Capitan Corelli

Capitan Corelli – Battersea | NAZAR BLUE

The smell of real Ragu which is at the heart of most Southern Italian homes, is the first thing to greet you as you open the door and usually accompanied by greetings in thick Sicilian accents.

Capitan Corellis is a typical Southern Italian ‘Tavola Calda’ which for 4 decades has attracted both Italian diaspora longing for a familiar fix and the local people of Battersea who recognise a good thing.

Coffee and Ragu waft by intermittently, broken by Italian Salumi and Cheese, the mixture of thoroughly Italian smells impossible to recreate in England – and yet here it is in South London’s leafy suburbs.

Pictures of bygone eras hang on the tiled walls, mementos of the decades of happy family times with Capitan Corelli at their heart.

Where Italian West End eateries have lost their charm and authenticity by attempting to keep up with the times, Capitan Corelli has kept its values and remains timeless.

My favourite table: Helen Mirren | Life and style | The Guardian

I always thought it was an ice cream place, and it is really, they make and sell ice creams, but the also serve fantastic food.

Carmela cooks everything, she's amazingly hard working, she does a fantastic minestrone soup, a great chicken and rosemary dish and they always have at least two pasta dishes and it's not remotely posh Italian food - just real and fresh.

I go to the Ivy but not for the food, I go to see the people.

Generous portions of delicious food served over the counter Giorgio Corelli, his wife Carmela and his brother Pasquale Corelli bought the boarded-up shop 15 years ago.

Corelli's supply ice cream to all the local Italian ice-cream vans every morning Every day of the year from 7am - 7pm except Christmas

Captain Corelli | Restaurants in Battersea, London