WOW. Simply Wow.
I just started with a couple of friends a quest, finding the best apericena in London. What an apericena is?! My dear fellow non italian people, this is one of the most amazing, satisfying, cheap and all the superlative adjectives you can think about way for having dinner in Italy on saturday night.
The idea is to join an aperitivo (I'm not gonna translate it, just visit Italy you damn fools!) and a dinner: you have a nice pre-dinner cocktail/glass of wine and a buffet with hot and cold dishes. No. Not like a chinese 10£ all you can eat buffet, an italian buffet, with prosciutto, salami, bruschette, pasta, and everything else! sounds cool?! well it is, believe me!!
So... as a first choice, we went to this place as it's next to one of my fellowship (yes, we even have a ring to give to the best place, we TRULY are the fellowship of the ring) and because it's italian so... high expectations required!
First of all: the place is small, really small. It's ok if you have a coffee shop with an intimate environment, not if you want to serve apericena. -1.
Two choices for drinking, wine or spritz. The spritz is a pre-dinner cocktail from northeastern itally (Damn, I'm feeling wikipedia!) made with prosecco, aperol/campari and sparkling water. Now, if you are italian and you are in your early 20s you had at least 10 thousands of these things in your life, and you know it's very difficult to mess it up. Well... they managed to do it! first of all, the cocktail came with ice. WRONG. Second, it was not stirred (neither shaken, but you NEVER shake a spritz). WRONG. Third, no orange slice?! WRONG AGAIN. And finally, the best part: served in a damn plastic glass fulfilled with ice. WRONG WRONG WRONG SO DAMN WRONG I WANT YOU TO GIVE UP YOUR ITALIAN PASSPORT!! Ah and everything for 7£.....
Let's speak about the wine?! well ok then! You know, red wine coming from southern italy is tipically very strong in flavor, and you need a nice big glass, and we receive a white wine glass.... bad.... And my dear bartender, you can always try to tell me "this is salentine, a primitivo di manduria". But the problem is I know my wines, and I DO know that's not a primitivo in purezza (in purity, using only one type of grapes) but it's just a rosso salentino (literally, salentine red wine), so you are a liar or a dumb person, or both of them. Do not try to serve me again something telling me that is something else!
Let's go to the food part! Slow in service, bad presentation, what else? ah not salentine at all! they brought some not-so-bad appetizers (salami and cheese.. well it's difficult to mess up something that you just have to cut in slices and serve) then some pasta (very very salty, just a little trick for convincing you in having one more drink, oooold...), the only good thing was orecchiette con mozzarella di bufala and then.. stop!! I mean, two dishes of pasta and salami and you call it an apericena!? shame on you!!!
Ah they also brought mozzarella with two oils, a truffed flavored oil and an orange flavored one... Do I really have to tell you that salentine oil is very strong and very good, and you DO NOT mix it with flavors! and Truffle!?! Really!?! Do they even know white truffle is coming from Northwestern Italy, not Southern East!? There is a 20 hours travel by car between them!!
Man.... this place is so bad that I want to open a new one in front of them and make them go in bankrupt, they are ruining one of the few things italian can be proud of, food!!
AVOID AVOID AVOID!! If I pass by and I see one of you inside this place I'm getting in and I force you to get out! read more