Jamie's Italian

I am a food super-fan. You only need to take one glance at my Instagram to realise I’m a hard-core foodie (seriously though I do not recommend looking at my Insta if you’re on a diet, its burger central at the moment).

As well as the eating part, I quite enjoy the cooking part also. I absolutely love cooking shows and am a celebrity chef fan girl, of which my absolute favourite is Jamie Oliver. Seriously though his 15 minute meals rock my world.

So you can imagine my excitement when Josh told me he’d booked us a table at Jamie’s Italian in Liverpool! We were booked in for an evening meal after my graduation and I genuinely don’t know what I was more excited about; my graduation or eating at one of my idols restaurants!

The restaurant itself looks modern Swiss meets classic lumberjack inside, with wooden walls, recycled metal tables and so many waiters sporting lumberjack beards that I began to wonder whether it was through choice or if it was a compulsory part of the uniform at Jamie’s.

Our waiter, who sported a particularly bushy beard, was really friendly and chatty and took time to discuss the menu and cocktails with us despite the restaurant being jam packed.

After much deliberation I decided on the crab and avocado bruschetta for a starter and Josh chose the crispy squid – we’re both big seafood lovers.

The white and brown crab meat came served on a bed of crunchy fennel. This was piled high atop the crisp bruschetta and avocado spread then drizzled with yogurt and chilli. The taste was absolutely sensational, I love crab and the chefs cooked and prepared theirs perfectly!

Josh’s squid came lightly battered, fried with chilli, parsley and garlic. I didn't try the squid but considering he managed to demolish it in about five seconds I think its safe we assume it was good! I did however try the garlic and lemon mayo that it was served with which was beautiful.

For my main course I chose the ‘famous prawn linguine’ which was prawns fried with garlic, fennel, tomatoes, chilli, saffron and lemony rocket served up with fresh linguine pasta – made fresh in the restaurant that day. The dish was cooked to perfection and was an extremely generous serving considering I choose to have the ‘small’ portion.

Josh’s main was the crispy Italian-spiced duck leg, which was slow roasted and served with a watercress, lentil, orange and fennel salad topped with a fresh pomegranate and orange dressing. I ended up getting everything but the duck and orange scraped onto my plate as, in Joshua’s own words, he ‘doesn't eat anything green’.

Despite the restaurants attempt to poison him with salad, Josh loved his main course, the duck was cooked perfectly and the salad was beautiful, even if it was sloppy seconds!

We also ordered a side of garlicky green beans between us which are served with spicy Sicilian sauce and pecorino. They were beautiful but pretty spicy so do not order if you don’t like hot foods!

By dessert we were pretty much full but couldn't resist ordering off the beautiful menu! I opted for lighter option of strawberries soaked in elderflower and lemon, served with baby basil, poppy seed crisps and frozen yogurt.

Josh, true to form, went for the not so light option of the ‘molten chocolate praline pudding’, which I just about had time to photograph before it was gone it three swift bites!

Overall the meal was amazing, the atmosphere was great, the service was spot on and the prices were really reasonable! Five stars to Jamie’s!

Have you ever been to Jamie’s Italian? What did you think of it? Let me know in a comment below!