London
19 May 2024
From Instagram
Met our friends Sue and Nathan @elvigilantedelvino for breakfast. The advantage of being in the west is that you have time on your side and can sleep more before it’s morning unlike in the far east. It was lovely to meet them after a gap of almost 2 years. They took me to @terryscafelondon
We started off with some nice @monmouthcoffee coffee. I had a macchiato. I went for the ‘blow out’ greasy spoon special. Juicy sausage, thick cut & smokey bacon, fried eggs, baked beans, mushrooms and a beautiful textured black pudding.
It was 4 days worth of breakfast but in my defence, we did walk a lot after that. We went to Marsh Lane. Had coffee at a place that the Copes love but didn’t know the name of. I checked. It’s called @cafepedlar . I had an espresso. It was nice, but had no crema. We sat there and chatted for quite some time.
We walked on the water front, across the Millennium bridge. To St Paul’s. The Bank of England. The coin exchange. Then back to the hotel. I reckon I walked off a bit of the ‘blow out’ breakfast. It was chilly in the morning but got progressively warm and sunny.
‘You can try Padella. It’s a pasta place,’ said Sue when I asked her for dinner suggestions.
I was sold. K loves pasta and this sounded perfect.
K & I walked down from our hotel to Padella, which is outside Borough Market, at 8.30pm. It was warm enough for me to take my jacket off and walk.
There was a queue outside the restaurant. We gave our names and were soon called in. There’s an open enclosure/ kitchen in the beginning of the restaurant filled with busy chefs working their magic, enshrouded by steam from pots of boiling pasta.
The place had a lovely buzz to it. We were seated downstairs.
K called for a muscatel and rocket salad. It literally felt like chewing on grass!
We ordered a ricotta ravioli with mashed pea and lime. The ravioli was delicate and the ricotta inside was like well flavoured chhena. A beautifully soothing dish.
If the ravioli had a certain maternal touch to it, our other order of fettuccine with nduja and chilli was like crack. The pasta had a nice bite to it. It was cooked in a tomato & gratinated nduja (sausage) based sauce. The result was electrifying.
We left very happy.
Ps: Padella was on the list Kunal Vijayakar gave me and he recommends the beef ragout. I had my eyes on it too.
#londonfinelychopped #finelychoppedtravels
[pasta, nduja, London restaurants, salad, ravioli, fettuccini, Italian food]
