In today’s Italian lesson, we learn that bar in Italian translates to café in English. So this post comes to you from San Francesco Café.

When I walked in, I immediately felt like I was in a cosy place. Could it have been the presence of Grandmas? There were also more people in the restaurant that I’m used to here in Prato, so I thought it must be a good place. The crowd was mostly made up of Uni Students and seniors and had a constant flux of diners.

Bar San Francesco is one of our Uni discounted places but they have a special menu for students. The deals are also pretty sweet for the sweet price of €6; one of them allows students order a first course, a side dish, dessert, coffee and water which is the deal I went for. After going through the menu, I ordered the Tortellini with Rosé Sauce. However, I forgot to ask if it had meat. Turned out it did. So the waiter had it changed to tagliolini which is similar to your regular cylindrical spaghetti. As a side dish, I got salad because it would have been weird getting French fries. Although, I do love me some French fries.

Of course, I ordered water to drink. The great thing is that they offer sparkling water at the same rate as still water. Other restuarants need to take note. While waiting for my dishes, I noticed that they didn’t serve me the customary bread. Do Italian restaurants have a different protocol for solo diners?

Anyway, not too long after my pasta was served and my first impression was that it was basic! I can imagine that it may have looked more interesting with the tortellini. I had considered the tagliolini with salmon, which is what I think I may have if I visit again. I totally forgot about that option when my pasta type was being changed. Maybe the waiter thought I was a vegetarian through and through.

The pasta was perfectly cooked, Al dente goodness. The sauce wasn’t bad too, it had more tomatoes but was creamy at the same time. Once again, the onions provided a great flavour enhancement to the dish. I basically inhaled the pasta and once or twice, I wondered if I was eating the food correctly. Did Italians roll their pasta? Were the pasta forkfuls too big? I enjoyed my pasta anyhow, it was fresh but like I said basic; would have liked something more.

The salad had olive oil and more salt than my pasta. It was definitely not a healthy salad.

Now to desserts. I had been told that when I was done, I could go to the bar to order my dessert. The options were three cookies, pastry or gelato. If you follow ayamstuffed on Instagram, you’ll see that I’ve had some pretty good gelato already so that option wasn’t appealing. So was the pastry option. That left the three cookies and I wasn’t complaining. The three cookies were sugar cookies, and I chose one dipped in white chocolate,  one shaped like a squirrel and dipped in dark chocolate and one with some fruit jam. I took them home and had them with a ht beverage, if I remember correctly.

Would I want to return? Yes. I like the three cookies dessert option as one can take them home to enjoy at a later time. It’s also a lovely place to dine in.

Bar San Francesco is located at Via Santa Trinita 32, 59100 Prato, Italy.

Now that you have enjoyed this post, if this dish is something you would like to try, click here. It’s pretty simple and the dish is made with tortellini, not tagliolini. Buon Appetito!