Pasta Alla Norma
Apulia

Apulia

50 Long Lane London, EC1A 9EJ, United Kingdom

Sushi • Pizza • Seafood • European


"This is the cutest, most heart warming place this side of Italy. Apulia lies on the fringe of Farringdon meat market and serves up simple but delicious dishes all cooked up with the love of every Italian grandma. Choose your starter from burrata, stuzzicoso, bruschetta and prosciutto di parma and enjoy with a glass of prosecco. And then the real feast begins. It 's genuinely hard to choose from the array of comforting delights on offer: artisan ravioli stuffed with ricotta and mushrooms, served with sausage, cherry tomato and pecorino cheese, spaghetti alle vongole and risotto with asparagus with sicilian king prawns, believe it or not, all had to give way to bigger and better options. To whet the appetite, we indulged in a margherita pizza to share and then picked the ravioli ricotta and truffle with portobello mushroom, sage and grana cheese which was rich and indulgent. The stracetti ai funghi is an original choice: beef strips with mushrooms and capers in a creamy butter and lemon sauce served with whole red rice with onions and 'escrolls ' and if you know what they are, you 're one step ahead of me. And for my personal favourite, the tagliatelli with king prawns, pesto and crushed cashew nuts. Creamy, decadent and delightfully tasty. And there 's a delicious selection of desserts to top off a perfect, homely meal. Uncomplicated, unspoiled Italian food at its very best. Wallet damage: 2 courses wine £30/person Vibe: your grandma 's kitchen Booking policy: they take 'em hurrah!"

Tasting Sicily Enzo's Kitchen

Tasting Sicily Enzo's Kitchen

217 Maidstone Rd, Sidcup, United Kingdom, DA14 5AW

Meat • Pasta • Coffee • Italian


"Our visit did not start well having arrived at exactly our booking time, were asked for name etc.. and then promptly ignored for 15 20 minutes by every single member of staff. Usually if a table is not ready you might be prompted to take a seat at the bar for a drink to relax but being left in limbo, by the front door, with no communication is not very nice. The barman also ignored us so... We were eventually seated after managing to get someone's attention. Ordering was fairly prompt and the food that came was OK. Not bad in anyway but also not particularly special. Some elements of the antipasti were very good. The pasta was cooked well and tasted nice but I can't rave about either dish. If you've been to Italy/Sicily or a good Italian restaurant elsewhere you know what I mean. By this point we didn't fancy staying for dessert but did order a coffee and a liquor coffee a coffee and a straight liquor arrived instead. The bill came and we had charged us for bread that had never arrived (the table next to us had also complained about that). On an increasingly rare opportunity for a date night I didn't think either was worth arguing about so paid and left. We came away feeling you might have to know the owner (who seems to be acting in a slightly odd front of house role) or be known enough to qualify for a picture for the wall (or Instagram for people who care about that) to get a decent service here. A shame and re reading some of the negative reviews I had seen before I can relate."