Restaurant Review- Zucca

Ever since I moved to London, I've always been lucky enough to live just a stone's throw away from that narrow little culinary gold mine that is Bermondsey Street. Full of ultra-hip, loft-living, open plan apartments above. Packed with great restaurants, bars and pubs below.

Zucca is a cool, crisp, modern Italian restaurant with smooth, chic, minimalist interior design to match. Full length windows showcase the brilliant white tables, soft lighting and open gallery kitchen which means diners are just steps away from the very engine room that slickly turns out well-balanced and thoughtful dishes. All seemed nicely presented but without any sense of pretension. Seeing the kitchen operate in such a calm, methodical and ultimately successful way, is for me, something to marvel at and enjoy. Especially when it's producing dishes like we ordered. Simplicity in gastronomic form; flavour in abundance.














We began with mozzarella with roast fennel and carpaccio of sea bass (both £4-75). However, we were first offered a plate a wonderful Italian breads and grissini (the focaccia in particular was delicious) with a great dipping olive oil. The mozzarella was, as one would expect, wonderfully rich and creamy with a slightly sour tang. The fennel was perfectly roasted; slightly sweet and nicely strong in aniseed flavour. The carpaccio which was plentiful and topped with salt, pepper, olive oil, lemon juice and finely diced chillies was also flavoursome; the amount of chilli nicely handled. And with both at such a reasonable price, they were very hard to fault.

Main courses were veal chop with lemon and spinach (£16) and swordfish with courgette and pumpkin (£14-95). The huge veal chop was clearly of very high quality and was perfectly cooked (the outside being lightly charred yet still pink inside). Served very simply on a bed of wilted spinach with lemon, it was a lesson in cooking with restraint. The same can be said for the sword fish which was meaty and worked brilliantly with the vegetables that had a delicious sweet and sour element.

Although you won’t get a dessert menu at Zucca (the waiter reels off a list of what’s currently on offer), it certainly doesn’t mean you’ll have to go without your sugar fix. We had a moist, almond packed, blood orange cake (£4-95) which was drizzled in the most delicious blood orange syrup and a glass of Vin Santo dessert wine with cantucci (£10). You’ll also find an impressively comprehensive and thoughtfully compiled wine list which has led to the owner/chef Sam Harris being able to call his enterprise the Decanter Magazine Restaurant of the Year. Yes, you can break the bank on what they offer, but you certainly don’t have to. And with prices for food so reasonable, you might feel able to drink a better wine with it. Our wine was a smoky and mineral Fiano di Avellino, a complex white from Campania, which was described accurately by the sommelier.


A fantastic experience which was (at the risk of repeating myself) brilliant value. Even if it weren’t only five minutes walk away, I would certainly be returning for another visit.


Rating- 9/10

Zucca, 184 Bermondsey Street, London SE1 3TQ

http://www.zuccalondon.com/


GastroTom

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