Slick-looking Italian restaurant with counter dining and ability to speak directly with chefs as a result

This was a pleasant place to go for lunch number two on a marathon food day with some pleasant options. The marble and well designed interior is visually impressive but I was glad the service was welcoming and warm at the same time. The sad thing however, is that I had to access the photos to remind myself what I had here – and that is not such a good sign for the food as it means it obviously didn’t do enough to stick in the mind. It certainly wasn’t offensive, but was unremarkable at the same time. Lovely, huge, marble counter bar to dine overlooking the cooking.

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The restaurant boasts regional and unspoilt dishes and that’s all great. The result on the palate is the main thing I am concerned with however, and the breads were ok (although not a patch on those had at Noble Rot, just prior) with some more pleasing, fried snacks, particularly the sage leaves filled with anchovy coated in tempura batter. The mushroom tagliatelli was a little too bland for me although the texture was very good and although I could say the same for the rabbit cacciatora, but the latter did have lovely, pickled carrots that were just the right softness to make this very pleasing.

The meal was finished off by the perfect suggestion from my associate of two limoncello’s (a shot of lemon-syrup liquor) as we were getting quite full and it was to the credit of the Italian authenticity of Bocco di Lupo that this wasn’t even a question of whether they had this. I should also mention that the wines had were also proudly sported by our staff and all to their credit, there was a genuine care and attention of letting us try two different glasses before ordering – a very nice touch which, amazingly not everywhere does.

A pleasant experience and definitely worthy of trying and placing on the site. Generally, I had a warm-fair experience and I would say it is perfect for dropping in and grabbing a very nice glass of Italian wine at the equally impressive marble top bar with decent some snacks and breads for catching up with a pal.

Food Grade: 63%