By Massimo Usai
The restaurant’s “reopening day” in London is very close.
As soon the celebrations for Easter are over, pressure is beginning to be felt from all the catering industry for the days we will celebrate “foodie” again..
Two phases, the first from April 12th for those who have the ease of serving food outdoors, then from May 19th all the others.
It’s time to getting rid of negative thoughts from your mind and the first step in learning to be happy.
It is not always easy to do this either by nature or because maybe we are experiencing an incredibly stressful and sad time, but in London we have: “Restaurants” to helps us to feel better.
Obviously, going out to eat is the number one rule in being “Londoners.”
“Have you tried the new restaurant on the corner of our street?” has become the real focal point of the majority of speeches between friends and colleagues.
There are a few restaurants that I miss so much, and I don’t see them reopening.
And then I try to recommend some of these to book already so as not to get cut off when they reopen.
Let’s start with Ottolenghi.
Yotan Ottolenghi’s Mediterranean cuisine and its restaurants’ style is definitely one of the destinations to visit as soon as it reopens.
From his “white and linear” style in Islington, Spitalfiends, or the most luxurious version offered by Nopi or Rovi.
Also if you’re on the side of Notting Hill, don’t miss its spectacular Deli, where you can also enjoy one of its gorgeous cakes and coffee in an environment where, at any moment, you expect Hugh Grant or Damon Albarn to sit next to you.
Then there’s MaGoa, my favourite “Indian” in London, in the Putney area. Indian food with the taste and atmosphere of Goa, in the south of the great Asian country.
I am staying in Putney, an obligatory visit to my former restaurant, called now “Artisans of Sardinia“.
The tradition of homemade food continues on the same site in Putney, where I worked for almost twenty years.
Today, another Massimo, but from the same island in the centre of the Mediterranean, offers a cuisine based on fresh pasta as we did, but with a different hand and a completely renovated place.
Moreover, Massimo has vast experience in wines that you can only taste the best available of the grape nectar that Sardinia proposes.
Next to him, there is another restaurant that I recommend.
Its name is Kashmir Restaurant, and the name tells you exactly, without too many turns of words, what kind of cuisine you will find inside.
In one of the historical venues of Indian cuisine in south-west London, Razdan, the chef and restaurant owner, offers you decidedly authentic foods and presents a modern and up-to-the-day setting.
But then there’s pizza!
Yes, pizza can never be missing, and then you have to go to San Gennaro, the best pizza south of the Thames in London.
With my friend Tony, we spent many evenings enjoying great pizzas in an authentic environment.
It clearly seems to be in southern Italy.
The colours of the place, the strictly traditional Italian music and the owners’ personality will make you spend a few hours enjoying an excellent pizza and not being in London.
Me, who is not straightforward with pizzas, always ask for the “Gorgonzola and Salsiccia“, which they do not have on the menu, but they know, as I sit there, that I will order this variant to their excellent menu.
Five restaurants that need your presence and everyone’s helps from recovering from 15 really complicated months.