Bocca di Lupo (Italian) – London, England (7.5/10)
Jan 18th, 2009 by admin
Background:
Bocca di Lupo (literally Mouth of the Wolf) opened in Soho, London towards the end of last year. Several rave reviews later, fellow food blogger tasty treats! and I decided to go there for lunch a few days ago. I don’t eat much Italian food in London, as I prefer to go to Italy once or twice a year for my Italian food consumption, but I thought it would be interesting to see what regional Italian cooking closer to home would be like.
First impressions:
Archer Street is rather seedy, to be honest. It’s located in the grubbier part of Soho and I wouldn’t like to walk down there alone at night. The restaurant therefore shone like a beacon in comparison to its neighbours. We walked past a stunning bar counter (white marble) already packed with diners, and shown to our table in the dining area at the back of the restaurant, which was also busy. Our Italian waiter was cheerful and upbeat from beginning to end, which made all the difference (as will be revealed).
Menu:
We were shown two menus, the One-Dish Meals lunch and pre-theatre menu, which features seven choices, and the main menu, which is referred to as the dinner menu on the restaurant website. The latter features many dishes – crudi e salumi (raw & cured), fritti (fried), paste e risotti (pasta & risottos), zuppe e umidi (soups & stews), griglia e piastra (grilled & pan-fried), arrosti (roasts), contorni (sides) and postri (desserts) , many of which can be ordered as small or large portions. This way, diners can sample a variety of dishes from different regions.
Tips:
If you prefer tap to bottled water, it’s served in a carafe and our waiter wasn’t at all perturbed by our request, nor that we weren’t drinking wine with our lunch.
What we ordered:
From the One Dish Meals menu, tasty treats ordered the spaghettini with clams – Campania (£9.00), while I couldn’t resist the meaty option of grilled pork chop with rose hip honey & borlotti beans cooked with pork skin – Toscana (£11.00). From the main menu, we chose a starter of lamb prosciutto with pecorino in vinaccia – Sardegna (£6.50).
After what seemed like an eternity, the starter finally arrived. Thank goodness for the bread basket and olives. I liked the lamb prosciutto, but the pecorino was a little too strong for our liking. Researching it online afterwards, I discovered that pecorino in vinaccia is pecorino aged in wine barrels that have just been emptied. In my opinion, it was too overwhelming to complement the prosciutto…
Tasty treats thought her dish somewhat salty and not worth the wait. I loved my pork chop, which must have been at least two inches thick. For the most part, it was cooked through and succulent (I dread overcooked, dry pork chops), however, the meat close to the bone was practically raw. I like a bloody steak or pink lamb chop, but I draw the line at eating uncooked pork.
The verdict:
Afterwards, when I showed our waiter the raw bits, he immediately took it to the chef, then returned promptly to tell me that the chef agreed with me. But I did concede that the roast pork chop was extremely thick, so I’m amazed that most of it was as cooked through and yet still so succulent as it was. As a gesture, which was appreciated, we were served calzoncelli – fried chestnut, chocolate & anise pastries, which were delicious and not at all sweet.
The long wait for our food was the only negative point. In total, we were in the restaurant for about an hour and forty five minutes, which is a considerable length of time when we only had a shared cold starter and one main dish each. However, we concluded that Bocca di Lupo was definitely worth a revisit, and will sit at the bar next time, where the chefs can be seen in action, to try assorted small dishes.
Lunch for two with service charge and no alcohol came to £28.00.
10 – Perfection, 9.5 – Sensational, 9 – Outstanding, 8.5 – Superb,
8 – Excellent, 7.5 – Very Good, 7 - Good, 6.5 - Above Average, 6 – Average
All the London restaurant reviews on World Foodie Guide
Contact details:
Bocca di Lupo
12 Archer Street
London W1D 7BB
Tel: 020 7734 2223
www.boccadilupo.com
Helen Yuet Ling Pang @ World Foodie Guide
The long wait would have been distressing.
The pastries sounded good though
Although I comment here regularly, you’ve never added me to your blog links, and you rarely if ever comment on my blog. (sad face).
I feel unwanted… (I know I don’t live in England – and I guess visiting this Spring isn’t enough..)
You don’t have to publish this, I just couldn’t understand…
Loving Annie –
I would have responded to you by email, but as you’ve now left 2 comments about this subject (I deleted the other one), I’ll respond in a comment as well. From the tone of this comment and the deleted one, it seems to me that you are leaving comments so that I’ll reciprocate by commenting on your blog and adding you to my Blogroll.
I don’t have a written policy about these matters, because I don’t think it’s necessary and my blog’s only a small one. If I added everyone who read my blog to my Blogroll, it would be a very long list. There are many blogs on my Blogroll who don’t even know of my blog’s existence and with whom I’ve had no correspondence. Not a single blog is there as a result of a request.
So that’s my Blogroll policy in a nutshell. I hope it’s clearer now and all the best!
Helen Yuet Ling
I will second Helen on that, there is no unwritten rule for adding links to a blogroll just because you read and comment on the blog. I too, have links on my blogroll where it is not reciprocated either, but I don’t grief or complain about it.
I link to blogs that I like reading full stop.
Also, I dont it’s fair to force comment/links to be reciprocated because one has initiated it. In a way, it goes against the whole philosophy of blog comments. A comment is -by definition- a way for the reader to talk about the blog post, like a conversation. It is not a tool for reciprocating links or comments.
Oh by the way – I’ve been wondering about this place after reading timeout’s glowing review, the lamb prosciutto sounds like a treat ( I love cured meats!).
Too bad about the wait, maybe they are still working out the kinks, but £28 sounds pretty reasonable to me – I will have to go soon.
oh, I am using my FT tokens for le cafe anglais next weekend
Excellent photos, Helen!
I remember thinking in the restaurant that there was a very strong alcohol/wine taste from the cheese… I too looked it up when I got back and as I thought (vinaccia…vino.. wine), wine was a big part of it! I did like the little dried wine grapes on the edges, but it was definitely too strong for the lamb prosciutto (which I thought was drier than it should have been, too, almost like it had been carved long before – but I could be wrong. Just that even the fatty parts were a bit stiff).
You definitely had the better dish, even if it was a bit too raw in places!
You can eat pork pink now these days, but bloody pork would put me off. I’ve read lots of good things about Bocca di Lupo, I’d love to go try it out. I’ll add it to the ever-growing list!
By the way, I agree with you on the comments front – I comment when I have something to say about the post, not to get more traffic to my blog.
Hi,
I just wanted to say that I enjoyed reading your blog for sometime. London is a favorite city of mine, so I appreciate the opportunity to live vicariously through your writing. I’m not looking to be linked, or any reciprosity, as I believe those lists are very personal to the blogger and completely a matter of preference and relevance to the blog in question. My preferences are contained in my link. http://oysterculture.wordpress.com/2009/01/18/fabulous-foodie-connections/ and a way for me to express my enjoyment in your work.
You know, I just started the craze of food blogging very recently. What more amazing and surprising about food bloggers that most of them are very dedicated and yet personal.
Cheerios!
Another pleasant surprise I found is that the food pricing are somewhat cheaper and choices are certainly broader in London than the ones in Dublin.
Thanks to your blog, I would certainly plan a trip to London just purely for a culinary adventure and yet within means!
Keep up the good work
Helen,
Oh okay. I sort of felt like blogging was a friendship of sorts, a reciprocal give and take. Like I call you to say hello and ask what’s going on in your life and/or are interested in what you are doing and then…
Thanks for explaining your perspective. This seems to be more of a London thing than an America thing.
Wishing you the best. Happy dining
Kang – thanks for your comments about blogging. See Charmaine’s comment on the prosciutto. And sit at the bar if you go. Look forward to your review and photos!
Charmaine – I thought you had the better dish, though the pork chop was rather tasty!
Lizzie – thanks for your input! I took some photos of the bloody bits, but decided that they weren’t really for the blog, especially as the chef agreed with me.
OysterCulture – thank you so much for including me in your list of 5 Fabulous Blogs. It’s very flattering! I look forward to browsing through your blog in more detail (tried on the iPhone last night but it’s not so easy).
adel – welcome to the mad mad world of food blogging! London is certainly one of the leading gastronomic capitals. Let me know if you plan a foodie trip to London. And if I return to Dublin, I’ll definitely be picking your brains…
Loving Annie – it’s most certainly not a ‘London thing’. I consulted many food bloggers based around the world (including the States) about this yesterday, and can confirm that everyone was in agreement with me. Anyway, enough on this subject and happy dining to you too.
Helen Yuet Ling
Eww, undercooked pork! That said, it does look rather lovely, and so the list grows. At least I shall cross one off tomorrow night! I must also echo the feelings of other commenters. Posting comments frequently on someone’s blog does not give you ‘the right’ to be added to a blogroll. The idea that it is a ‘London thing’ actually made me laugh out loud too!
I like the looks of the one-dish meals menu….not something you see very often (except in Chinese restaurants!). This place is now on my list!
Helen – do go and try the smaller dishes, sit at the bar & let me know what you think! Thanks for your thoughts on blogrolls as welll…
Su-Lin – look forward to hearing your opinion on the food. You’re right, the one dish meal concept (as opposed to lots of little dishes) isn’t that common. Roast duck on rice, anyone?!
I have a booking for the chefs counter at Bocco di Lupo in two weeks time and am looking forward to it – Man-Woman gave it an excellent review as well.
Gourmet Chick – looking forward to reading your review. I also read the Eat Drink Man Woman review, but after I went.
Helen Yuet Ling
Hello Helen,
I, like you really enjoyed BCD, I went a couple of weeks before Christmas. I had been waiting for it to open since Time Out had listed as a “Autumn 08 Opening”, and I wasn’t disappointed. I’ve even tried to return since but been unable to get a table when needed. I guess it’s worth mentioning that our service was speedy and we were in and out in less than an hour, so I guess they must as you said still be ironing out the bugs.
The four of us all had tasty one plate dishes including the sausage pasta and a ragu. At lunchtime the offer of tap water along with bottled, and the free olives and bread, coupled with charming service gave us a throughly enjoyable experience.
Thanks for your interesting blog, it’s one of my favorite links…
Becky
Becky – good to hear your meal was a speedy one. I don’t mean I like to be rushed over my meal either, but it was rather a leisurely lunch!
Helen Yuet Ling