Carluccio’s Caffé is a guilty pleasure. Not fine dining by any means, I frequently wonder how much of the food is pre-prepared, perhaps off-site, even though they make a big thing of making pasta fresh on site and buying as many ingredients as possible from Italy. It's still one of the best places in London to pick up a quick meal for under £20 a head (my other favourites are Soba and the legendary Tokyo Diner.) Kate and I dropped in late in service, when the place was still packed, for a single course. I took the Milanese di Pollo - a chicken escalope served with a small salad garnish and Kate went for a cheese and spinach ravioli. With a good squirt of lemon and black pepper my chicken was an ideal easy meal and the taste I had of the ravioli revealed it to be quite light. Portions of both were a good size for entrees costing less than £9 each. We couldn't quite resist the desert special and split the baba di limoncello - four small baba's (with a sort of doughnut consistancy) smothered in limoncello with a lemon marscapone.
Since we'd had a couple of thai fishcakes at 43 South Moulton street earlier in the evening we were left stuffed for ~£30 inc. tip, a granita and water.
This is one of those places I eat in a lot, both in London where it's ideal for quick business lunches, and in St Albans where we go for a leisurely Sunday brunch - a great place to read the papers and drink bicerin, the coffee/chocolate mix-yourself combination.
www.carluccios.com
I often hide out at the one just off Great Titchfield Street, although I have never done more than nibble.
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