Il Capriccio in Plymouth is hidden away down near the back of the market slightly off the beaten track at Frankfort Gate. It is in good company with a lovely Portuguese joint the Lisbon Bakery bakery a few doors further down and the popular Greek Cypriot restaurant on the other side of the square.

Tonight though we were checking out this family run Italian restaurant, it was quiet when we peered in, in fact to be honest it was empty but it just looked so homely and welcoming that we could not resist walking in to see what they had on offer.

The Il Cappriccio website said that this was a family run joint and it certainly was, the husband and wife were cooking, waiting tables, and doing front of house, their son was in the corner eating his pizza for tea.

They were pleased to see us and welcomed us inside, and we ended up being pleased to have found them.

Anyway you figure already that we kind of liked the place and people, so maybe I should talk about what we ate and our dining experience. I mean that is kind of what we do at MyFoodHunt.

SPECIALS MENU

The main menu at Il Capriccio looked good filled with pizza and pasta, all the dishes that you hope to see when you visit an Italian Restaurant.

I liked that they were offering the pizza in two sizes ‘baby’ and ‘regular’ which made me wonder if the baby was small enough for a starter as they were priced at around half that of the regular. Could that be a potential appetiser or shouId I just behave?

I was also drawn towards checking out their Carbonara which is one of my favorite dishes to order and to cook at home, and if they had been offering it as a starter I may well have partaken.

We were sitting right next to the Specials Board and it was hard not to just get drawn into those offers, too hard and in the end that was just what we ended up doing.

PORK FILLETS

I had the Pork Fillets wrapped in Cured Ham served with Roasted Potatoes for £16. I was not really sure what it would be like but I wanted to give something off that specials board a go. I always like wrapping chicken breast with proscuitto or parma ham so I was just hoping for something similar.

It was not really what I expected but it was pretty tasty so I was happy enough. The Pork fillet was cut into small pieces and had been wrapped in ham then cooked to make it crisp. There was not a lot of flavour mostly it was coming from the cured ham so it was a pretty simple affair

The sliced roast potatoes were really good. nice and crispy. I enjoyed mixing those up with the roasted tomatoes. I think I would have like a bit of sauce of some sort to tie it all together or a few more of those tomatoes.

BEEF LASAGNA

The other dish we tried was the Beef Lasagna, when we ordered there was brief conversation as to whether they had any, but it was fine they were making a batch anyway so just said it would be a bit longer and that was ok with us

It was a bit of bonus as well as we got to watch them make the lasagna from scratch, one person rolling out the pasta sheets and then they both carefully layered it together with white and meat sauce in the tray. I could see them tucking the sheets in just like they were tucking a baby into its cot with great care. We kind of knew then that this was going to be a winner

The Lasagna was really very good and I kind of wished now that I had ordered this. It was so big though that I did end up with a good third of it as my dining companion could not manage it all.

I really liked the soft pasta and the sauce was excellent, creamy and meaty with a strong hit of nutmeg in the white sauce. I especially liked the crispier bits of the pasta where it had stuck to the sides of the dish.

If I was back this way I would be ordering another one of these. but I think we would get one to share and a bit bit of garlic bread on the side to mop all the sauce up with!

We really enjoyed our meal here at Il Capriccio, it turned out that they had only just started getting guests back in and had not been reopened that long. During lockdown they had just been doing delivery and one of them had taken a job at another restaurant.

I wished that I could come more often as we were made so welcome as they opened up to talk about how they had got through the last few months. I was rooting for them to get the place back to normal and be successful

Il Capriccio is located at 4 Frankfort Gate in Plymouth you can check them out on their Facebook page, their Twitter feed, and their Instagram profile