ASK

We are the only people in the restaurant at first on the (late) Thursday lunchtime when we pop into ASK - one of the town’s more upmarket Italian chains. Everyone seems to be at the concert at the Gun Gardens - it’s a beautiful day for it. The restaurant’s in a good spot for people watching, on the corner of the high street and we keep spying trendy-looking festival types through the large airy windows, instruments strapped to their backs. The menu has the expected selection of pizza and pasta - but a healthy variety. I’m starving and I make my choice instantly. Four Seasons pizza which is quartered into pepperoni, prosciutto ham, mushrooms and olives and capers and artichokes. Perfect. I tend to get a bit bored with pizzas when the topping is all the same. I once caused havoc (at a rival outlet) by ordering half one topping, half another. It arrived on two different plates - unfathomable when there were only two of us eating. But this neatly solves the problem. My companion goes for Huz-a-rie pizza (spicy sausage meat, roasted peppers and onions) and the other two for salads, one goats cheese and caramelised onions and one salmon (insalate di salmone). After a brief interval it all arrives. I’m delighted with mine - both in size and taste - though I can’t quite finish it. Eyes bigger than belly syndrome. The other pizza is repeatedly pronounced a success as are the salads. Thumbs up all round then. A great option for quick reliable hunger-fighting food in a not-too-chainy environment. ER