Bella beef. . . at a price

TEC Towers has been more like Bleak House these past few days. Like everyone else, The Moll and I have been shrouded in a blanket of poverty this month. MENU

STARTERS: Minestrone £3.25, deep fried mushrooms with rocket salad £4.95

MAINS: Sirloin steak with pepper sauce, vegetables and French fries £14.95, tagliatelle with chicken £8.50

DESSERT: Toffee cake £4.50, chocolate fudge cake £4.50

DRINKS: Two white wines and two red wines £18, one Irish coffee £3.50

TOTAL: £62.15

The curtain can't come down on January quickly enough.

Like, the Queen, though, my sense of duty to my public knows no bounds. Unlike, the Queen, Coutts have already called in my overdraft.

Which is why plastic is so fantastic. I let these thoughts swim through my head as the credit card takes another pounding.

Which is no fault of Moldos in the heart of the Merchant City.

We were drawn to the Italian eaterie after a peek at the menu through its windows during a late-night stroll through Candlriggs.

It's not the largest restaurant in the world. But what it lacks in size it more than makes up for with a sense of intimate ambiance, although the al fresco murals on the walls are slightly on the cheesy side.

Still, a glass of trebbiano for me and a merlot for the Moll soon focused the mind on all things food.

Minutes later I'm tucking into a steaming hot bowl of minestrone, packed with vegetables and teeming with flavour.

It was excellent, but I couldn't help cast an envious eye at The Moll's plate, which was heaving with three huge deep-fried mushrooms stuffed with pate.

And the rocket salad presentation showed someone had gone to some effort to get the little details right. Which these days is the exception rather than the rule.

The Moll was by now warming to her task.

"That is an excellent starter for 10," she trilled in between mouthfuls.

Earlier, when choosing a main, I felt the menu was a little short on choice if you didn't fancy the usual Trattoria-type suspects such as pasta and pizza.

Having said that, the thought of a large, juicy steak filled my imagination. Sadly, though, that's where it stayed. Portion wise, my slice of beef must have come from the shallow end of the bovine gene pool. The size was disappointing and not even the fact it tasted fine could make up for it.

The pepper sauce was also a bit Scrooge-like, having been applied with a spatula rather than a trowel. The Moll had better luck - her tagliatelle, peppered with copious chunks of chicken, was disappearing faster than Jade Goody's career. The pasta was creamy without being too rich and the chicken was tasty enough to raise it above the ordinary.

We decided to give or waistbands a rest with another glass of white and a merlot while deciding whether to plunder the dessert menu. Ironically, in contrast to the mains selections, the choice was good, so, like two happy pigs, we decided to go the whole hog.

My chocolate fudge cake tasted as good as it looked, not too rich or heavy on the tum but still filling enough to put a full stop on the evening's proceedings.

Likewise, The Moll's sweet tooth had zeroed in on the toffee cake, her New Year resolutions disappearing in a mouthful of brown confectionery. That was enough for her ladyship but I rounded things off with an Irish coffee, my usual indication of whether a place passes the Tec taste test.

Moldos did, although the bill of fare was slightly on the heavy side, especially at £4.50 for a glass of wine.