Restaurants

By Guy Dimond. Photography Ming Tang-Evans

Giacobazzi’s is the small Italian deli of choice for food cognoscenti between South Hampstead and Belsize Park. Owners Renate and Raffaele Giacobazzi have recently converted the premises across the road into their first Italian restaurant. The brightness and simple decor were reminiscent of a beach house, though on our visit it was filled with smartly dressed, middle-aged diners.

The deli owners are now able to showcase their ingredients, as the ‘Emilia’ of this osteria’s name refers to the Emilia-Romagna, a region of Italy famed for some of the country’s best-known exports. Yet the menu’s dishes extend far beyond the titular region. Even-textured tablets of polenta – the northern maize-meal ‘porridge’ – were served like bruschetta toasts, topped with flavour-packed spreads; pappardelle was delicate, nearly translucent sheets of pasta with a sauce of shredded rabbit (instead of the more usual hare) and a Ligurian-style olive sauce. Strong flavours feature on the menu, such as carp jollied up by a caper, parsley, anchovy, garlic and olive oil dressing.

The ubiquitous tiramisu and panna cotta are on the menu, but the tortelli fritti is perhaps more interesting as it’s not so common in the UK – small, ricotta-filled pastries, in this case served with a pistachio sauce.

Prices are a little on the high side for
a good-but-modest neighbourhood Italian; most main courses cost in the region of £15-£20, and other items on the menu soon add up.Oddly, the only bread offered on arrival is a few dreary slices of ciabatta, whereas every other Italian in town seems to have discovered the pleasures of pane carasau, focaccia and grissini.

Even on Tuesday night this place was booked out with well-wishers on their best behaviour, showing that there’s a need for a good, honest neighbourhood Italian at the top end of Fleet Road.

Time Out Issue 1971: May 29 - June 4