Eusebi’s, Glasgow

So we’re sitting at a table by the window and Cousin Paul is chatting to the owners and I’m keeping my head down. Concentrating on a pizza pinza which I’ve got to say I’ve never heard of before but is apparently Roman and made with four flours and is ph neutral, whatever that means.

It’s crisp and oval, with potato and Italian sausage on top. It is pretty delicious and there’s plenty of it coming my way thanks to the Italianate chit-chat-chat over there.

Anyway, the conversation suddenly stops and I am caught with a spaghetto fritto mid air, en route to my actual open mouth, as a man points at me and suddenly exclaims.“I know you. You’re that restaurant critic. ”

Oh well. At least he didn’t add the word fat. As people often do. Turns out we’re cousins, no seriously, and he remembers my Nonna or Zia Maglietta as he calls her, which is genuinely lovely to hear, and I’ve even been in his house in Italy. Though not when he was there.

But the net effect is this: the owners who had been taking a break from the complete mayhem that accompanies a new restaurant opening suddenly find themselves with a fat food critic in their midst. Eating the place inside out. Eeek.

Now they want us to move table which is crammed with food including a tray of very special prosciutti, Umbriaco cured in red wine, Sella Dante preserved with balsamic which I may or may not already have eaten quite a lot of, maybe all of, as the chat went on. But we can’t. Because Cousin Paul, who suggested earlier while we were sitting in Arcaffe for our Saturday coffee that this place might finally have opened, forgot to bring a padlock for his bike. Which he bizarrely insists on riding throughout Glasgow with the price tag on. And now we have to watch it through the window as various people sidle up and wonder if it’s some sort of trick.

We were only going to have coffee here but when I saw the deli counter with its stuffed panzarroti, the pasta counter serving freshly made pasta, the stacked square fat and creamy pizza al taglio - often the best tasting pizzas in Italy, I was sucked in.

I don’t know Giovanna Eusebi or her brother, but Giovanna’s Italian deli in the East End is Glasgow-famous and this restaurant has been rumoured to be opening for seven whole years.

Chefs from Italy, chefs sent to Italy to train, meats from Norcia, those ancient pizza pinzas which may just have raised the pizza bar in Glasgow yet again; the woman knows her Italian food sourcing. Later, actually a whole day later, I slip back in with Debs and Luca for two reasons:

1) I have decided to review this despite my protestations that I was, ahem, off duty yesterday.

2) There was a problem yesterday with the fresh pasta and I want to try it again.

The decor is sumptuous, expensive, Italian but also quite casual. The music is one moment Frank, the next the soundtrack from Big Night. One fabulously fresh and creamy Burratina later, served with the best preserved broccoli I’ve eaten outside a home; a fresh-made maccheroni with light little meatballs or polpette in a fresh tomato sugo; a sweet, lemony bottle of gazzosa that brings back memories of hot summers in Maria’s house and the job’s done.

This is good. Even the snacks, the arancini rice balls with tomato, saffron and basil, that strange little spaghetto fritto, crisp outside, aglio olio inside, tasting like a mini version of the giant timbales your Patina, or Godmother, used to make.

Do the pizza biancas need a bit more punch? Maybe, but we didn’t try with sugo. And the fresh pasta? Always served soft surely?

What about this new Italian restaurant cum deli in a city absolutely stuffed with them? A bar raiser? A game changer?

Most definitely.

Eusebi’s

Gibson Street

Glasgow

Menu: Impeccably sourced Italian food, along with freshly made pastas, the pizza pinza and various other treats. 5/5

Atmosphere: Classy but casual open and very Italian decor with an expensive feel, comfortable and bustling. 5/5

Service: Early days and they were under seige, but the staff coped very well though. We were served by the owners so hard to tell at this stage. 3/5

Price: Snacks run in around £5, pizzas and pastas around £9, the excellent zuppa di pesce £18, the best of ingredients so therefore value. 5/5

Food: Generally outstanding Italian food from the pinzas to the maccheroni with meatballs and on to the burratina with broccoli. A new standard. 9/10