Cin Cin

"I booked Cin Cin following a glowing review in a Sunday newspaper and for the most part, agreed with the findings. It is unpretentious, friendly, has a concise menu. It isn’t rigidly traditional Italian in its outlook and some courses worked better than others. The first indication that it wasn’t following tradition, was the absence of the ubiquitous bread basket; which is usually covered by the cover charge or “coperto”. God knows how many times I have overheard irate diners carp about this “mystery” charge. Here it’s simple – you want focaccia – you pay £3.50. Which for four slices, (albeit with some quality olive oil and balsamic), did seem a trifle steep. The Lardo di Colonnata, (absolutely stunning by the way), was layered on to Sardinian Carasau, (very thin crispbread sheets). It kind of worked but I would have preferred it on some not-so-traditional, toasted sourdough. My wife’s Burrata was good, (hard to mess it up really), but the size of the ball was a little on the small side. My chicken “crochetta” was an odd thing. It resembled the classic “arancini” but instead of the crisp, deep fried outer shell cracking to reveal rice – there was a curious, (and somewhat runny), blend of creamy chicken and nuggets of what I took to be mozzarella. A little bland to be honest. For the main course, I had the “pici”, (think very fat spaghetti), with a duck ragu. The pasta was as perfect as you’ll get outside of Italy – no complaints. It was dressed, (over-dressed if you’re Italian), with a creamy duck ragu. The sauce had a delicious background hint of orange and was really very good. My wife had the rump of lamb, cooked to perfection, with an accompanying “log” of fried polenta and a quarter of grilled lettuce. Not particularly traditional but not unpleasant. Desserts we had a sharpish lemon meringue pie and the chocolate amaretti pudding. Both were up to scratch but not anything really special. From the well-priced wine list, (some great bottles on there), I had a very reasonable and particularly “summery” bottle of Refosco, which brought back memories of the Veneto, (when were allowed to travel). Coffee was superb, as were our “digestivi”. Service was excellent and the laid-back, relaxed ambience perfect. There are quite a few Italian restaurants in this corner of Fitzrovia, so Cin Cin will have its work cut out to wean punters away from the more traditional establishments – literally a few steps away. I hope not as while it isn’t perfect, it is a very nice place for lunch."