Madonna!!! What do we have here? Well, it seems like we have a little slice of Napoli tucked away,…read moreupstairs, in a corner of the St. Enoch's Centre. Yes, it's certainly not what I was expecting to pop up in this slightly unfashionable shopping mall.
So, Ddoce is a completely new concept for Glasgow, a real Southern Italian style Pasticceria. There are very few places in town that do real Italian pastries and the ones that do, often serve up Sicilian style cannoli. However Ddoce specialises in the famous 'Sfogliatelle' from the Campania region of Italy.
The Sfogliatelle come in various forms, from the most popular Riccia, which is a flaky, very crispy filled pastry with a delicious ricotta and orange innard, to the simple short crust Frolla with various delicious fillings like creme patissiere, chocolate creme etc.
On my first visit I wanted to try a bit of everything so I kindly treated the office to a selection of sweets and I bagged a little arrancino for myself. The arrancino was nice, but much smaller than the ones I am accused to in Italy. The rice was coated in a nice ragu and it had a stringy mozzarella middle that served me well on the walk up the road. All the pastries were good and very similar to what I've eaten in Italy. Sfogliatelle aren't quite my favourite style of pastries so it will be interesting to see what the Glaswegians make of them.
My favourite pastry was the Black Cherry and creme pat Pasticciotto. Simply delicious!! At £2.50 it ain't cheap, but it's a nice wee treat and I find it better value than what many other cafes dish up. I suppose you gotta bare in mind that all this stuff is shipped in from Naples, so for that price it ain't too bad!
Also on offer is savoury dishes like Lasagna, Cannelloni, Pizza Rustica. The portions looked reasonable and the food looked authentic. Next time I visit I will definitely be trying this stuff along with a coffee (which looked good)!
Although this place would make a killing in the more hip West End part of town, I hope that people Glasgow head along to try something a little different.