Cotidie

Cotidie (“everyday”) opened in March 2012 in Marylebone. It is the first restaurant venture outside Italy of chef/owner Bruno Barbieri, who has earned Michelin stars at several restaurants over the years, and has a high media profile due to being one of the three regular judges on the Italian version of Masterchef. The dining room is smart and understated, with banquette seating, wooden floor and clever lighting. There are no tablecloths, but high quality linen napkins. The menu was rather oddly set out, with starters, pasta and main courses grouped into separate menu sections around meat, fish and vegetables. Starters were priced at £9 - £16, pasta £12 - £17 and main courses £14 – £29, with vegetable side dishes extra at £4.50 and desserts £6.50 - £10. There were 14 chefs working in the kitchen, serving a room that can seat 75 diners at capacity. Considerable care was taken with ingredients, 85% of which are currently imported from Italy, and an idea of the level of effort is that all pasta used here is made from scratch (which is not true of some other top Italian kitchens in London).

The wine list had around 70 mostly Italian choices, ranging in price from £22 to £230, with an average price of £45. Mark-up levels averaged 2.9 times retail price, reasonable by central London standards. Examples of the wines on offer are Flanghina, Capolino Perlingieri 2010 at £32 for a wine that you can find in the high street for just under a tenner, Mas De Dumas Gassac Rouge 2009 at £66 for a wine that retails at £24, and Gaja Ca Marcanda 2000 at £115 for a wine that will set you back £57 in the shops.

This was my second meal at Cotidie. The bread is made from scratch and comprised very good focaccia, excellent whote bread with particularly good texture, crisp flat bread (carte de musica) and, the only relative weakness, bread sticks that were a little too firm (16/20 bread). A trio of nibbles appeared: of polenta with ragu, bruschetta with lentils and snail and, the best of these, red prawn with angel hair patsa (15/20, more for the prawn). Cappelletti (a stuffed pasta from Modena) was filled with scallop and served with little pieces of roast potato, and had lovely texture (16/20).

I also enjoyed duck ravioli with julienne of pear and black pepper (16/20) whilst pan seared cod with chickpea puree and an anchovy salad was also capable (15/20). Dry sherry zabaglione with red fruits and almond croccante was an unusual take on the traditional dessert (15/20). Our waiter, Rocco, was excellent, friendly and efficient. The bill came to £83 a head, including a bottle of Albert Mann Pinot Gris. This was another very enjoyable meal here, many of the dishes unusual in London, and all the more interesting for that.

Further reviews: 12th Oct 2013 | 01st Mar 2012