COSY dining, relaxed drinking, celebrations, or a night of partying.

Whatever you’re after, La Margherita has something for everyone.

The long-established Southampton restaurant and bar has built up a top reputation – not only for its excellent homecooked food, but also for its value for money, waterfront views and friendly atmosphere.

But La Margherita’s fantastic menu is its number one pulling point. With everything made from scratch, the quality of the food is top notch.

My dining partner and I visited on a mid-week night.

Over a beer and an appetiser of fresh bread with olive oil and balsamic vinegar for dipping, we spent a good 20 minutes choosing from the mouth-watering pizzeria and a la carte menus.

Choice is everything – you can spend as little as £10 a head for a good meal.

For starters, we chose a tomato and mozzarella salad along with antipasto, a selection of cold meats served with olives, peppers and artichokes. They arrived promptly and were fresh, well presented and perfect for sharing.

We then took the traditional Italian route – on the recommendation of the Italian waiter – and had a small pasta course before embarking on the main course.

I chose the dish named Boat Show – spaghetti with seafood in a tomato sauce. The seafood was delicious, including fresh mussels, prawns, calamari and a huge king prawn. My friend plumped for pasta with Italian sausage.

Considering the amount we had already eaten, the attentive waiting staff gave us a wellearned break before serving our main courses.

And it was worth the wait. My Pollo del Padrone – chicken breast stuffed with Parma ham, spinach and pesto and served with tagliatelle – was extremely tasty, with the spinach really complementing the salty Parma ham.

My partner’s enormous salmon steak, served on asparagus and potatoes, was, I was informed several times, “beautiful”.

Our meal was also accompanied with a bottle of Fazi Battaglia Italian white wine, an easy-drinking perfect match for both my chicken and my partner’s salmon.

Refusing to leave it there, I couldn’t resist one of the tempting desserts. I had the Dolce Alla Banana Carmellata, a biscuit base with bananas, caramel, cream and chocolate on top – pure decadence!

My (far more sensible) partner finished his meal with an Irish coffee.

As we left, shortly after 10pm, the party atmosphere was only just beginning – but sadly it was a school night for us.


La Margherita
Town Quay
Southampton
Tel: 023 8033 3390