Restaurant critic and MasterChef regular Jay Rayner has lavished praise on a Glasgow restaurant’s deep-fried take on lasagne.
Rayner visited Celentano’s following its move to the new Arthouse Hotel on Bath Street and singled out its lasagne fritte as one of the stars of the menu.
The dish consists of breaded and deep-fried squares filled with béchamel flavoured with porcini mushrooms and Cora Linn cheese from Errington’s Farm in South Lanarkshire.
Writing in the Financial Times, Rayner described it as a “god-tier snack” and a “show-stopper”.
He acknowledged that deep-frying lasagne may provoke horror among Italian food traditionalists, but declared: “Some Italians will be furious about this. Let them rage.”
The critic said the playful dish felt particularly at home in a city with both a long history of Italian immigration and a celebrated enthusiasm for putting unexpected foods into the fryer.
The dish was only the beginning of a highly positive review for the restaurant run by husband-and-wife team Dean and Anna Parker.
Rayner also praised pappardelle with slow-cooked beef ragù and Cora Linn, linguine served with crab and ’nduja XO sauce and trout cooked on the bone with greens and a trout roe butter sauce.
He sampled potato strati cooked in beef dripping before finishing with desserts including grilled peach, frangipane cake and an unconventional affogato combining cold-brew coffee, chocolate mousse and malted barley gelato.
Rayner concluded that Celentano’s was “knowingly eccentric but not annoyingly so”, with its collection of creative ideas coming together as a convincing dinner.
Celentano’s originally opened inside Cathedral House, close to Glasgow Cathedral, in 2021 and went on to earn a Michelin Bib Gourmand.
The restaurant closed at the end of 2025 before reopening at Arthouse Glasgow in June.
Its new city-centre home has more than 60 covers, almost twice the capacity of the original restaurant, and allowed the Parkers to create a new dining room and refreshed menu.
Dean Parker’s cooking continues to combine Italian influences with seasonal Scottish produce and techniques including fermentation, preservation and open-fire cooking.
Bread, pasta, charcuterie, cultured butter and gelato are among the products made in-house, while Anna Parker oversees a drinks list focused on organic and biodynamic wines and cocktails using ingredients left over by the kitchen.
The restaurant is located inside the 76-bedroom Arthouse Hotel at 129 Bath Street, a restored former Glasgow School Board building dating from 1911.