Terra Marique isn’t your everyday Italian restaurant. Instead of churning out the same pasta and pizza dishes you’ve come to see on most Italian restaurants in the UK, Terra Marique, meaning ‘land and sea’ in Latin, aims to highlight a range of more traditional, lesser-known dishes from Italy. Owners Ilaria Torre and Fabrizio Babbucci are from Puglia and Tuscany respectively, while the head chef Maddalena Fozzi was born in Sardinia, with the team bringing their passion and knowledge of the food from their homeland to Scotland.
The menus are highly seasonal and for that reason they change four times a year to make the most of the freshest possible produce. Many of the ingredients and products used are sourced directly from Italy, while the rest are local. Everything is made as fresh as it can be, from the bread to the pasta and ice cream.
The a la carte menu is confidently concise and includes only three or four options for each course, from antipasti to pasta, mains and sides. To start, you might find the likes of Baccalà Mantecato, which is cod paté served with Sardinian bread, or pan-friend king prawns with chilli, shallot and garlic. The homemade pasta dishes are light and mostly seafood-based, including ravioli filled with white fish, fish sauce, white wine and shellfish oil. Main courses offer a choice between meat or fish. You might choose veal with sage butter and parma ham, or go for pan fried sea bass with potato cream and clams. To conclude, there’s the option for either sorbet and ice cream, or a cheese selection, as well as unique dishes such as mango and passion fruit parfait with white chocolate and sponge cake.
The drinks list focuses on wines with a decent choice of whites and reds, as well as a couple of roses. There is also a cocktail menu featuring plenty of Italian classics – negronis, Aperol spritz’ and bellinis are all up for grabs.