Chiedere (Ask!)

Member Name: zoe_page_1

Product:	Ask!
Date:	06/02/02 (141 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: in ze op

Disadvantages: in ze op

Last weekend I was in Liverpool for a meeting. The rest of our conference team and I wanted an Italian meal on Saturday night, and since the branch of Bella Pasta across the road from the Adelphi couldn’t accommodate us, we let the native Liverpudlian in the group chose an alternative – needless to say, this was where we ended up.

Ask is a national chain of Italian Pizza/Pasta places (hence the op’s title – the Italian for “ask” (I hope) ), with the restaurants being a bit more up market than Pizza Hut and the like. In many ways in reminded me of my local Est Est Est – the food, setting and prices, not to mention they way you have to go to the loos. We booked a table for 7pm and although we arrived on time, it wasn’t ready so we had to sit on the 3 sofas that seemed to double as their downstairs bar area. 5 or 10 minutes later we were shown to our table. Originally there should have been 7 of this, although this was reduced to 6 just before we left the hotel. Even so, we were placed at a table that I would normally have expected to seat only 4 – Gemma and I being strategically added to either end. The place was busy though, and we weren’t really squashed – just cozy – so it was fine.

The menu offered quite a wide range of pizza and pasta dishes, with a choice of starters and salads too. We had 4 pizzas, one baked pasta and one fresh pasta between us, and everyone seemed to enjoy it. We also ordered garlic bread which is the area, in my opinion, where they fell down. I’m used to maybe a baguette, or ciabatta, or full sized pizza topped with garlic and butter, but there’s were minute – smaller than those kiddie sized pizzas you get in Supermarkets. They brought these with the main courses – probably to try and hide the fact they were so small. Still, they rack up a few extra points for having fresh parmesan – and for grating it over your food a
s you waited (see yesterday's cheese op for why this is important). 4 of the group were on wine and managed to go through 2 bottles of the house red, while Rachel and I stuck to coke and water.

The total bill was £60, but since £20 of that was wine, it wasn’t that bad. Standard prizes are between £1 and £4 for starters and accompaniments, and from about £4 to £10 for main courses. None of us had puddings, so although my glances at other tables can tell you ice cream, cakes and profiteroles were on the menu, I’m not sure of the prices.

The service wasn’t super speedy but was pretty reasonable for a Saturday night. We were asked 3 times if we’d like the desert menus, but apart from that they didn’t seem in that much of a rush to move us on.

The address of the branch we dined at is given below. There doesn’t seem to be a company website, so for one near you, I’d just look in the phone book.

Ask Restaurants
Unit 5
Queen Arcade
St Johns Lane
Liverpool
Merseyside
L1 1HF

Tel: 0151 709 0080

It was nice compared to some fast foody places, but wouldn’t really count as my best fine dining experiences of all time. I'm not sure what, but it was lacking something.

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