DaggersDukc's Eats: Oh Vesuvio, Upminster, Essex

I haven't written up a restaurant review in some time, but the Access Eat blog has inspired me. So here goes with a slab of suburban eating.

Mrs D-D and travelled to nearby Upminster last Saturday for something to chow down on after spending a large chunk of the day fixing up my boss's home internet connection. Upminster, literally at the end of the line (the green one on the tube map), may not be the first place a Londoner would think of when going out for a night's grazing, but is becoming more popular and could soon rival Hornchurch - again, not a place that regularly jumps out as restaurant capital of London but well established as local gem in East London amongst a tundra of towns featuring little more than restaurant mediocrity. Trundling along Corbets Tey Road, and finding our usual Italian choice, Prezzo, already fully booked, we moved on to a place we'd passed on by before - Oh Vesuvio.

Quite a pleasant meal awaited us. Our friendly waiter made a special effort to fit us in - the place was bursting, as it turned out, justifiably so. Decor is dark, but homely and has the feel of an established local restaurant - its signage suggests it may be been here since the 60s.

The menu comprised the usual staple of Italian menus we've known in England for decades with pasta, meat and fish dishes being the order of the day, with rich wine based sauces being represented well. I started with smoked salmon cones loaded with prawn cocktail, which, with lemon juice sprinkled over it, burst out with a cartoon-y flavour and got a full 10/10. I then had steak with marsala wine sauce which was again brimming with flavour and which I gave 8/10 - large portion of perfectly cooked steak too. Mrs D-D's main was beef canneloni which she rated as 8/10.

For dessert, I had a rather nice, though small, home-made Tiramisu, which at least tasted home-made and which I'd have given 8/10 had it been a little more generous in portion.

Summing up, Oh Vesuvio is a pleasant, somewhat conservative local Italian. The kind of place you could happily take a business client for dinner. The average age of the clientele was around 50, so perhaps not the coolest joint in town, but a highly satisfying one, at least as far as their food and helpful service goes. Average prices were: £5 per starter, £10-15 main course, and £4.50 for dessert.

Service: 8/10
Food: 8/10
Value: 7/10 (prices were higher than average for the area)

Oh Vesuvio: 101 Corbets Tey Road, Upminster, Essex


My dessert - a nice little touch