If there’s one
amazing thing about Liverpool (aside from the football teams, the docks, the
parks, and the city itself) it’s the cities amazing restaurant scene. New joints
seem to be popping up all over the place, left, right and centre and each is as
good, if not better, than the last. Crust is one of these places, and boy is it
a mighty fine addition to an already impressive list of dining experiences.
Bold Street, where the restaurant is homed, is pretty iconic in itself, with a
whole streets worth of restaurants, cafés, cute little kitsch stores and bars
to get lost in! I’m pretty lucky in the sense that I’ve already eaten at Crust
a few times, with my friends, but when I was approached
by them asking to come and try out their menu, I definitely jumped right at the
opportunity!
It’s fair to say
that I’ve never really seen a menu as interesting and original as the one at
Crust, and I think that this definitely adds to their appeal and to their inevitable
success. My accompanying pal and I were greeted at the door by one of the waiters,
Andrea, and he saw to it that we had a nice little table slap bang in the
middle of all the action. The restaurant was full to the brim, which I was
surprised at because not only was it 6pm on a Thursday night, but Liverpool
were playing at Anfield so I (wrongly) presumed that town would be quite quiet
as far as the restaurant scene goes. Me being the clumsy old me that I am
immediately knocked a knife off the table- Andrea immediately whisked it off
the floor and brought me over a nice, clean new one and his excellent customer
service spoke volumes from the offset. He made sure that we were comfortable in
our drinks choices, explaining about the number of different beers on offer as
well as answering all of my questions about the different choices of wine.
I went for a classic Cosmopolitan cocktail whilst my friend had a glass of one of
the Italian red wines, the Primitivo del Salento. I absolutely can’t stand red
wine myself but even I agreed that this one was absolutely delicious, so if you’re
a fan of the red stuff definitely give this one a go! We also ordered water
for the table and everything arrived as we ordered, incredibly quickly. Staff
were super attentive and made sure all our needs were catered to whilst we were
waiting, which was absolutely fantastic.
For starters, we
decided to order two different ones and share between us (by share, I mean as
soon as my friend's food arrived, I instantly decided it looked much better than
mine and wanted to try some of theirs. Luckily a good friend meant sharing!) I went for the
Prosciutti di Parma, which was a platter of parma ham, buffalo mozzarella and
tomatoes. The portion size was incredibly generous and I wasn’t disappointed by
the taste either. The tomatoes were some of the freshest that I’ve ever tasted,
the mozzarella was dressed with olive oil and the Parma ham tasted like nothing
I’ve ever tasted before. I lived in Italy for a four month period a few years
ago and had Parma ham, mozzeralla and tomatoes (or often melon) for lunch
pretty regularly. I thought I’d tasted the nicest ever Parma ham there, but I
was definitely wrong. The stuff they serve at Crust might as well have been gold
plated, it tasted that good. My friend went for calamari, which was cooked
perfectly, chewy just as it should be, and lightly battered. He did
underestimate the “spicy” salsa it was served with and was blown away with the
spice but otherwise was pretty chuffed with his choice of dish as well.
Between courses,
the guy who runs the joint, Paolo, came over and introduced himself to us which
I was really impressed by. You could tell that he has a real, genuine passion
for his business and prides himself on the traditional Italian menu with a
twist that Crust provides. We asked him about a breakfast menu and he let us
know that such a thing does actually exist, so I think we’ll be coming back at
some point to try that one out for ourselves! We then ordered our main courses,
and unsurprisingly, we both went for pizza. Andrea returned and explained all
about the different types of dough that Crust offers, from plain pizza dough to
five grain to an incredibly inventive black dough blended with natural
vegetable charcoal. Apparently this dough helps with your digestion and detoxes
the body! I’m a bit of a bore when it comes to pizza and tend to order the same
thing everywhere I go, so I went for the Diavola pizza- spicy salami and mozzarella.
Simple, tasty and satisfies me every time. My friend was much more exciting than I was and went for the Italiana: cheese,
rocket, cherry tomatoes and Parma ham, on the black dough.
At this point, we
were both feeling pretty stuffed. We got
the little bit of pizza we had leftover packed up in takeaway boxes, which was
fabulous (I enjoyed my lunch the next day!) We were going to order a dessert
between the two of us but we spied tiramisu on the menu and decided to get
one for the road.
Did I say
tiramisu? I meant BIRRAmisu. As in, beer flavoured instead of coffee. Think
that’s weird? I got ravioli chocolate. So wrong but my, oh my. It tasted so
right. I think I’ll be returning just to taste that sweet dessert again! It tasted
like everything that is good about the world and was well worth the stomach
cramps I got for the rest of the evening. Dairy probs.
Overall, I was
absolutely overwhelmed with the service and the food provided by Crust. Andrea
was an absolute star and made sure that everything was perfect for us for the
entire evening. I have to say, this was the case on the previous times I’ve
been to the restaurant so they’re definitely consistent in their service and
were in no way just playing for the review. Thank you to them for the invite,
we will definitely be returning soon with our tummies empty and our
expectations high!
