Tony Macaroni

I ate at Tony Macaroni twice during my recent stay in Scotland. It’s a chain Italian restaurant, so the food was OK. Both times I had the Insalata Gotardo, which was very fresh. I enjoyed the mix of flavors in the salad, including the large «croûton» topped with the grilled goat cheese. I also ordered a side order of their home made bread the first time, and the rosemary focaccia bread the second time. Both breads were very good.
For dessert, the first time my husband and I split a dessert, which name I can’t remember, but it was basically fried sweet dough (what we Americans would compare to funnel cake) with chocolate and toffee dipping sauces. I’m a huge chocoholic, and was a little disappointment in the chocolate sauce, but the toffee sauce was excellent! On my second visit, I got the apple crumble with vanilla ice cream. It was hot and crumbly, a dessert I love paired with nice cold ice cream.
Our second visit here was actually not planned… we wanted to go somewhere else which didn’t have any seating available for us, so we went to Tony Macaroni as a back up. It’s not the type of place I’d go out of my way for, but would count on a decent meal when it was convenient.

I was so excited to try this place after hearing the adverts on the radio and generally just the hype/​buzz surrounding it opening. I was SO disappointed. Th

Motherwell’s young and oh-​so-​happening nightlife died the day that they decided to close Starka Bar, the shell of which has been fashioned into chain Italian Tony Macaroni’s newest addition.
I didn’t want to go. I wanted to boycott this place because of my loyalty to my beloved now defunct watering hole. However, I like food, and I like reviewing new places, so my head over ruled my heart and I went on Saturday afternoon to reveal my wrath on unsuspecting Tony and his mates.
The restaurant itself looks clean, sharp and shiny and new. Lovely. Long gone are the beer stained floors and dodgy stone walls, to be replaced with less dodgy stone walls. The waiters and waitresses are bloody lovely, most of them Italian, although this could be the thrill of the first week of opening. Time will tell on that front I suppose.
We ordered the Arancino for starter, which came looking like two rugby balls on a plate. They were huge! I would have preferred a little less if I am honest but I’d rather that than too little. The tomato sauce which accompanied them was dee-​licious.
For main, we ordered pastas. I had the Tagliatelle Merluzzo, a smoked haddock and broccoli concoction which sounded exactly up my street. It was delicious, again, the portion size was huge, and it didn’t help that we had ordered a garlic and olive oil focaccia to go with it. Phew! My only grumble is that we weren’t offered black pepper, and the pepper in the table mill was the powdery sort, a pet hate of mine.
The bill came to a respectable £35 pounds, for 2 starters, a side, 2 mains and 2 drinks.
So Tony. You have me on your side for now. I wanted to hate you but, with your smoked haddock goodness you won me over. Now, just put all the drinks down to £1 on a Thursday night and we’ll say no more about it.