Michaelangelo’s

A very family friendly Italian restaurant with an easy to navigate menu (some Italian places have a 20 page menu with multiple variations on each dish, gets a bit overwhelming) and tasty food. From the outside it looks a little more formal than it actually is, staff were superb and several table had kids so made for a much more relaxed atmosphere than we were expecting
We had a few starters to share, Calamari, stuffed Rice Balls and Dough Sticks — all three of these are really easy to do badly but all three were excellent. Calamari was lightly battered, golden and not at all chewy, Rice Balls were perfectly cooked and nicely seasoned, Dough Sticks were hand made and «rustic» and not at all stodgy.
Main courses were all excellent too, it’s a good all round place with really nice staff and reasonable prices so we’ll definitely be back.

We dined here on the pre-​theatre menu on a really busy Friday night — this place has definitely become really popular with the locals since opening a few months ago!
The pre-​theatre is just £10.95 for two courses which is pretty reasonable. I tried a starter of crispy chicken (pollo fritto) and then the pasta of the day as the main. There was a bit of confusion about what the pasta of the day actually was, as the waitress told us the daily specials, and then we were corrected and told these weren’t available on the pre-​theatre.
Food arrived quickly and I can’t say the appearance of the chicken impressed me — it was a thick batter as you can see from the photo, and didn’t really look all that appealing. It was served with a dipping sauce which it definitely needed as it was lacking flavour otherwise, and was a little tough.
The main was better — it was a creamy tomato pasta with chicken and mushroom. Overall I liked the flavour and the portion was huge. Strangely there was bite sized pieces of chicken throughout, and then a couple of really big bits which needed chopping up.
I skipped dessert as there was only two options on the pre-​theatre and I didn’t fancy either of them. I tried a little bit of the baked cheesecake and it was too heavy for my liking and needed more of a sauce/​topping (it had a berry on it) so I was glad I hadn’t ordered it.
We were seated right by the door as well, and this was a little annoying when people were coming and going through the restaurant. At one point there was a group of 8 people standing right by our table in the doorway and letting the cold air in. Of course this isn’t the restaurant’s fault as it’s a small space but they obviously had to leave them waiting while they got their table ready.
Overall, I was a little disappointed with the meal here — perhaps the a la carte menu is better but I always like to judge somewhere by the quality of the pre theatre, and I have to say it was lacking on this visit.

We visited here for a late lunch (2 courses for 7.95 3 for 9.95). It’s only been open a month, but the place is nice enough on the inside. The staff to me at least were perfectly pleasant.
This place does not serve the best Italian food you’ll ever eat. In fact, it won’t even be the second or third best however, if you want an inxpensive italian lunch it’s perfectly adequate when compared to the Overlee across the road.