Lacklustre

Vecchia NapoliSalini Resort,Salina Bay
Food: 6/10Location: 9/10Service: 8/10Value: 8/10Overall: 7/10
Photographing your food makes it taste better. There’s some science for you – only I think it’s bogus.

Research suggests that taking the time to snap a picture of your food prior to eating should help it taste better. Making this tiny pre-meal ritual  before allowing yourself to attack the dish focuses your attention on the food and its flavour, thereby enhancing the taste.
I remain incredulous.
I refuse to accept that this can be true. It’s certainly not the case with these starters. I am forced to take their picture for the purposes of this article – a practice I wholly detest, but a habit that I have nonetheless been compelled to adopt.
Photo or no photo, nothing can save them. From a menu shaped entirely from Italian classics – Vecchia Napoli sells itself as a properly Neapolitan restaurant chain –  we have chosen the calamari fritti, the neonati fritters and the croquettes.

After taking its picture, the calamari fritti remain the colourless tangle of rings and limp, wet limbs they appeared to be all along. They sit miserably in a bowl, bending and bowing, barely crispy,...