Manteca

"Sharing plates: puntarelle (like fennel) and anchovy salad. The pasta was fantastic: lumache with kale, and fettucine with venison ragu, whole plaice, green beans with tomato, grape sorbet and cherry and almond cake. The only quibble was that they charged for filtered tap water, but quickly took it off the bill when we complained. "

"Good find for an Italian lunch thanks to Hardens. Wide variety of customers from tourists to business to long distance visitors. Negatives: We ate upstairs and visited basement for the loo. Avoid eating here as it is claustrophobic and moreover smelled of loo and kitchen Service is erratic. Training needed to make servers more efficient and not wonder about without looking, Over selling: our server suggested we needed about 8 dishes which is silly. Water: They charge a nominal £2 for filtered water. That would be fine except that they never tell you about this until the bill comes. It was not mentioned by the server nor on the menu, Positives: The food! Tourists next to us said they had the best pasta ever. And it was good. Our lumache Kale (very bright green) and fettuccine venison ragu were outstanding. Focaccia is also great , needing a bit more oil perhaps Grilled plaice is plain and helped by the excellent green beans and tomato side dish. Grape sorbetto was small but subtle. The cherry and almond cake was large and far better than most Italian offers in London The glass was fine was really good and very well priced"

"Nice buzzy place. Lovely meats cured on the premises. The fried olives and pasta ragu were great. Some lovely Italian dishes that propel it above your ordinary Italian place. "