When the weather is bloody miserable again (cheers, England) and your plans to be super fit and active in the sunshine have been obliterated by torrential rain, what’s the only viable alternative? Yep that’s right, go and conceive pizza babies all round with your favourite people in the world.
The location of said culinary conception was the Elephant Bank Italian food and wine bar in Neston, Wirral a.k.a. the hottest new hang this side our pretty little peninsula.
Sitting slap bang under the Specials board meant my hungry eyes (yes, I did feel the magic) strayed away from the daily menu and only made my choice of about a trillion pizzas, grill options and pasta dishes even harder. In the end I settled on a pesto, goats cheese and Italian ham medley, while my partners in dine went for the bolognese pizza and a super spicy chili con carne pizza.
Some might say pizza’s just pizza. That is not the kind of negativity you want to surround yourself with. Those are not the kind of people you want in your life. Those are the kinds of people that can’t appreciate a pizza base that is both crisp and squidgy in all the right places. Nor can they comprehend the pure unadulterated pleasure derived from dipping a perfectly seasoned, floury crust into rosemary garlic butter. The guys at Elephant Bank have got it in the bag.
In fact, we loved it so much we decided to organise a family friend gathering here a couple of weeks later. It always gives me the warm and fuzzies to see my childhood BFF and her family but I can’t say their company wasn’t just collateral damage in our bid to find an excuse to get back to Elephant Bank ASAP rocky. (Just kidding Thomas’, you know I love you!)
As there was a lot of us and we’re pretty damn loud once we get going, we decided to book The Vault room upstairs which comfortably sits about 8-10 people for a more private experience. Behind a heavy red velvet curtain, this little nook was once a real life bank vault so it makes for a unique alternative to the boring old table and chairs malarkey we’re used to. I mean, who says you can’t eat your pizza from inside a ex-treasure trove?
This time round I abandoned the old agua sin gas and headed straight to the cocktail menu. It was a Saturday night after all, pretty baby. As you know, I like something super sticky and indulgent when it comes to my poison of chose so in the end, I spiked the Salted Caramel Crunch mocktail with a shot of Amaretto – to.die.for. I literally cannot wait to drink this again. Like I need one right now.
Salted caramel sex in my mouth aside for the time being, here are a couple of snaps of what I ordered from the super extensive food menu. Seeing as I had pizza during my last visit, I decided to take an alternative route to gluten-y goodness this time and I went for Tagliatelle Bolognese. For what I initially thought was a measly portion, this bowl was just enough and packed the absolute brim with flavour – 10/10 would recommend.
The star of the show for me though had to be those soft, warm, cheesy, garlicky doughballs that we had off the starter menu. When garlic comes with a side of garlic (butter), you know I’m going to go in on it so hard and I definitely wasn’t disappointed. I reckon the sign of a great garlic doughball is how repulsed your bedtime buddy is when you wake up and breathe all over them in the morning and I’ve got to say, the result was pretty eye-watering. Listerine, that’s your cue, love.
The Elephant Bank is definitely going to be added to my list of go-to eateries because 1) It’s cosy AF and the kind of place you could take your book and eat questionable volumes of pizza in peace for hours, 2) The price to food quality ratio has gone awry somewhere along the way in your favour, and 3) the staff were totally obliging when my mum requested bolognese and pineapple on her margarita. Legends.
View the Elephant Bank full menu here or call 0151 306 9984 to find out more about The Vault availability.
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