San Lorenzo, Gosforth

My husband and I visited San Lorenzo on Gosforth High Street for an evening meal. It was Friday so we were lucky to be able to get a last minute table. The restaurant was very busy and we were shown to a table in the centre of the restaurant.

I ordered a large glass of rose but then realised it was Friday and there was an offer on mini bottles of prosecco. I therefore made a mental note to order this next. The menu was full of tasty dishes but I eventually decided on homemade meatballs for starter with my husband choosing tempura prawns with sweet chilli dip. For mains I opted for haddock risotto with poached egg and my husband went for a steak mince beef burger with provolone cheese and crispy pancetta.

There were no notes on the menu to identify which products did or did not have nuts in but there was the usual catch all "may contain nuts" at the bottom of the menu. We asked our survey if he could make sure our food choices were nut free. He reviewed our choices again and stated confidently that they would be ok but he would certainly let the chef know. He seemed to know what he was talking about and the lack of fuss made be relax.

The starters went down really well. The meatballs were delicious with a sweet tomato based sauce. The tempura prawns were also lovely and quite a large portion so my husband was happy. Main course came relatively quickly. My risotto was tasty but slightly watery. It was a large portion though so I was pretty happy with it overall. The burger was a descent size with a nice brioche bun but the burger itself was a little dry.

We were both pretty full after starters and main course but we asked to see the dessert menu and were tempted by the homemade sticky toffee pudding. We again asked about nuts but unfortunately, after checking with the chef, the manager returned and told us that they couldn't guarantee that the sticky toffee pudding was nut free. He did however say that the cheesecake would be okay and there were other options we could choose. I was grateful for this (usually restaurants struggle to offer nut allergy sufferers one option) but we opted for the bill instead. To be honest we were full anyway!!

All in all, we definitely enjoyed our meals (particularly the starters) and would return again. From a nut allergy perspective, I think the restaurant dealt with this pretty well and the service and attitude towards it was good. I would therefore rate it 4 out of 5.