Notting Hill Diary

Pizzeria Ristorante Portobello - officially the best Italian in London

At the end of Carnival and on the way back from Don’s traditional Carnival Monday barbecue, Wifey and I stopped into a pizzeria on Chamberlayne Road. For some reason it seemed a good idea at the time (00:30 Tuesday morning since you ask). It wasn’t. The pizza was a vile abomination and had no right to the appellation.

The base was a thick, putty like clump of damp matter, while the topping was a slimy mess of out of date and overcooked vegetation that may or may not have once been the mushrooms and spinach we requested. The only point in its favour must be that both Wifey and I benefited from an ironic nett reduction in calorific intake since we were unable to eat properly for the next four days while the feeling of lumpy goo subsided from our stomachs.

On day two I bumped into Gaz and co who were still coming down from Carnival by way of a cleansing ale in Nektar and told him of our hideous experience and ensuing discomfort.

“You need to try this new place just past the top end of Portobello Road. Pizzeria Ristaurante Portobello”, he told me. Now Gaz likes his food, so I take his recommendations seriously and as luck would have it, yesterday was the day after our wedding anniversary, which we call “Pizza Day” because the day after our wedding we went for a pizza. Two pizzas actually. It’s a tradition which we only started yesterday, but no matter, we decide to give this new place a shot and I’m really glad we did.

Like the pilot of a plane that has been shot down, we knew it was important to get back up in the air as soon as possible, so we hot footed it over there and were pleasantly surprised to see how this former Greek restaurant (and prior to that a rather nice tea rooms called “The Launderette” or some such) had been transformed.

Benefiting from a wide pavement area at the front with extra seating and being light and airy inside, the impression is given of being in a Mediterranean environment while escaping the cheesier aspects that can often result from attempts to give restaurants in London that Latin appeal. Simple and unpretentious is how I’d categorise it. Not, I’ll grant, two words often applied to Notting Hill by outsiders.

And the food - oh the food! Just seeing the pizzas come out while waiting for ours to arrive made us salivate. We chose the “Franco’s Surprise” option - a veggie one for me and a meat one for the carnivorous Wifey. When we asked the waiter what was on it he simply shrugged and said “Who knows?”. Pizzas are sold there by the half metre. It seems like something that’s started to happen here over the last 4 or 5 years, but we’re increasingly informed that “That’s the way they traditionally make it in …”, then tack on the name of the most obscure Italian region you can think of. Whatever, it is good for sharing that way.

When they arrived they were almost perfection. Crusts, thin, bubbly and just with the hint of slightly overdone bits here and there. The toppings, superb. Fresh and tastefully scattered for the perfect rustic effect. Mine was a combination of aubergine, capers, basil, sun dried tomatoes and a couple of other items that elude me at the moment. Wifey had some sort of meat (you understand it’s jut not my field of expertise), basil, rocket and something else.

Why did I say “almost” perfection? Well because to my pallet the combination of tastes was just slightly overwhelming. To be fair I could see myself putting it together too, but I’d be wrong. Wifey usually selects something simple and delicious like mushroom and spinach, possibly with some jalopeno peppers and I always end up enjoying hers more. I’m being very unfair here. It was excellent - the best damned pizza I’ve had in London I think.

The rest of the food looked amazing too and we’ll definitely be back there in the near future after which I’ll be singing its praises again. Pizzeria Ristorante Portobello is the Italian restaurant Notting Hill - no - London, has been waiting for. I’m in love!

Mulberry Street. Go for the pizza - go away again

I think it’s the mixed reviews I’ve read that caused me to delay visiting this scaled-down-New-York-diner-at-Notting-Hill-Prices, but Wifey and I are both big fans of pizzas¹ and we hadn’t read anything bad about them so we decided to give it a go.

If you haven’t heard, they do whopping great 20″² pizzas suitable for a family of 4, or in Wifey’s and my case, two. Now we’re particularly choosey about our pizzas. In general the simpler the better and, most importantly the base has to be just so.

Mulberry Street’s pizza is is indeed just so. Light, slightly more crusty around the edges with just a hint of the burning that might have taken place had it been allowed to cook for another 20s, the dough absorbs just the right amount of flavour from the toppings. Most of all I like the bits where trapped air have caused it to bubble up slightly. Then again what do I know? The Times gave it this particularly invective laden review.

I will say that the rest of the menu is disappointing, at least in terms of depth. Eggs Benedict/Florentine, for example, is nowhere to be found. Go there for the pizza and the pizza alone is my advice.

The blurb on their menu and website claims that they filter the water to make it exactly like New York water (yikes!), but whatever, it was enough to make Wifey, who bused to live there exlaim “It tastes just like New York pizza!”, so who am I to argue?

¹According to my calculations, a 20″ pizza has a greater surface area than 2 14″ pizzas
²Yes I know about the 100s and 100s of calories in every slice, but now that I cycle everywhere I can afford to stuff myself silly from time to time. Alright?

Wifey and I have become quite partial to Persian food over the last year or so. We’re not sure if there genuinely is a proliferation of Persian restaurants of late, or if we’re just observing the “since I bought my new car I see them everywhere” effect, but we’re learning to tell the difference between good and - well - indifferent Persian food.

Behesht, unfortunately, falls into the latter category. We had passed it many times and Wifey in particular had one of those “feelings” about the place, so on Saturday we decided to try it for lunch.

On walking in we had high hopes. Split into five rooms and much, much bigger inside than you could ever guess from the street, the interior is a fantasy land of Middle Eastern décor and indoor water features.

We sat down and ordered from the very reasonably priced menu, which, by the way, somebody really should proof read. My okra main course included something called “green papers” while, alarmingly, several of the starters including my baba ganoush, had as their main ingredient either grilled or baked aborigine!

We were refused tap water. I think it’s an urban myth that it’s a legal requirement to offer it, but it’s the only restaurant I know of that doesn’t and that alone is enough to stop me from going back.

Something we really like about Persian restaurants is breaking a raw egg yolk into the rice. That too wasn’t available.

The service was, to put it politely, offhand. Our waiter had all the charm and some of the sleaze of a used car salesman and we were left feeling as if we’d turned up at an inconvenient time at the house of someone who then felt obliged to entertain us.

The portions though, are very generous especially given the price. So much so in fact that we decided to finish early and asked for the food to be wrapped up to take away. We were somewhat nonplussed when our waiter returned with three Tupperware boxes for us to pack the food into ourselves!

1082 - 1084 Harrow Road
London NW10 5NL
But don’t go there

Uncles Café, Portobello Road. Hard to see, but Wifey is actually running backwards in slow motion.

Value for money: good
Atmosphere: good
Service: good (these days!)

I can’t believe it’s taken me so long to remember to review Uncles, if only because going to whichever establishment has occupied that spot for around wo decades has provided me with a number of anecdotes.

Until the mid 90s it was known as the Portobello Cáfe. Yes, the accent was over the “a”. It did decent burgers, English breakfasts, coffees and the like, great for veggies (you have to be to survive on Portobello Road), reasonable prices and open 7 days a week.

As the years went on, the service got worse and the quality of the food deteriorated. The “cáfe” reduced its opening times to Fridays and Saturdays and finally stopped opening altogether. Many believe the aroma of hash floating out from somewhere that may or may not have been the direction of the kitchen had something to do with the chef’s inability to deliver an order in a timely manner, or correctly at all.

The last time I went there when it was in that guise, it took 45 minutes for our cappucinos to arrive (there were only two of us there) and when my veggie burger finally did arrive, the burger itself was nowhere to be seen within the two halves of the bun.

It then mutated into a passable sushi bar. Either it wasn’t really all that good¹ or the area wasn’t yet ready for a sushi place, but after no more than a couple of years it became Uncles, as it is now.

Actually it’s basically a much better version of Portobello Cáfe and we go there at least once a month at weekends for an eggs benedict/eggs florentine respectively (that’s with respect to wifey/veggie boy). And we always order chips. They do good chips (that’s fries to non UK readers). Then we ask for the Tabasco bottle, which we usually empty. Wifey and I are real foodies, but boy do we like it hot! Tabasco to us is like drinking fruit juice.

Anyway, the point is that they do the best breakfasts/brunches for quality and value in Notting Hill. Of course the Electric Brasserie is great, but friggin’ expensive!

Oh yes - the other anecdote. Early on their service wasn’t quite so good. At least their service per se was, but their ability to split a bill wasn’t. One week they tried to charge us for both our meal and the one the people sitting oposite us had had. The next week we thought we’d make sure it didn’t happen again. Low and behold it did. We told them of the problem, they apologised profusely, adjusted the bill and promptly handed us a credit card chit (this was pre PIN) with … you guessed it, the other couple’s bill added back again.

305 Portobello Road
London W10 5TD
020 8962 0090

¹Actually my appreciation of sushi is muted somewhat by the fact that I’m a vegetarian. Even if you do eat fish it’s probably one of the more espensive way not to fill yourself up, but the veggie options usually amount to a sliver of cucumber in some rice at 4 or 5 pounds for 3 pieces. I’m not sure it’ll ever be fair of me to review any sushi restaurants, though there are a couple in the area.

Salaam - our new favourite Persian

It’s been a while since I either a) wrote anything about Notting Hill other than as it pertains to the Rotten Hill Gang or b) reviewed a restaurant. I’m about to redress one of those at least.

OK so Harlesden High Street isn’t exactly in Notting Hill, but then this part of it isn’t exactly in what you’d think of as Harlseden. It’s really a bit of Harrow Road and only 5 minutes away from, say, Ladbroke Grove by car, so it’s definitely within striking distance and, as I can confirm, easy enough to reach twice in an evening to fetch your takeaway. More of that in a minute.

Whether it’s that there genuinely have been more restaurants opening up to serve Persian food in the last two years or that we’ve just become more aware of them, we’ve found ourselves craving them in the way that previously I’d crave Indian, or Wifey would crave sushi. While I can’t claim to know a Persian menu well enough to order blind in the way that any self respecting British person can order from most Indian restaurants without seeing the menu, I’ve developed a liking for certain dishes. That said, as a vegetarian most Persian restaurants usually struggle to offer more than one main course so I don’t find choosing that hard.

However we’ve never thought that we’d found a favourite Persian restaurant, until, that is, tonight. On a whim (the actual whim was for a pub dinner, but it’s amazing how hunger can blur the decision making process) we decided to order from Salaam, a fairly new place that had somehow been “speaking to us” for months. Our experience of places that “speak to us” have led to some disastrous consequences which is probably why we delayed going there.

We ordered starters of panir-o-sabzi (fresh mint and tarragon with spring onions, radish, feta cheese and walnuts) and kashk-o-bademjan, (fried aubergines with fried onions, walnuts, garlic spices and herbs) and way too much of their delicious naan bread. The sabzi I always order and the aubergine, with its barbecued overtones takes my current prize for the tastiest substance known to mankind.

For our mains I ordered Pollow Khoresh Bamiyeh, a stew of okra, green peppers and onions cooked in a tomato and tamarind sauce, while Wifey had … well I’m not quite sure what Wifey had actually. I’m just no good with these meat based dishes after 23 years of veggie-goodness and she’s asleep right now. Something with lamb in it at any rate and she was raving about it. Both came with rice. Suffice to say that despite the HUGE portions, we wolfed our food down with embarrassing ease.

Oh - and how did I find out that it’s close enough to get to twice? Well because the first time they managed to miss out my main course, they got Wifey’s main slightly wrong and they gave us plain rice instead of the dill rice we asked for, but despite that we will still most definitely go back! The food there is simply fantastic, the bill was only £21, the service super friendly and Salaam is now our favourite Persian restaurant in town.

Do yerselves a favour and hotfoot it down there.

Salaam Restaurant
203 High Street
Harlesden
London NW10 4TE
020 8838 0007

Cuisine: Thai
Value for money: excellent
Atmosphere: good
Service: very good

No 1 Café is so named, because of it’s address, 1 Dalgarno Gardens. Why such an innocuous address for one of the best Thai restaurants in town? We’ll because up until 8 or 9 years ago it was something of a greasy spoon by day and a small Thai restaurant in the evening.

Back then it occupied the tiny centre part of the building with only 6 or 7 tables. It was always packed and did a huge trade in takeaways to hungry diners, who would flock from miles around to sample - did I say “one of the best”? Make that “the best” Thai food in town.

I’ve never heard a bad report of this place and most say it’s the best and most authentic Thai they’ve ever had outside of Thailand. So perhaps it’s not a surprise, although no less impressive, to see that they’ve expanded year on year so that by now they occupy one room to the right and two to the left of the original building and, in the summer months, have tables in the adjacent garden just on the edge of Little Wormwood Scrubs.

Even more impressive is the fact that it has become this popular despite being completely off the beaten track. Situated in a commercial no man”s land between Ladbroke Grove and Scrubs Lane it has no passing trade and has built its reputation almost entirely by word of mouth.

And the food? The food is to die for. I’ve been there many times and almost never been disappointed (there was a brief period a couple of years back when the soups went a bit to salty, but they seem to have overcome that now).

The menu is both extensive and well balanced and, because they offer vegetarian versions of most of their dishes (sometimes TWO vegetarian versions), I’ve been able to try something different every time.

Prices are extremely reasonable and you get to bring your own booze, further driving down the cost of a meal. There’s a corner shop next door that sells drinks, the only other business in an otherwise residential street.

Service is polite, efficient and friendly.

Go to Number One. You will not be disappointed. Even if you have never tasted Thai food before, or you have, but weren’t that keen on it, try Number One.

1 Dalgarno Gardens
London W10 5LL
020 8968 0558

Cuisine: pizza
Value for money: good (better in the Chiswick branch)
Service: good (better in the Chiswick branch)
Atmosphere: OK (but then we usually take away)

If you do fancy something a little different out of a pizza experience without compromising quality, try Firezza. As with most decent pizza places they offer a wood fired oven etc etc, but what makes them different is that aside from having near perfect pizza bases (depending on your personal definition thereof) is that they go the extra mile in several areas. For a start, if your order a delivery and one of the toppings is rocket (for example) to make sure everything is as fresh as possible the rocket comes wrapped separately (and a very generous portion of it it is to!).

If you go in there and ask, at the moment all 12″ pizza are £7, even with extra toppings, whcihc theoretically means that for £7 you could have a pizza with one of everything on it. If you a bit nuts. Ask for additional chilli, which Wifey and I always do, and you’re offered the choice of having it added either before or after it’s baked.

Finally, they do rectangular “lengths” of pizza by the half yard, which is ideal for two people. You can switch toppings every quarter yard. It’s a gimic to be sure, but an eye catching one anyway.

And now the strange part. Firezza is a chain of maybe 7 restaurants around London. We first got introduced to it via the one in Chiswick and we go there quite a lot because, well, Chiswick is quite nice and we can pick up a pizza from there and go and sit by the Thames.

The thing is, the Chiswick one is much better than the one on All Saints Road and we’re not sure why. If you’re on All Saints Road and you fancy a pizza you’d do much better to go to Ripe Tomato across the road.

12 All Saints Road
London W11 1HH
02072210020

Choosing a good pizza is a very personal thing, but Red Planet does good, honest pizza that’s a cut above the local competition and just the thing for those Sundays after a late night when you can’t be bothered to cook for yourself.

No one eats a pizza with a view to losing weight so you might as we’ll admit it and go for one of their 15″ pizzas for only one pound more than the 12″ ones. Yes you’ll be stuffed to bursting point, but as my mother says, you don’t have to eat it all at once. Actually she doesn’t say that, but it sounds like the sorts of thing she would say.

So nothing ground breaking, but there are times when you know exactly what you want out of life and don’t need any surprises. Red Planet is for just those times.

167 Ladbroke Grove
W10 6HJ
020 8968 9998

Cuisine: Italian
Food: Fantastic
Service: Excellent
Atmosphere: Excellent

This is a real gem in the heart of Notting Hill on All Saints Road (a street whose name was made only marginally less cool by having once had a girl band named after it).

Simple Italian dishes of the highest quality are served by friendly staff in surroundings that give the impression that you’ve ben invited to dine in a real family restaurant.

In fact this is more than just a contrived impression, being as it is, owned by the affable David and having among its staff son Daniel and his (far from displeasig to the eye) daughter Alexia. Posters from David’s wife Ethel’s previous career on stage (she appeared in the original production of “Hair” adorn the walls.

There are a few tables outside on the pavement, but we chose one of the candle lit tables inside for romantic reasons. We were seated by the charming Eva, who took our drinks order and gave us the menu to peruse.

As ever when I’m writing a restaurant review I had to take my wife. That’s not the chore I just made it sound, it’s because I’m vegetarian and most of you aren’t so you probably want to know what the options are for carnivores too!

The menu is extensive and creative, without being in the least bit pretentious. I’ve been there several times, so it’s hard for me to recommend any specific dishes because they’ve all been good. However here are a few of my favourites.

In the starters I’ve enjoyed the Bruschetta (chopped tomatoes marinated in garlic, olive oil, fresh basil and herbs on toasted bread) and particularly the Insalata di Campo (goat’s cheese, aubergine, courgettes, peppers, artichokes and pine kernals on mixed leaves), but then add goat’s cheese to almost any dish and I’m your friend.

Of the pastas both the Penne Arrabiata and Penne Siciliana are excellent. The latter is the most faithful representation of that classic dish that I’ve had since a visit to Pallermo itself a few years back.

My favourite pizzas are probably the Fiorentina and the Quattro Formaggi. I’m a bit particular about my pizza bases since I tried to eat my way through New York last year and for my money Ripe Tomato get them just right. Light, with just a few bubbley bits, the outside is perfectly “randomly” crusty for a rustic look and taste. Sorry this has all been vegetarian, but wifey isn’t with me to help right now so I can’t ask her what she’s had!

It’s all just simple food, done well.

They don’t have a website because, as David says, “We’re full most evenings already!”. And you know what? There’s something nice about that!

Ripe Tomato serves simple, excellent dishes at very reasonable prices in a friendly, convivial atmosphere and you can’t ask for more than that. Highly recommended.

Ripe Tomato
7 All Saints Road
Notting Hill
W11 1HA

020 7565 0525

Value for money: very good
Atmosphere: good
Service: excellent (although see below for one small deviation)

Quite how it gets it’s name is unknown to me, but “sequoia” is a species of tall conifer. So now you know!

Just opposite Ripe Tomato, this bar makes an ideal place to pop into for a drink after slap up a meal at the former. The fact that it’s open till 1am (which is surprisingly rare for the area) means that it’s also handy if you’ve been working late on a mix nearby and fancy a quick drink and spot of socialising with the staff of Ripe Tomato after they knock off.

Arranged over two floors, this place has been home to a variety of watering holes and eateries, but this seems to be its most successful and it’s certainly the most friendly. Best of all, despite its glamorous appearance, drinks are pretty much normal pub prices. And unusually at a place where you can buy a pint for around £3, they make great cocktails. Here barstaff (and the staff in general) take a real pride in what they do.

The ground floor houses the main bar and the restaurant, while the basement has a second bar and a dancefloor area.

The food in the restaurant section is excellent and again the staff are friendly and helpful.

The basement bar is a sight to behold, its most recent refit having given it a chocolate brown and leather feel, while each of the low coffee tables has its own mosaic design.

But I tend to spend most of my time upstairs because that’s where I bump into friends. Oh, and did I mention the friendly staff?

6-8 All Saints Road
London
W11 1HH
020 7243 6363

Oh yes, the slight deviation in service mentioned above: I made a cake for wifey’s birthday which we celebrated there last month. The cake was served still on the base of the tin in which it was made, because it was quite a soft one and hard to move. When I went back the next day to pick it up, the waitress told me she had thrown it away! But she’s lovely so I forgive her.