Bocca di Lupo
Soho, London
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As the hurricane of voguish London dining whirls on, it is momentarily easy to forget how much of a gust of fresh air Bocca di Lupo was when Jacob Kenedy opened it way back in the distant land of 2008. If places can struggle to get noticed in the Soho bustle, Bocca suffered no such indignity. Getting in at all was more often the problem. It still delivers an infectiously dynamic ambience, the best seats being the counter perches facing the kitchen, while the menus still change fast enough to make yesterday vanish without trace. Home-baked bread is the business – focaccia and ciabatta are served gratis with olives and oil while you ponder. What the kitchen deals in is regional Italy, not just generic Italy, with ancestral dishes accorded their provenance, no matter how recent or ancient the tradition. Pasta is naturally everything you would expect: a generous plate of orecchiette in a vibrant green sauce of chard, garlic and pecorino, or even simpler rigatoni coated in a luscious cream sauce of nutmeg and more pecorino. Main-course proteins are hearty presentations of top-spec ingredients. A pork T-bone is grilled golden and neatly sliced, awaiting a side of, say, datterini tomatoes and borlotti beans, plus some glisteningly braised chard for good measure. Eye-catching fish dishes could include a collar of grilled amberjack with gremolata or bream baked in a 'sarcophagus' of salt. Bocca's famous salad of radish, celeriac, Parmesan, pomegranate, truffle and parsley still gets an outing, and is still worth trying as an object lesson in the combinatorial arts. Finish with the Gelupo ice creams (also starring just over the road), or something like crème caramel with rhubarb. Service could relax a little, and it could be a little more clued-up. A regionally discerning collection of Italian wines adds to the lustre. Prices at the more affordable end seem pretty reasonable for the location, with small glasses from £5.80.
