So last Thursday myself and Wee Dan headed into Belfast to try the much talked about Dina DIna. Located in Arthur Street Belfast, and headed up by Alex de Meo, Dina Dina offers authentic Italian food in a way you might not be accustomed too, think of an italian Boojum and you wouldn't be far wrong.
Dina Dina offers Italian favourites such as pizza, pasta and Panino (Grilled ciabatta) but it is with their signature Piadinas (hence the name) where they set themselves apart - and this will be the focus of my blog!
But what is a Piadina? In their own words....(well from their blog on the website)
Piadina – A brief history
The very first known written document about Piadina dates back to 1371, but the tradition of the most famous Italian flat bread goes back to ancient times; we’re talking more or less around 1200 BC… that’s quite a while ago!
At the end of the 19th century Giovanni Pascoli, a poet from Romagna, a region in the North East of Italy, wrote about Piadina and kinda made it mainstream over there; that guy’s work is in every schoolbook in Italy now, so it must have been something pretty huge back then!
Nowadays you can find a Piadina (Romagnola) everywhere in Italy, but that’s not the end of the story…
We also make Piadina around here in Belfast! When we say “make” we literally mean we prepare it from scratch, using flour, water, extra virgin olive oil and salt, mixing our beautiful dough and then baking it from fresh, right in front of your eyes.
With a choice of 9 plus the option to make your own there really is a great variety of Piadinas to chose from. I went for the Gallo (pictured above) marinated chicken fillet, roasted peppers, scarmoza smoked cheese and sweet chilli sauce - I added rocket to mine, that's the beauty with Dina Dina, you can add ingredients to suit your style! In a word - magnifico! I was blown away, tasty, light and fresh, exactly what you'd expect from something made right in front of you, with fresh ingredients and by real italian chefs from Roma - how cool is that!!!
(Alex de Meo and his team)
Wee Dan picked the Ciccio, homemade italian sausage, peppers, scamoza cheese and BBQ sauce! So the Piadinas are massive so we went for 1/2 and 1/2 of each which was great, I got to taste both - the Ciccio was tasty too, especially the BBQ sauce which was really smokey, I preferred The Gallo though. The Italian sausage is different to our Irish ones so I def suggest you try it when you visit, and I know a few of you will after reading this!
What I loved about this place was the fact that everything was made in front of you - you actually see the flatbreads being made which is a nice touch - I even liked the way they were served, in a wee red basket. Hearing the staff chat in Italian added a wee bit of authenticity to the trip too.
Overall a really really cool place, the main wall is really funky with a cool graffiti style wall art, I think some of the staff are included too, which again is particularly cool! I have used the word cool quite a lot in this blog but I honestly can't think of a better word for this place! P.S. Checkout their blog, it's pretty fantastic...
Oh and they also do a great wee offer, if you head over before 12:15pm all Piadinas are only £4.50!!! I think I'll get the Carlozzo next time!
Check out a few of the photos from my visit to Dina Dina below!