I don’t often get out West these days anymore, London is often a quite partitioned city, once you have established your patch you prowl it constantly. However I was persuaded to Go West by a friend I can never resist, and I’m very glad I did.

Rossopomodoro (Notting Hill Gate) is a small restaurant with a handful of tables upstairs, another couple downstairs and a further 3 or 4 on the salubrious pavements of that little knot of shops on Kensington Park Gardens (parallel to Portobello Road). All dominated by a hulk of a pizza oven.

The restaurant is one of a small chain (3 in London, more worldwide) but feels more like an independent, they import all their ingredients and staff from Italy for a real flavour of Napoli.

Our waiter flirted us to our table and brought delicious dense ciabatta, bright olive oil and dark sweet balsamic whilst we chose our meal.

We started with a plate of antipasti cured meats, 6 in all, each a different shade, from brightest red to deepest claret, and all had that lovely waxy semi-opaque sheen that good cured meats have.

Next we went onto the pizzas, oh the pizzas, they were the real deal, abstract paintings on a plate. Mine was a big red round, surrounded by an uneven and exquisitely squishy dough, dotted with a round of cheese here, a juicy anchovy fillet there, a basil leaf, a dark intense olive. And the eating was even more of a pleasure, we enjoyed them to the last. My friend’s was one of those white pizzas, a glorious mixture of creamy textures made to soothe the senses.

We didn’t have room for puddings, only managing a very decent coffee each, but I saw several pass and they looked as theatrical as you always hope for in a pudding (well I do anyway), tall glasses and heaving plates covered in chocolate sauces and lots of cream.

All in all a delightful restaurant, and the easy 10 minute stroll back to the tube was just what was needed to aid the digestion.

4.5/5

Starters £5.40 - £13.50 (for a plate that easily serves 2)
Main £9-11 (pizza)
House wine £17-18

Rossopomodoro Notting Hill
184 A Kensington Park Rd.
W11 2ES
Tel. 020 72299007
www.rossopomodoro.com

Tags: London Restaurant, Nottinghill Gate, Pizza, West London

This entry was posted on Sunday, July 6th, 2008 at 6:42 pm by urban foodie and is filed under London Eating. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.