For over 20 years, San Pietro has offered high-quality authentic Italian fine-dining with style. The recent addition of its new al fresco dining menu offers another point of difference that’s highly enjoyable. This month we’re saying ‘ti amamu’ to San Pietro’s Giardino

For over 20 years, San Pietro has offered high-quality authentic Italian fine-dining with style. The recent addition of its new al fresco dining menu offers another point of difference that’s highly enjoyable. This month we’re saying ‘ti amamu’ to San Pietro’s Giardino

Well that’s good timing! After pretty questionable weather this summer, the sun finally came out, just in time for a week of annual leave. The present Mrs Davis had carefully curated a list of jobs around the house that required my attention, and if the weather wasn’t all that great, I anticipated being stuck at home working methodically through said list. On the other hand, in the event of bright sunshine and warm temperatures, I knew she’d insist that we ‘go somewhere and do [an unspecified] something.’

Whilst this summer hasn’t been terrifically balmy, this magazine is published in early August, so there’s still plenty of opportunities for a warm and pleasant couple of months… which is just what we enjoyed that week. When my wife canvassed me for suggestions as to where we could go, I was happy to have San Pietro’s Giardino up my sleeve to recommend, saving me from a fate worse than chores.

It’s the outdoor terrace of North Lincolnshire’s fine dining Italian restaurant: San Pietro celebrated its 20th anniversary last year and continues  to provide a unique setting and a delectable dining experience, especially al fresco. 

Happily, even if the sun still refuses to shine, you can always enjoy the restaurant’s absolutely maravigghia Italian cuisine in Pietro and Michelle Catalano’s lovely modern dining rooms, created just over 20 years ago in their Grade II-listed 19th-century windmill just off Scunthorpe’s High Street East.

Pietro is from Sicily, where ingredients are fresh, dishes are simple, and everything is bright and colourful and happy, perfect for a lovely sunny week off and an afternoon lazing in the restaurant’s Giardino.

Bringing Sicilian philosophy to San Pietro, with two-AA-rosette cuisine, Pietro and Head Chef Chris Grist provide exceptional quality à la carte dining and a tasting menu with eight dishes, but also a prix-fixe menu del giorno which offers exceptional value relative to the authenticity and skill evident in the dishes on offer. 

There’s also a Sunday Lunch menu, an afternoon tea menu and Festa menu for parties of 12 or over in a traditional Italian-style. Giardino, meanwhile, has its own dedicated menu, and is located adjacent to the terrace with its pizza oven and bar.

As a former interior designer, Michelle has taken the lead in designing Giardino, which is intended to evoke the feeling of Amalfi and coastal holidays in Sicily, and to offer an outdoor space in which to enjoy an aperitif or dining in a lovely shaded garden surrounded by olive trees.

The menu for Giardino is predicated upon a traditional antipasti, cicchetti (small snacks or plates) and apperitivo format, but all menus are available to dine outside, subject to weather.

Served from Thursday to Sunday from midday it comprises dishes like a classic bruschetta, burrata, a four-piece king prawns platter with toasted focaccia, and signature antipasti. A rocket leaf and parmesan salad or truffle and parmesan chips available. Dishes are priced separately allowing you to enjoy a long, sociable afternoon grazing 

San Pietro’s menu del giorno is very good value, being priced at £28.50/two courses, £35/three courses with a choice of four dishes per course. Buffalo mozzarella with heritage tomato, hot smoked salmon and crispy pork belly starters are a precursor to pan-fried seabass, slow-cooked blade of beef and cornfed chicken.

The à la carte menu comprises a selection of antipasti, pasta and risotto dishes, eight secondi dishes blending the finest British ingredients with traditional Sicilian flavours and values. There’s also a choice of five puddings from chocolate pyramid to apple tarte tartin and a lemon and pistachio choux, plus an artisanal cheese selection and after dinner cocktails.

Finally, the taster menu is £79/person, with an optional flight of Sicilian wine at £55 whilst Sunday lunch is offered with one, two or three courses for £19.95, £29 and £35 respectively.

There’s no doubt in my mind that the menu del diorno is really good value, and each dish is beautifully presented, but to our mind the à la carte menu offers more choice and very special dishes like our 35-day aged, fillet steak Rossini, truffle beef in a silky rich Maderia jus, with truffle potato pave, wilted spinach and a fois gras espuma – pioneered by  Ferran Adrià at El Bulli.

Pietro and Chris try to source as many of the ingredients for their dishes from as close to the restaurant as possible without making any concessions to quality. 

Butchery is from R&J based in Ripon, so not quite local, but with a signature range of salt-aged beef and as they’re also suppliers to restaurants like Winteringham Fields, Beverley’s Michelin Star-wielding Pipe & Glass and Shaun Rankin at posh country pile Grantley Hall, it’s a supplier worth favouring.

Otherwise fish is purchased and delivered fresh from Grimsby each day via several smaller specialist merchants and vegetables are locally sourced too.

A few specialist ingredients include Pietro’s own family estate extra virgin olive oil, pistachio pesto, chestnut honey to name but a few and lentils grown in his hometown, wild oregano and artisan flours. Online there’s a video of Pietro in his native Italy on San Pietro’s website accompanied by a jolly jazz soundtrack… worth a watch!

Everything in San Pietro is produced in the kitchen from bread to ice creams and sorbets to the petit fours served with the finest Italian coffee. Presentation is really stunning but the fundamentals of really good ingredients, skilful chefcraft and well-judged flavours are present in abundance, meaning this is a restaurant with style and substance. Speaking of which, the couple added a 14 bedroom hotel adjacent to the restaurant a decade or so ago, and they’re modern, comfortable and very funky. 

Naturally we’re hoping you can enjoy a late summer evening in the Giardino. But if not, the restaurant is comfortable and well-designed, and the service is spot-on thanks to a really lovely team. San Pietro is undoubtedly stylish and offers a point of difference from other restaurants in Lincolnshire. But its uniqueness is underpinned with a fundamental sense of quality that makes dining out a pleasure… it’s a restaurant we’re happy and very keen to recommend, hopefully with added appeal this season of al fresco dining in Giardino.

San Pietro: À La Carte Menu

ANTIPASTI

Roast red king prawns in garlic, spiced bean puree, mascarpone, Nduja roast chilli and garlic oil, salami crisps, £14.95.
King scallops, scallop roe crumb, pickled seaweed, seaweed velouté, cauliflower with bonito, £16.95.
Rabbit terrine, crispy ham hock, toasted almond, foie gras bon bon, pea puree and brioche, £12.95.

PASTA & RISOTTO

Cavatelli, Lincolnshire sausage, pancetta, peas, mascarpone and lemon, £13.50/£19.50.
Paccheri pasta, slow-cooked beef ragu, truffle and burrata espuma, £14.95/£21.50.
Pea and wild garlic risotto, lemon ricotta, black olive puree, lemon & mint dressing, courgette salsa, pine nut crumb, £12.95/£19.95.
Prawn, pea and truffle tagliolini, £14.95/£22.95.

SECONDI

Aged Rib Eye steak tagliata, balsamic onions, rocket, parmesan and pine nut salad with Italian roast potatoes, £36.50.
Pig three ways: pork belly, pan fried fillet, crispy terrine, butter beans with salami and pancetta, leeks, pork jus and sage oil, £25.95.
Fillet of halibut, warm crab potato salad, red king prawn, Prosecco, caviar velouté and asparagus, £32.

I DOLCI

Lemon and pistachio choux, pistachio ice-cream, £10.95.
Chocolate pyramid, peanut crumb and caramel ice cream, £12.50.
NB: Sample menu and featured dishes, subject to availability and change.

San Pietro: North Lincolnshire

The Pitch: A stylish setting in which to enjoy two-AA Rosette Award winning fine dining in Lincolnshire. San Pietro uses the Sicilian heritage of chef-director Pietro Catalano as the inspiration for its menus.

Lunch: Wednesday to Saturday, 12 noon – 1:30pm
Evening: Tuesday to Saturday, 6:00pm – 9:30pm
Sunday Lunch: 12 noon – 3:00pm

High Street East, Scunthorpe, North Lincolnshire DN15 6UH.
Call 01724 277774 or see www.sanpietro.uk.com.