Sunday 26 July 2015
Yesterday we flew north to Aberdeen. After an effortless flight from the new Heathrow Terminal 2 (which was surprisingly devoid of people for a Saturday afternoon in July), courtesy of Virgin Atlantic, we reached the city of my youth.
We had arranged to meet an old friend for dinner and he had proposed La Lombarda, a hostelry close to here we were staying. Imagine our surprise when we sat down at our table to find we were in the oldest Italian restaurant in the UK and one of the 5 oldest restaurants in the UK.
Older is ‘Blackfriars’ in Newcastle, which was literally the refectory of a monastery, ‘Rules’ in Covent Garden, London, famous for its game, and Tibits, the oldest vegetarian restaurant in Europe.
Started in 1922, La Lombarda is even older than Veeraswamy’s the oldest Indian restaurant in the UK (1926). It has changed ownership and so is now no longer in the hands of the original family that started it, and has been refurbished a coupe of times, but is still a very pleasant place to eat. Good food, staff friendly and helpful, and reasonably priced – what more could one want?
Viva La Lombarda!