With a booking 6 weeks in advance, we went back this weekend. We had a booking at 8:30pm and rushed to finish our drinks in a nearby bar so that we would be on time. Having tuned up on time, we were kept waiting for nearly 20 minutes to be seated. Not a good start.
I noticed the recent additions of table clothes (I preferred the bare white tables before) and an extra couples of pounds on the price of each main course. Had Zucca turned its back on its self proclaimed philosophy of providing excellent modern Italian food at affordable prices?
What we ate:
Bitter Greens with Pangrattato. The greens were very bitter but not unpleasantly so.
Carpaccio of Sea Bream. The chili makes this dish for me. Recommended.
Zucca Fritti. Crispy batter and sweet zucca (pumpkin) made for a tasty treat. I agreed with Mike that they needed a bit of extra salt to bring out their best. The presentation was better than it looks below as I forgot to take a picture before we started to dive in.
Bresaola with Rocket and Parmesan (forgot to take a picture). Good quality Bresaola. I enjoyed it.
For mains I went for the Veal Chop. A satisfying large hunk of meat turned up. The veal was very tender, well seasoned and had a good charred BBQ taste. The fat was sweet and had rendered down to warrant eating the majority of it. The spinach was over seasoned but well cooked. Recommended.
PJ went for the Octopus with Polenta and Covelo Nero. I didn't taste as good as the last time I had this here. There was less of a charred taste from the grill which I really like, but it was very succulent and tender as it should be.
A big gripe of ours with Zucca is that they never usually have chocolate on the dessert menu. You should always have chocolate on the dessert menu. This time however, hurrah, they had a Chocolate and Hazelnut Tart. Not being a huge dessert lover, I found it pleasant (the base slightly over done) but wouldn't necessarily order it again.
Dinner came in at £45 each, up about £10 a head I would say since our last visit 10 months ago (ish). We all really enjoyed the food and I still think that the food delivers great flavour although I would like to have seen some new dishes on the menu, with much of what was on offer this time also there last time. I would say in terms of value for money that Zucca has gone from being an absolute steal to in line with its peers. This is probably a good business decision since the place is still packed. Service was not as attentive as it once was, and we had to pour own own wine and call over waiters to order drinks/food a few times.
Zucca is still a great restaurant but has gone from a "must go" to a "recommended" destination.
Monster Munch Rating: 75%
http://www.zuccalondon.com/
