Time Out says
Thu Apr 29 2010
Long before it became the demesne of well-heeled Notting Hillbillies, this part of London was home to a wave of Italian and Spanish immigrants, who’ve now largely sold up and moved on.
The arrival of this little fish shop and casual eaterie/wine bar harks back to those earlier days. Pescheria Mattiucci is a branch of the original, based in Naples, Italy. It’s Italian through-and-through, from the gleaming old-school coffee machine, to the well-chosen Italian comestibles on the shelves, to the types of fresh fish on offer.
If you’re counting air miles, this place may not be your thing – everything is imported. But if you’re a fan of good southern Italian food, it’s a find.
If you fancy fish fresh from the Med (hake, scorpion fish and bandiera – aka scabbardfish – on our visit), you can buy it here to take home to cook.
Alternatively, choose from the small selection of ready-cooked tapas-like dishes served each day. On our visit these might be prawns opened out to encase ricotta cheese, or bandiera with potatoes and smooth pumpkin purée topped with bitter young artichoke leaves.
Our favourite was a dish of anchovies folded around a filling of friarielli (a type of green vegetable from Campania similar to broccoli) and melting provola cheese, which had the full-on savoury/salty/bitter flavours that this part of Italy is known for.
The kitchen facilities are limited: there’s just a salamander to reheat cooked dishes, so this isn’t fancy dining.
But the dishes are well done and taste even better when enjoyed with a glass or two of Italian wine. The small selection is strong on southern grape varieties such as fiano and greco di tufo, and wines from Sicily.
Take a seat on an upturned barrel, sip a glass or two and have a few fish dishes and you could almost be in Italy. Or the Notting Hill of yesteryear.
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