Run by husband and wife duo, nothing more could be said for the service we received. Walking through the doors of this charming little restaurant we were shuffled outside to our requested terrace seating (only two tables), glass of prosecco in hand. For the quantity of food, quality and the prestigious location this really is a very well priced restaurant. For four courses (chosen from the a la carte menu) you’ll be set back £34.50, or less if you think you can’t manage that much food. Bread basket was a perfect accompaniments to the copious amounts of olive oil we were getting through too.
To start our mammoth feast we ordered the grilled Tomino cheese with cabbage salad and mustard fruits (mostarda). Sounds old fashioned you say? well it was, very. Still the cheese was gorgeously stringy and full of flavour. Cabbage added crunch, and the mustard fruits were just plain odd. If you’ve never heard of mustard fruits before, they are candied fruits, soaked in a mustard-flavoured syrup. Yet with its sweetness and strong mustard hit, it works very well with the cheese. Give it a try, you’ll be pleasantly surprised. I was.
Another old timer of a dish. Burrata mozzarella, aubergine puree, tomatoes and a shallot dressing drizzled all over was one of the surprising highlights of our meal. A simple dish but one which showcased how to really utilise simple, Italian ingredients. Juicy plump rip tomatoes oozing out all over the plate. Soft creamy burrata and a aubergine puree mixture which was to die for. It’s dishes like this that can really make you fall in love with food.
If there is one thing 2 Veneti get serious about, it’s their pasta sauces. I’ve become obsessed with Italian cuisine recently and if you’ve been keeping up to date with the site, you’ll know I’m on the hunt for the best Italian restaurant in London (recommendations please). I ordered the fresh egg penne with white veal ragout and black truffle. The pasta was well cooked, not the best I’ve ever eaten but served its purpose. With it was one of the best pasta sauces I’ve eaten in a while. The sauce was light and thin but with such a deep and concentrated meaty flavour you’d think such a triumph was near impossible. The black truffle added decadency and throughout the whole dish was a lingering flavour of rosemary which left a sweet finish on the tongue. Perfectly seasoned and doused in grated Parmesan – this was close to pasta perfection.
Things didn’t stop there with another pasta dish continuing to leave us salivating. This time with a fantastic homemade ravioli pasta, filled with lamb and rosemary – then drench in a tomato and vegetable based sauce, and a little more rosemary for garnish. Again the pasta wasn’t the showstopper, but instead the sauce. Here at 2 Veneti all the sauces have such a real depth of flavour concentration to them that every mouthful is an explosion of flavours. I only wish i could conjure up such sauces at home, instead of relying on Loyd Grossman (in his dreams). The dish wasn’t particularly large portioned but with everything we were eating, it was perfectly sized.
The chicken milanese here at 2 Veneti is easily one of the best you’ll find in London. And the biggest. Quite literally this flattened chicken escalope covered the whole of the plate. Topped with fresh peppery rocket, sweet and juicy tomatoes and a good whack of seasoning – words can’t describe the experience. The chicken was covered in such a thin layer of crunchy, flavoursome breadcrumbs fried just to perfection you wonder why so many other Italian restaurants in London get it so wrong.
Fritto misto was as good as one might expect. Soft shell crab, calamari, large juicy prawns, a few vegetables and chunks of fish. All perfectly cooked, seasoned well and the batter delicate and light. Some Italian restaurants across London seem to cover their seafood in so much oily batter that much of the time overcooking the seafood ends up being the result in trying to get the crunch on that batter. 2 Veneti have got the balance just right. A squeeze of lemon and a dollop of tartar sauce – there wasn’t much not to like about this hefty plate of deep fried goodness.
Dessert unfortunately didn’t leave us ending on a high, and quite frankly was a bit of a shambles. A profiterole was not fresh, or at least didn’t taste as if it was. Hard, crunchy, crumbly – it only got worse once it was soaked in that over glazed chocolate sauce. Inside was a heavily doused aniseed infused cream that for me personally, was far too intense to enjoy any of the other flavours left in this dish. Apart from are not so delicious dessert, things couldn’t have been more enjoyable. Well sized portions, value for money, even greater wines and fantastic service. 2 Veneti really is a relatively undiscovered gem for the foodie world. It seems only the locals know about this place, which perhaps should stay that way if I’m to get a table for lunch – which can be very hard sometimes.
7/10
