Il Ristorante

This was my second visit to Il Ristorante. I take my hat off to the designer, who has taken a very unpromising basement space and created a beautiful dining room. There is a sweeping curved staircase, art deco style features and a lovely, spacious area in which to eat.  

A salad of spring vegetables was prettily presented and had good dressing, the assorted leaves and vegetables themselves of nice quality, though not of the standard that you would find in the Mediterranean (14/20). A cheese focaccia was a thin, pizza-like disc with deep cheese flavour, light in texture (14/20). Gnocchi of morels had nice mushrooms but slightly flaccid gnocchi, pleasant but not out of the top drawer (14/20). Much better was risotto of morels and peas, nicely presented, with good stock and the rice having a hint of firmness, the peas and morels providing plenty of flavour (16/20).  

For dessert, tiramisu had plenty of coffee flavour (15/20) whilst a chocolate with lemon cream filling needed a sharper taste of lemon but had good quality chocolate (14/20). Coffee (from Illy) was good. Service was excellent, the Italian waiters attentive and friendly. The bill came to £102 a head with a bottle of very good Langhe Italian Riesling.   

Further reviews: 22nd Sep 2012