On paper, dinner at Radici seemed like an excellent proposition. I like i) southern Italian cooking…read moreii) Upper Street iii) the friends who accompanied me here last Tuesday evening. I'd heard very good things from trusted sources, didn't object to its website branding, and was even in quite a good mood.
Sadly, the entire experience was let down by poor service. Every staff member we encountered at Radici was slow, inattentive, and uninterested, but it wasn't simply the case that ordering drinks, then food, and then ultimately paying were glacially slow.
On arriving we'd shamelessly inquired about their 'Evening Standard' set menu. Our dismissive waitress instead brought over their pre-dinner menu - an otherwise identical deal except for its lack of a glass of wine, which less eagle-eyed bargain-hunters might have missed - and then seemed aggrieved when we pointed this error out to her. This typified a pattern of surly unhelpfulness that was to continue throughout our meal. One particular low-point was the assertion that a friend's debit card had been declined, merely because the contactless card reader was slightly slow. Visiting Radici was a reminder of just how irritating bad service can be, souring the easy conviviality that should be the essence of a good meal.
This was particularly frustrating because of Radici's so many obvious qualities. Above all, it's an excellent space: open, and relaxed, and with flashes of elegance. That said, I'm not sure heaped bowls of aubergines are the right choice for table decorations.
And yes, somewhat belatedly, I should add something about the food itself. You might say that a set menu - with its constrained choice and cheaper options - offers a poor vantage point for judging a restaurant. But, much like a first date or job interview, it's a safety-first version of ourselves that we offer up to the outside world, and so seems an excellent test.
For £15, I had two courses of solid, but unremarkable Italian cooking, and a really terrible glass of white wine. There's little I could say about my caprese salad, bar wishing that I'd instead chosen the mackerel starter enjoyed by two of my companions. I was sorry to learn that they'd run out of the aubergine parmigiana, but pleasantly surprised by the chicken calabrese they suggested as a replacement. The chicken was well-cooked, lifted by the piquant sauce that was the lifeblood of the dish. Yet somehow it didn't quite feel complete: I wanted more of a tour through textures, and perhaps the foundation of a carbohydrate. But on balance, it was enough partially redeem Radici, leaving me with some hope that good things lie beyond the confines of the set menu.
Will I be back? If this had been a date, I'd be very torn about whether to reply to Radici's texts, and would at the very least expect an apology for its rudeness first.
