Sapori D’Italia

Mount Florida, you wee sneak. How do you manage to keep this hidden gem, secret for so long despite all the AMAZING reviews?
I actually first went here several years ago with friends, before I lived in the south side, bit forgotten where. The reason was back then everything south of the river was, in my ignorant mind, just one big place that wasn’t as good as the West end or the City centre. Now having lived here for a while I now know this to be wrong… oh so very wrong and this place is one of many reasons why. I can’t add much more to what other in-​the-​know Unilocalers haven’t already said; beyond the unassuming façade, it’s a super cute, compact restaurant with just a handful of tables. For this reason, it’s not always easy getting a table, so definitely worth booking in advance. Staff are always really friendly and accommodating to try get you a table, and very apologetic when they can’t. The food is as good as it gets in my book, the Italian sounds from both the kitchen, and customers is always a good sign, and after a bottle of delicious house red, you could honestly forget that you are in Glasgow (you get a reality check as soon as you set back outside into the familiar Glasgow weather). Another reason this is even better than the other really good Italian joints in Glasgow is the cost, it’s such good value for £, and one of the many reasons I’ll continue coming back… That and after years of now living Southside it turns out it was just a short walk away!

This has became my favourite italian restaurant in Glasgow — i went yesterday with some friends and the meal was absolutely delicious. If you want to experience some genuine Italian food that is the place for you! The restaurant is very small so i would recomment you to book to be sure they got place, especially during the weekend. The menu offers a great choice and it is not ordinary and it offers some really interesting plates which you hardly find here in glasgow elsewhere! Boards/​platters to share are amazing as antipasti, both cured meat and fish!
As main course i had sword fish steak (delicious) and as dessert white chocolate profiteroles, best i ever had in my life! To conclude the dinner an espresso and a limoncello — it seemed like i was in Italy again!!!

I’ve had a few friends rave about this place, so thought I’d finally give it a go now I’ve moved into the area.
Really enjoyed the meal. I started off with the bruschetta, while my girlfriend had the mussels. Huge portions and extremely tasty. For main we had lasagne and tagliatelle with goats cheese in a tomato sauce. Both were full of flavour and we were totally stuffed by the time we’d finished.
Delightful little restaurant and I’m sure it’ll become a regular haunt now we’re in the area!

I visited this restaurant to celebrate my birthday back in June. My partner and I decided to go for Italian cuisine and chose this particular restaurant as it was heavily featured online with glowing reviews.
My partner had told the restaurant it was my birthday, on arrival I was greeted by a single red rose waiting on the table for me, which was a nice surprise. We dined on the pre-​theatre menu which was £13.95 for 2 courses or a £15.95 for 3. We decided to have a starter and a main, I’m more of a savoury than sweet kinda girl. I got the bruschetta to start with. The portion sizes were humongous, I was expecting one piece but was served two large slices smothered with delicious sweet tomatoes, cheese and a balsamic dressing. It had been an awfully long time since I’d had bruschetta, and this bruschetta was well worth the wait. My partner got the prawn cocktail. We all know prawn cocktails aren’t the most adventurous of options, but as far as prawn cocktails go… this was a pretty good one.
For a main course I had tagliatelle with pesto and goats cheese — aghhhh it was amazing! I had never had this combination before (trust me I have had it since) and it was a stunning flavour combination. Goats cheese has fast become one of my favourite things and if you have the luck of trying this dish you’ll soon realise why. The creamy taste and texture of the goats cheese paired with the nutty, herby flavour of the pesto has to be a match made in heaven. My better half had penne pasta with spicy italian sausage and a tomato and vodka sauce. Yes you heard right VODKA sauce. It sounds a tad peculiar but it worked! The dish was flavourful and the ingredients tasted lovely and fresh, the vodka added a little kick and an extra dimension to the dish.
We ordered cappuccinos to finish, we all know nothing beats ‘proper’ Italian coffee. When the coffee arrived I had the wonderful surprise of being given a free piece of the most amazing tiramisu to wish me a happy birthday. It also came with the embarrassment of a song and a singing candle sat in the cake. I had absolutely no room in my now bursting tummy, but managed to squeeze it in… just! It was too good to leave!
The restaurant is very dinky but it has that nice homely feel about it. You honestly feel like you’ve just walked in to an authentic Italian restaurant slap bang in the middle of Rome. The service here is fantastic and the food even better. This place comes highly recommended from me.

This may be my favourite Italian food in Glasgow! The quality of the dishes here are incredible. I’ve only visited for lunch, but we’ve been twice now and both times everything I’ve tried has been incredible.
They serve a great lunch menu, very affordable and a nice selection of dishes. :) on my first visit I tried the mozzarella and basil salad and the cannelloni. Both were lovely, the cannelloni particularly tasty. It came out sizzling in a dish filled with sauce, a proper comfort dish.
On my second visit we tried the aubergine side, it was just perfect. My mum who isn’t always a fan of aubergine, said it was the nicest thing on the table.
Between us we tried spaghetti Bolognese, bruschetta, goats cheese salad, pesto pasta and mussels. All so lovely. We finished the meal with cleaned plates. I loved the mussels, tasty and juicy, served in a rich tomato sauce with bread. It’s my dream dish.
Lovely cosy little restaurant, only a few tables, always busy with very friendly staff. It’s just a perfect experience. I can’t wait to go back!

I have eaten here a few times and the food is always excellent. The staff are brilliant. I always recommend booking a table in advance as they can be very busy

I’m going to call it: this is my favourite Italian restaurant in Glasgow. It does everything right, but most importantly the food is fantastic, and is well worth the short train trip to Mount Florida if you aren’t from the area.
It’s not the biggest restaurant in the world, it’s decorated in the usual half deli/​half rustic family restaurant, and for some reason it has a TV (fine in pubs, but in restaurants maybe not) above the kitchen area, but it manages to maintain a great atmosphere. The staff are friendly, and in spite of the lack of space you don’t feel as if you’re earwigging on everyone else’s conversations.
The food is really, really good. No pizzas, so if that’s your thing then avoid, but the rest of the menu is lovely. It’s all traditional Italian food without being cliched: familiar favourites like bruschetta or calamari starters are cooked perfectly, and the pastas have a little twist that make them stand out. Nothing is too fancy, and it isn’t trying to re-​invent the wheel. It’s the kind of menu that I don’t want to tell you about, i just want you to experience for yourself.
Go.

Woah. I thought I’d had some good Italian meals in Glasgow but this one really takes the cake. Sapori looks pretty unassuming from the outside and I’ve had this place bookmarked since Donald M reviewed it nearly 2 years ago. I’d tried to make bookings here a couple of times in the past, but could never get a table until last night when the stars aligned and we got a table for 2 at 7.45pm.
As others have said, his place is small inside. It has 8 tables (set up as different combinations of 2 and 4 while we were there) and it’s busy, bustling and vibrant. We took our seats and looked over the menu. First up, prices are really reasonable for an Italian restaurant and not much is over £15, even the meat and fish dishes. I went for bruschetta to start and beef cannelloni for main while Graeme had calamari and then a mushroom tagliatelle for main (and we got a side of aubergine to share).
The bruschetta sounds like it’s going to be pretty standard — toasted garlic bread with cherry tomatoes, basil, extra virgin olive oil and cheese. When it arrived there was two beautiful slices with bright, vibrant tomato on top. I knew I was in for a treat. To call this bruschetta is almost an injustice as it was unlike any I’d had before — a perfect balance of flavours, delicious sweet tomato and basil. It also had a drizzle of balsamic over it — it was totally lush! I also shared some of Graeme’s calamari which was less salty than I’ve tried elsewhere but it meant the flavour of the squid really came through with a squeeze of lemon. Simple, but super delicious.
By this stage we were very excited for mains and they didn’t disappoint. My beef cannelloni was piping hot and served with a piece of bread. Again, the menu description is pretty standard and didn’t express just how delicious this was going to be. The beef was minced really finely which made it a really soft and delicate dish to eat and was packed with flavour. I also tried Graeme’s tagliatelle which was so moreish I could have easily eaten that too (to be honest, I feel like everything on the menu would be amazing). The side of seasoned aubergine was lovely and I really liked the pieces which were really well-​grilled (strangely this was served cold which I didn’t expect, but it was still tasty).
We decided not to have dessert even though there was a really nice selection. I can’t wait to go back here for another meal as it’s one of the best Italian meals I can remember having. Our bill came to £55 for a two course meal for two (with an extra side), two pints of Peroni and a ginger beer for me. They apparently have really reasonable lunch/​pre-​theatre deals so we’ll head back to try those soon.

The pictures and reviews on Unilocal sold us to try this Italian. The restaurant is so cute and authentic, small but perfectly formed. The service was great, very welcoming and attentive. Now on to the food yum, we all opted for different starters, I got goats cheese bruschetta and it hit the spot. The others got squid which was also lovely. I then got the sausage and mushroom pasta which was tasty but rich but that’s the case for all cream pasta sauces. The others got seafood pasta which was lovely and tasted so fresh. The fries at delicious too and the house wine and beer is easy to drink. We ten opted for a cheese cake to share after the waiter advised it was homemade and delicious so we all shared it as we couldn’t fit much more in lol. We booked an hour before arriving and the place was full, wen a window table became available the waitress asked of we would like to move which we did and was a great touch. We all like to people watch! While waiting for the bill an Italian guy ordered a second portion of the sharing deep fried/​tempura seafood which made us hungry again and wanting to go back again soon. I love italian food and have tried almost all of the good ones but this one is now on that list. It’s the oops or side of the city for us but would happily drive to it soon. The only criticism is menu size, I would like more choice. Highly recommend you won’t be disappointed.

In my opinion this is one of the most authentic Italian restaurants in Glasgow. It is located a little outside of the centre in the south side of the city (which is very handy for me) but is definitely worth going that extra distance to try. I visited on a Friday lunchtime and managed to get a table no problem but it is advisable to book for the weekend as there are only about 8 or 9 tables.
They have a set lunch menu, priced at £7.95 for 2 courses. This is amazing value given the standard of the food and the portion sizes we received were very substantial. To start I went for the mussels in tomato and basil sauce, served with fresh toasted bread. The mussels were some of the biggest I have ever eaten and were cooked perfectly. The bread was incredibly fresh and perfect for soaking up the leftover sauce. This was followed by pesto pasta — easily the best I have ever tried. The only problem was it was quite rich so I couldn’t finish the entire portion.
At just over £20 for two set lunches and two coffees it really is amazing value.

Anger, rage, fury, annoyance. That is what I am feeling. How did I not find this place sooner? Why did nobody mention it to me? Why did I not see Donald and Peter’s rave reviews before now? The world is a cruel and wicked place, but I have to let bygones be bygones and accepted that I am, indeed, a douche for not finding this place sooner.
Nestled in Mount Florida near Hampden Park, you wouldn’t necessarily find this little place. From the outside it looks nothing more that your typical Italian joint. Almost neglected you may say. There’s nothing particularly appealing about the shop front. Furthermore as they have no website I had no real idea what to expect food wise. So, I went in completely blind, not knowing anything.
First impressions were excellent, very cosy, only 8 or 9 tables, nice Italian music in the background, the chatter of Italian in the kitchen and amongst the waiters. It all boded very well.
We ordered some drinks and after a quick rummage through the menu (which all looked great, and very well priced) we were recited the specials of the day. In true Italian style we took the plunge and went for a mega feast of four courses. Nothing particularly challenging for a Wednesday night I must say.
To begin, we had a duo of bruschettas — one, a classic tomato and the other with friarielli (or Italian wild broccoli). Afterwords we had a wonderful seafood caserecce pasta dish (primo) with fresh clams and squid. It tasted just like the real stuff I would get in Italy. After, yes there was more (or a secondo), a huge fitto misto (which we shared) which is basically battered and fried seafood. The batter was so light and crisp, and served with lemon its a simple and easy dish that is difficult to top. Finally for desert was a home-​made amarena cherry and amaretto cheesecake. It was oh so rich and creamy. Exquisite!!!
All this was washed down with some rather darn fine Soave white wine, and the best part was the final bill, incredibly good value for money considering the quantity and the amazing quality of the food we had.
I could not recommend this place enough. A real proper Italian restaurant, which is going straight into my top Italian eateries list. I simply cannot wait to go back.

Best Italian I know in Glasgow
The food is straight forward Italian home cooking, done the way Mama does it. Which makes it simply the best and blows over blown other places, not mentioning any names, cough Jamies cough, out of the water.
The staff are great, the atmosphere is relaxed and did I mention that the food is great, I love their Carbonara.

Beautiful from the ambience to the impeccable service to the meal. Had to try this fantastic restaurant after recommendation from a friend and so glad we did.
Extremely friendly and attentive staff giving a true Italian feel.
Do try this hidden gem. It might not look much from the outside but by god it would give any Italian in Glasgow a run for it’s money. Just before we left a customer came in for a coffee and the owner rhymed off his order without him even having to open his mouth. That’s true service. I am sure to be back. Highly recommended.