Sitting on plastic rattan chairs in slivers of sunshine with string music playing over the PA system, one would be forgiven for thinking they were on holiday by the Med. But unfortunately the cloudy green hue of the Grand Union Canal is not quite the glittery turquoise of the sea.....a reminder that we are indeed not in France, but in Apsley at Calzone. Nonetheless, sitting here on a hot summer's day was bloody lovely, even if the food was somewhat only "ok".
We couldn't find too much info on Calzone online, but they style themselves as an Italian/continental restaurant. They mainly do antipasti, pizza, but also with some mezze thrown in. They certainly have the ideal location for a hot summer's day though, right next to Apsley's marina.
We went for some calamari rings, a pizza, and a chicken caesar salad and chips which came to £43, which felt a little dear. But then again we've lost all track of what food that isn't takeaway costs these days!
The calamari was hot and crispy, which was nice. But the calamari itself was pretty sad. It felt like chewing an old bootlace, and was completely tasteless, and the sauce it came with clearly came out of a big tub. It's a shame, since they went to the trouble of frying them "fresh" rather than reheating, having some fresh squid to put in them would have been nice.
Onto the mains, my American pizza was loaded high with toppings, but the base it came on seemed too perfectly round, clean-edged and perforated all over which encourages us to think it was perhaps a bought in base. It was a perfectly serviceable pizza but I can get those at home.
C's salad was huge - piled high with crisp leaves and toppings. But again pre-made ingredients made an appearance - the croutons were bland and too perfectly uniform, the dressing was astringent, acidic and sadly had not seen a fresh ingredient for some time, and the parmesan was papery and unlively. Italian food is so big on freshness, it's a real shame all these elements had been pre-made or bought in.
For Calzone, it felt like they had done so much of the hard work, but stumbled on the home straight. Everything we ate was fine. It was easy eating, non offensive, and approachable crowd-pleasers, but lacked freshness and authenticity.
Having said all of this, we know the hospitality industry is tough right now and getting staff is tricky so sometimes corners have to be cut to survive through this turbulent time. There definitely must be a reason why Calzone is always packed, why it has survived so long, and why locals always speak so highly of it...I think perhaps we caught it on a bad day, but it has so much promise that we will definitely be back to try it again. The setting is perfection, the menu is vast, varied (if a little confusing with the many cuisines!), portions are generous, and the place is busy. But we couldn't help feeling a little let down on this particular occasion, however we will be back to support this lovely local business!
Service:
Was fine - we arrived for a very early lunch so we were pretty much the only people there!
Price & Value:
It's somewhat on the pricey side - and while portions are of a generous size, the quality of the ingredients was lacking. I don't mind paying for great ingredients, but I didn't think this was the case here.
Quality:
Everything felt just slightly wide of the mark. It's nothing that couldn't be fixed easily enough, but each dish had an element of 'I wonder why they have done that'.
Overall:
ACCEPTABLE - Calzone has a great menu, and is a nice, friendly local restaurant with a great location; but on this occasion it felt a little flat for us.
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