Fratelli Sarti

This review appears in the The List's Eating & Drinking Guide 2008 – in the shops now or buy online.

That all of Glasgow's Sarti restaurants enjoy a healthy custom seven days a week is telling. A good shot at authenticity – as far as both Italian cuisine and ambience are concerned – seems to be the key. The Wellington Street flagship has a café/deli-feel, its walls decked with hanging meats and bottles of wine, while the adjacent semi-basement dining space (entered just around the corner) is likened by its owners to an Italian courtyard. The youngest franchise, in an elegant former building society office located down the street, is a grander affair. Decked out in handsome green marble and wood panelling, it features five chandeliers glistening overhead. The Tuscan specials change weekly and are listed in a separate leather-bound menu. A mozzarella appetiser is wrapped in thinly sliced wild boar meat, its melted cheese oozing out onto a toasted bread square. Herby Italian sausage is home-made and sliced through a tangy tomato sauce with black olives and chunky rosemary stalks. Here it is pleasing to be able to take a wander and look at the desserts behind the glass counter before making a selection. An amaretto torte combines plenty of cream and liqueur-flavoured sponge with a crushed amaretto covering.

• High point: Large and well annotated wine list
• Low point: Slightly flimsy menus