quite match up to my expectations. Perhaps my mistake was in not asking for it al dente? Maybe I looked at the staff wrong? Maybe I forgot to say please? Whatever my crime was, the pasta was far too soft. It was mushy. That I can almost forgive, but the sauce… I can only describe it as liquified processed cheese. Despite the claim that the sauce was made of mascarpone, gorgonzola and parmesan I couldn’t taste much of it, all I could taste was melted craft cheese slices. There was also spinach in there… somewhere. The wife’s dish wasn’t much better, I’m fairly sure it was canned tuna along with the worlds smallest clams.
If this was some £5 for two lunch then I could understand the low quality, but £30 for lunch? I had expected something a little better. On the other hand, the disappointment of the dish inspired me to make it better myself. I was convinced that somewhere in there, was a tasty meal.
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