Osteria Mauro, Mottram St Andrew, Cheshire

[Harters]

There’s Italian restaurants. And there’s gastropubs. But I guess Osteria Mauro is an Italian gastropub. I remember it as the Bull’s Head, an unprepossessing pub in the middle of nowhere between Wilmslow and Prestbury (the village of my birth). In it’s dismal past I think it was a Bernie Inn or Chef & Brewer. The food’s improved since then. That’s not surprising as it’s owned and run by the Mauro family who also own Manchester’s Stock and Bollington’s Briscola.

The bar area is nice. Comfy seats, stripped woodwork, swiftly bought drinks. The menu reads as a classic Italian restaurant in the UK, with a mix of pizza, pasta and “proper” mains. There was a “specials” blackboard, oddly featuring steak and ale pie with chips. Extra specials were two ravioli starters – always a special feature of Stock. And, as with Stock, fish is big player. The menu has no listings for it, stating only that fish is bought daily. They had quite a large selection and what they propose to do with each is explained to you.

We picked at a bowl of olives and another of reasonable bread, which unfortunately arrived with the starters. A starter of grain mustard coated smoked mackerel came with potato salad and some leaf. Fish was very good. Potato salad was straight out of the fridge and, when taste was discernable, it wasn’t too good.

Antipasti was a good idea – either allow your server to bring you a plate, or go with the server to the salumeria to pick your own. I went to pick. Good selection of squidy/octopussy things, sardines, assorted veggie stuff. It made up a tasty plateful.

My main course was lamb kidneys and mushrooms cooked in marsala, with a butternut squash risotto. Kidneys were well cooked, remaining pink on the inside and very tender. The sauce was rich but a bit gloopy. Risotto was OK, but much “claggier” than a usual risotto – obviously so it could be moulded in a ring.

The other main – lamb rump marinated in mint, garlic and chilli and cooked in red wine – came sat on a bed of lentils. It looked very good and the lamb, on the well-done side of the requested pink, still had a reasonably good flavour. The lentils were the best bit of the plate.

Desserts were a disappointment. A chocolate and almond cake hardly tasted of either, but did have a good pistachio ice cream with it. Apple and almond crumble was simply unpleasant to eat – a sour apple mix stuffed into a pastry case topped with a few crumbs. Most of it was left.

Service had been slower than one might have expected but we hadn’t been in any rush to get anywhere else and it had been friendly and knowledgable. The pricing is hardly bargain basement, with mains approaching £20 in a number of cases – but then the restaurant is in Cheshire’s “Golden Triangle” and, unfortunately it had promised more than it delivered.