La Vecchia Scuola, Low Petergate, York

6:48am Saturday 11th October 2008

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IT’S more than two and a half years since Luisa and I last ventured into La Vecchia Scuola – “the old school” – in Low Petergate.

The previous, and only other, time had been in February 2006 and that was a reasonably memorable night, if not necessarily for the right reasons.

We reviewed the restaurant back then, too, and it turned out to be a rather controversial report, with the establishment receiving low marks for food and service.

The article in turn led to the biggest reaction – or so I was told – in the history of The Press restaurant reviews, with most responses sticking up for the place, many coming from former pupils of the all-girls school which used to be housed there. Indeed, some of them had donated memorabilia, which remains on show in La Vecchia Scuola, and they had been quite proud of how the venerable old building had turned out in its new guise. (I didn’t quite understand how their kindly donations affected the quality of the food and service, but there you go).

Still, La Vecchia Scuola seemed to become quite popular, and so it was only fair we ventured back. Moreover, we’d heard on the grapevine it had changed ownership and, not only that, but it was now receiving top-notch word-of-mouth recommendations from all and sundry. What, then, were we waiting for?

We headed out on Tuesday night, arriving at about 8.45pm, to find it was quite quiet, though not unexpectedly so for such a time in midweek. There was a table of 14 celebrating a birthday in the main dining room, plus three other tables of two in the conservatory, and we were shown to our seats next to where the other twosomes were. Three more customers arrived while we were there.

The interior was still bright, clean and airy like when it had first opened, and the furniture still of high quality, but the decor had improved.

Gone were the soft-focus pictures of schoolgirls in the main dining area, which, if I remember rightly, had made us feel uneasy without quite knowing why. The toilets were always pristine but gone, too, were the complicated taps.

Unfortunately, also gone was the pianist who had impressed us on our last visit, although the piano remained so I expect they still have live tinkling on busier nights.

It took a while on our last visit for a waiter to offer us menus, but there were no such worries this time, as the menus were already on the tables, and a waiter soon came over to take our drinks order. The service remained perfectly prompt and amenable, though they were hardly rushed off their feet.

We ordered a bottle of red – a spicy, fruity and altogether lovely Primitivo Del Salento from Puglia (£13.95) – and took time over the menu.

La Vecchia Scuola, for those who don’t know, and haven’t guessed by the name, is an Italian restaurant, and there was a decent list of options, both in the starters and in the main courses, from salads, through pasta and pizza, all the way to fillet steaks.

Luisa started with one of my old favourites, fritto misto di mare (£7.10), which comprised the usual king prawns and calamari, as well as mushrooms and courgettes, in a light batter with roasted garlic and lemon mayonnaise. I’d had this dish on our last visit and was happy with it then, so we can put the price rise, from £5.95, down to inflation.

The batter was again pretty much perfect and the seafood nicely chewy, and there was an added bonus in the form of a chilli dip which complemented the mayo.

I don’t often have soup, but for whatever reason chose the minestrone (£3.55), probably because I thought it might help my sore throat. It did and, although it was slightly runny, the large chunks of vegetables went down well.

I probably also chose soup because I didn’t want to be too full for what came next – a prime fillet steak in a creamy, pink peppercorn sauce, cooked medium rare with an assortment of veg, which, at £18.95, was the priciest dish on the menu.

It was slightly rarer than I expected but wonderfully juicy, tasty, fulsome and filling, and the peppercorn sauce brought added flavour. I was happy I splashed out.

Lou was a little more conservative. She had been mightily disappointed with her meal on our last visit – when her main was a tuna steak – but that was no longer on the much-changed menu. This time she plumped for pasta – linguine con branzino e pomodoro (strips of pasta with a seabass and tomato sauce), at £8.95, and found it to her liking. This kind of fish gave it a particularly nice flavour and also went well with a big sprinkling of parmesan.

There was barely space for pudding, so we decided to share and, after a lengthy discussion, we went with the pear and chocolate cheesecake (£5). Unfortunately, it was the low point of the meal. It tasted like a couple of pieces of tinned pear and weak chocolate on top of some whippy cream and light shortbread. Still, it wasn’t my fault – I’d wanted the apple pie.

Our last visit had cost £53.70; this time it came to £57.50, which wasn’t at all bad – the improvement amounted to considerably more than £3.80’s worth.