Getti

42 Marylebone High Street Marylebone, London

Underground - Regents Park

www.getti.com

I wandered onto Marylebone High Street quite by accident. I have walked this street before but only late at night and I never took note of all the fabulous shops. More about that later...

As I wandered the shops I took note of a few restaurants along the way. The street and adjacent side streets have numerous cafes, restaurants and pubs with cuisines ranging from modern British to Lebanese.

Tonight my choice is Italian.

Getti was actually the first restaurant I spotted along the way so I decided to go with my "first instinct" and try it. I especially took note of their 3 course set menu at £18.50 (or 2 courses at £10.50). Now that's a great deal.

The atmosphere at Getti is casual and comfortable. The rooms are nicely lighted and have some walls that are painted in a deep blue. The furnishings and beaned ceilings are finished with honey colored furnishing and woodwork. The furniture style is modern European. The first floor seating area is not very big but the basement is double the size and not cramped at all.

Since this was a company paid meal I decided to be kind to my travel allowance and do the 3 course set price meal even though I only ate a sandwich for lunch.

The fixed price menu gives you choices of starters, 2 choices of main courses and a dessert.

The 2 starters were a pumpkon soup and a shrimp and vegetables in a potato basket. It's a cold night so I selected the pumpkin soup.

I think I am off to a bad start. The soup was what I would describe as "bland" and "thin". It could have been kicked up a bit with some interesting spice or pepper and thickens with some cream. It was also loaded with too many chopped nuts (almonds?) which would have been greatly enhanced if they were toasted. So far I'm off to a bad start.

The 2 selections for the main course were a pidgen in red wine sauce or risotto with asiago, greens and cherry tomatoes. Of course, I am from New York City, I will not be having the "red wine rat with wings". I love a good warm dish of risotto especially since I am hungry and need some hearty comfort food.

Sorry, but I would say the risotto wasn't the best I ever had. It had a decent vegetable flavor but lacked seasoning. I think it needed a good hit of salt and pepper. I added some to the dish but it's not the same as when it's cooked into the rice.

For dessert there is no choice with the price fix menu, just creme caramel. This was actually very good and had a thick, sweet caramel flavor.

In addition to the set price menu Getti also has a full range of Italian dishes on their main menu which I estimate will cost about 20% more if you order a la carte.

Service here is decent but not overly friendly or pampering. A few times I felt like I was abandoned. When they did return all they kept asking was, "did you like it?" Well, I wasn't honest with them but what was I going to say? Tell the chef to ass more salt? In general service was OK.

I can only give Getti about 1 and a half hearts. I think the food was edible but without depth of flavour. The atmosphere is nice and comfortable and service polite.

Getti offers smoking and non smoking sections, although they are seperated you can smell the smoke through the restaurant. Once a bunch of people started puffing in the smoking section the basement got pretty hazy.

Getti is a good choice if you want a good inexpensive meal in a nice setting. If you like you food simply flavored and want a nice uncrowded atmosphere, you may enjoy Getti. If you have a few moew pounds to spend, take a look around the neighborhood, especially on Blandford St just off Marylebone High Street where there are a few good looking places.

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