Watch: The story behind family-run Italian Ristorante Pieno

Nestled within a short strip of eateries at Hope Street’s northern entrance is a humble family-run Italian specialising in hearty dishes and down-to-earth service, that has now been named Glasgow’s Best Restaurant for three years in a row. Ristorante Pieno was built from the dregs of lockdown, a fresh venue offering an inviting experience shaped around comfort and socialising - what has proven to be key ingredients in boosting the city’s hospitality scene at such times of uncertainty.

We visited the restaurant to speak to owner Anni Kanushi on the aims of their business and what it’s like running an Italian in Glasgow:

“It’s a family run restaurant. It’s me, my husband, our two nephews, my husband’s brother and his wife. So we all work together. We opened during Covid actually. It was a kind of false start but we’ve been open for three years now and we are right across from the Theatre Royal so we are perfect for pre-theatre dining.

“The whole idea behind our restaurant is that we’re welcoming, of course good food is a given, you have to have good food, but for us I think the service is more important than the food. We welcome people as if they’re coming to our house really. We make sure that they have a good experience as we want them to come back for their birthdays and their graduations. We’re people’s people. We want to see people come back.”

While visiting the restaurant we tried some dishes, and while they may prefer to focus on service the food is definitely not ignored. We had plates of pizza and pasta between us, all hearty and flavourful, and excellent portions. There’s nothing pretentious about it but the quality in ingredients and presentation is evident. We also had also some fruity blue cocktails, a special on the menu themed on Aladdin which was playing across the road. A nice touch on their menu.

“We used to have a cafe for years and then when we built that up we got the restaurant. It ends up a way of life, you get to spend most days with your family which has pros and cons to it. It’s a great way to meet people, you build a community of regulars. We just really enjoy it.

“Highlights on the menu - definitely penne pieno, because it’s named after us of course. That’s like a creamy, garlicky sauce with chicken, mushroom, broccoli and red onion. My husband actually is a pizza chef so all the pizzas of course are fantastic. We also do steaks, our seafood is so popular Glasgow loves seafood - the mixed seafood pastas and pizzas, the mussels, the risottos, everything.

“We have catered for the Scottish palette of Italian, we can do a proper Italian carbonara but most Scottish people like it with the cream for example. Italians do come in but they usually go a bit off menu. We can cater for both palettes.”