If I’m trustworthy, I don’t normally frequent Italian eating places in London, as I spend a lot time in Milan and Florence, the place I can guarantee an genuine repair. However I made a decision to check out Nipotina, which opened earlier this month in South Audley Road, Mayfair, and it didn’t disappoint. We have been actually the hardest crowd to check out an Italian – two residents of Florence and one very common customer.
Nipotina: lots to please Italophiles in London
(Picture credit score: Milo Brown)
Nipotina is an efficient measurement. We sat within the entrance room with velvet-trimmed linen-curtained home windows on two sides. I cherished the inlaid marble flooring in crimson, using timber and the Thonet chairs, as they jogged my memory of the fabulous Paper Moon in Milan that sadly shuttered a number of years in the past. The pink partitions in a type of Venetian plaster gave my fellow diners Isabel and Gigi a Florentine Harry’s Bar vibe, which they cherished, and the acoustic felt that lined the underside of the desk was famous and appreciated by all.
I like a well-edited menu, and after so lengthy consuming in Italy, I count on it to be structured within the traditional order of antipasti (appetizer), primi (first course), secondi (most important dish) and contorni (facet dish) – which this one was. We loved a Fritto Misto of pink peppercorn as a starter, adopted by Crispy Calamari and Shrimp, and Fegatini di Pollo in Padella (chopped hen livers, balsamic nectar and pancetta).
(Picture credit score: Milo Brown)
(Picture credit score: Milo Brown)
There’s pasta, after which there’s pasta, and when you may have had the good things you possibly can inform the distinction
The recent and dried pasta highlights on the menu embrace three of my favourites: Orecchiette alle Cime di Rapa, the little ‘ears’ that the Puglian nonnas kind by hand; Pici Cacio e Pepe, that thick spaghetti sort adorned with aged pecorino and black pepper; and a dish that’s already a star on the menu, Triangoli all’Aragosta, lobster tortellini in a spicy tomato and vodka sauce, which was simply perfection. There’s pasta, after which there is pasta, and when you may have had the good things you possibly can merely inform the distinction.
Additionally on the menu is a number of eight pizzas, together with Somaia, which options spicy nduja, the crimson spreadable sausage from Calabria, Gorgonzola and crimson onion, bresaola, rocket and shaved Parmesan; and Quattro Formaggi with Taleggio, Gorgonzola, mozzarella and Parmesan. We didn’t have room for the secondi or the corntorni, so we must save that for the subsequent time, however we shared a tiramisu.
(Picture credit score: Milo Brown)
(Picture credit score: Milo Brown)
Behind the delicacies is Turin-born chef Somaia Hammad, who, as a baby, spent quite a lot of time along with her grandmother in Puglia, so her culinary upbringing encompasses the total gamut of each north and south Italian meals. The title Nipotina means ‘granddaughter’ in Italian, so you possibly can inform the significance of her nonna’s affect on the meals.
The wine record is curated by Luca Dusi of Shoreditch-based Passione Vino. We shared a 2023 bottle of the home white, Gavi La Raia from Cortesi in Piemonte, which was scrumptious.
(Picture credit score: Milo Brown)
(Picture credit score: Milo Brown)
Nipotona is restaurateur Samyukta Nair’s sixth location in Mayfair; I’m a daily at Jamavar, the Indian in Mount Road, and Koyn Thai, Rosa Chalalai’s distinctive restaurant, which opened in June 2024, and which I’ve visited greater than as soon as a month.
All of our social gathering gave Nipotina a really enthusiastic thumbs up. Everybody can be ordering the Triangoli All’Aragosta once more, and a bonus is we now have a neighbourhood pizza joint to frequent.
Nipotina is situated at 49 South Audley Road, London W1K 2QD; nipotinaristorante.com
Supply: Wallpaper
