The Times
David Ellis was in the mood to forgive a “very up-and-down” meal at a new restaurant with “enormous promise” in the former premises of Papi; perhaps, he suggested, it was just “having a wobble, an off night”.
Inspired by Abruzzo in central Italy, the menu skips ragu, risotto and the “New Yawk red sauce” approach that is currently in vogue, in favour of “things like hefty asparagus stalks lazing beside a pool of thick wild garlic sauce with beautifully fresh peas, or narrow skewers of salt marsh lamb”, or potato rosti with blue cheese and marjoram that are “almost comically tasty”.
But the ciabatta was only “so-so”; capelletti were “unfathomably undercooked”; morels stuffed with wild boar were dry; and the food was generally over-salted. Adding insult to injury, the bill “both flabbergasted and horrified” at almost £300 for two.
David Ellis - 2026-05-03The Guardian
Grace Dent detected “signs of greatness” at this “hyper-cool” new spot in east London serving dishes inspired by Abruzzo in central Italy, although her meal was rather uneven – “more a collection of loose ideas than a coherent dinner”, she reckoned. “This is, after all, a hip small plates restaurant, so there are no rules. Uniforms on staff? No. £5 Campari cocktails? Absolutely. Pristine linen but eating meat off sticks? Damned right.”
Menu highlights included top-quality cured sea bream, a “very authentic” bowl of cappelletti in a clear, slightly too salty broth, and “the star of the show”, a chicken saltimbocca wrapped in prosciutto and sage, fried and finished with a rich, chickeny jus.
But the signature skewers – arrosticini, or tiny kebabs of salt-marsh lamb and rose veal liver cut into 1cm cubes and grilled over live fire – arrived too late and a little too pink to impress: “meat on sticks with dippy sauce. My earth remained unshook.”
Grace Dent - 2026-05-17
