The Observer
Instead of discovering somewhere new, Jay Rayner bucked his usual practice by revisiting an old-stager of an Italian restaurant established in 1952 and first visited by Jay in 1971, during his “privilege-sodden childhood”.
“It doesn’t look like much has changed, which is the whole point,” he says. “Lights are low. Candles flicker. Enormous pepper grinders are proffered. It is all sweetly funny in the best way, but it is also something important. It is very good.”
The food is an “extremely solid take on the classic Anglo-Italian repertoire”, with crowd-pleasers like a carbonara that “as rich as an oligarch, but so very much more entertaining” and a spaghetti vongole that is “joyfully, tearfully perfect”.
Before returning to the restaurant, Jay had shared fond memories with his sister of the twinkling welcome they had received from Giovanni himself. The restaurant is now run attentively (possibly, Jay suggests, too attentively) by Pino Ragona, the son of founder Virgilio Ragona, so Jay asked him if there ever was a Giovanni. “He grins and shrugs. ‘No, but you know, people liked to think there was’.”
Jay Rayner - 2024-09-08
