Although I’ve lived around Birmingham for over 20 years, there’s still so many places that I have yet to discover and I’m making it my mission to try out as many new restaurants as I can, so when I was invited to the press launch of Pasta di Piazza a couple of weeks ago, I obviously jumped at the chance to go.

Based in Birmingham’s famous Jewellery Quarter, just off St Paul’s Square, Pasta di Piazza is a beautiful building with exposed brickwork, impressively high ceilings and the most wonderful stained glass windows. Pasta di Piazza is not a new restaurant, however they have just undergone a £400k renovation and have recently opened up the top floor of the restaurant allowing for more tables and it has a lovely cosy but airy feel.

The starters

There’s so many delicious things on the menu and it was really hard to choose a starter! In the end, Tom went for the stuffed mushrooms which he thoroughly enjoyed and I had the grilled goats cheese which was absolutely delicious. There were also baskets of bread with butter on the table for us to have along with our starters.

The main courses

The star of the show was definitely the mains. Tom went for a seafood dish, the Linguine Alla Marinara –Marinated seafood mix with olive oil and herbs cooked with Neapolitan sauce, king prawns and garlic. Served with linguine. He really enjoyed this dish, however he was a bit disappointed that there was only one king prawn!

As I’m not a fan of pasta, whenever I visit an Italian restaurant I will usually go for a pizza, however I decided I would try something different and chose the Involtino Pollo. The Involtino Pollo is described as –  Flattened, rolled chicken breast filled with ham and provolone cheese with a breaded herbycheese crust. Topped with a light cheese sauce. It was honestly one of the best things I have ever tasted and I could have eaten it again straight away. Everything about it was perfect, from the creamy cheese sauce to the herby cheese crust. I’m now desperate to go back to Pasta di Piazza just so that I can have this amazing dish. I’m so glad I went for something different and didn’t go for a predictable pizza!

Tom and I are both in agreement that Pasta di Piazza is the best Italian in Birmingham. The building and the atmosphere is fantastic, as are the attentive waiting staff and obviously the food is divine. I definitely recommend that you book a table here the next time you want to treat yourself to a great meal.