Radici

Visit Radici, Italian restaurant opposite the Almeida Theatre in the heart of London's Angel, in trendy Islington.

Radici | Italian Trattoria Islington | D&D London

http://www.radici.uk

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GourmetGorro: Radici, Islington, London Italian restaurant review

Review analysis
desserts   food   ambience   drinks  

I’ve heard talk that whenever Francesco is in the kitchen at one of his restaurants you’re guaranteed a good meal.

Meatballs (£7.50) had a disappointingly dense processed texture but combined well with a spicy tomato sauce and a good dollop of mash.

The light take on the dish saw beef ragu and grana padano cheese piled on top of thin layers of pasta.

Sweet calf liver (£18) was served with fragrant sage butter and crisp leaves, smooth mash and rashers of salty pancetta.

A calabrese pizza (£12), slathered with fiery ‘nduja, light tomato sauce and mozzarella, was very good too.

Radici, Almeida Street, review: 'Lovingly sourced ingredients ...

Review analysis
food   drinks   ambience  

BRIDGET GALTON visits Radici which takes over the site where the Almeida restaurant used to be, with Francesco Mazzei as head chef Over the years, I’ve enjoyed many a fine meal at the old Almeida restaurant, but it’s good to see this large dining room just off Upper Street refreshed and reinvented.

In place of French wines and fine dining, there’s a laid back rustic feel to Francesco Mazzei’s Italian trattoria.

Even the a la carte menu is crammed with comforting dishes like roast octopus with cannellini beans, and salt cod with tomatoes and capers.

I sipped a prosecco and elderflower while considering my order.

My pal’s plump roasted king prawns pimped with a lemon, garlic, oregano and parsley Samoriglio dressing (£18.50) were much enjoyed, while my spicy chicken calabrese was a hearty hug of a stew £14) partnered with moreish sides (£6 each) of fried zucchini and a cold roast aubergine confection with beans.

Radici restaurant review: Those wanting fireworks have come to the ...

Review analysis
staff   value   food   menu  

For those who don't know it, Upper Street is a mile of homeware shops, estate agents, and terrible restaurants which - if anything - have somehow got worse as the rest of the capital's offer has improved.

Mazzei knows the drill and the Radici menu is suitably relaxing.

The recent tradition is to specialise in one of these groups: to be a pizza place, or a pasta place, or, probably, somewhere in Brixton, a zucchini friti joint.

Radici is a reminder that a decent restaurant - and Mazzei is far more than a decent chef - can do it all.

Radici means 'roots', but also 'rooted', and that seems exactly right: Mazzei has created a unpretentious, friendly room, with flavours earthed in southern Italy which lead to unpretentious, friendly bills.

Radici: Italian home cooking at its best as Francesco Mazzei goes ...

Review analysis
food  

It’s Francesco’s third London restaurant, after L’anima in the City — where he made his name but is no longer involved — and Mayfair’s Sartoria, which he breathed much-needed new life into when he took the helm a year and a half ago.

The restaurant itself is rather simple, with a tiled floor, pale terracotta walls and shelves laden with jars of preserves conjuring the notion of a rustic southern Italian trattoria — albeit a not very shabby but rather chic Islington interpretation of one.

Oh, and fans of Sartoria rest assured that as different as these two restaurants are there is one dish that does make the transfer — Francesco’s abominably addictive zucchini fritti are present and correct.

The team have perfected the soft, chewy, salty dough that signifies the Neapolitan style, whacked on a seriously ripe-tasting tomato sauce and got a bit creative with toppings — who knew aubergine was so good on pizza?

Antipasti from  £7.50, primi from £8, secondi from £10, pizzas from £8, dolci from £6.5.

Radici, London: restaurant review | Jay Rayner | Life and style | The ...

Review analysis
staff   food   drinks   menu   value  

Meal for two, including drinks and service: £40 to £120 There is one dish on the menu at Radici, a new Italian in London’s Islington, which sums up the restaurant.

Over the years, I’ve actively overlooked the large matter of price because of the profound joys of his cooking, which is always right and always encouraging.

Or you could come for an £8 bowl of that soothing pasta, or for a sourdough pizza, with a rim of blistered edges at a price to rival the cookie-cutter high street.

There’s that list of pastas – a seafood fettuccine here, tiny ear-like shells filled with ricotta and fresh herbs there – and then the pizzas.

■ Santo Remedio, the Mexican restaurant reviewed so admiringly here, and which had to close due to premises problems, has a new London site.

Restaurant Review: Radici

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