Italian | katie sprog

12th April 2013

If you’re ever in the City and in need of a good bite to eat, I would like to recommend my favourite yummy pasta place.

Coco di Mama is a cool Italian luncherie – the décor, the branding, the service – all slick, slick, slick. But most importantly, the food is amazing. They serve pasta, salads and sandwiches which are all freshly made, with lots of big flavour. There’s chorizo, parmesan, rocket, pancetta, truffle oil, chestnut mushrooms… the list goes on.

Front

There are currently two branches – Fleet Street and Moorgate. However, they’re about to open a third by St. Paul’s, and have a lovely little offer on. If you click here and sign up, they’ll email you when the new site opens and you can get a free bowl of pasta. Dreamy!

I dashed over to the Fleet Street restaurant to grab my lunch today, and went for Pure Carbonara with serpentini pasta, chilli oil and parmesan (grandi, obviously!). The specials change daily, but there’s always a meaty type available as well as a ‘Naked’ pasta which has the bits but not the sauce.

I love the way the staff take the orders, there’s real buzz as they rustle your order up – ‘Parmesan and Chilli Oil on my Grandi Carbonara, please’ gets shouted on back to the open kitchen where they’re throwing it all together. You can opt in or out of the oil and cheese as you wish. Previous favourites of mine have been Butternut Squash and Spinah and Nutmeg.

Carbonara

The pasta is.. well.. you have to go and try it! Perfectly cooked, slightly al dente, gorgeous sauces. Served in pots with red and white checks, packed in a crisp matching paper bag ready to take away. If you’re able to get a spot, you can stay and eat in and enjoy watching the line of hungry city folk ebb and flow.

Bag

Meatball

Also on offer among other things are mac & cheese or lasagne of the day, soup with fresh ciabatta, puddings and delectable little side salads. You can get more information about the food and the company on their website.

Final note – when you visit, look out for the arty food photos on the walls. They feature ingredients masquerading as daily objects, and are really pleasing.

Food Art

10th April 2013

A quick little entry coming up!

Last night H and I were good girls – we met in Clapham Common ready for an evening of catch up and yoga.

Technically yoga should be done an empty stomach, but since it was HOT, POWER YOGA (I feel like that needs to be in capitals) we needed a bit of a refuel first after a hard day at work.

So we wandered down the high street in search of smoothies or similar, but got distracted. We ended up popping into a little Italian called Osteria dell’Arte. It’s a charming, family run restaurant with pleasantly eccentric staff, and filled with art from local artists.

Osteria

The menu was very tempting, but yoga dictated we were only able to order soup of the day – La Minestra (told you we were good girls). When it arrived, it was a lovely surprise. For no real reason, we were expecting something tomatoey, but it turned out to be fish and leek. It was buttery and smooth, and really really tasty.

I will definitely return to try the menu properly – particularly looking forward to Carpaccio al Tartufo and Ravioli di Giornata.

Anyone fancy it? Details here.

Osteria 2

PS – Yoga was a success (albeit a tiring, sweaty one!) – we left feeling stretched out and relaxed. I’ll probably write more about the classes soon, although maybe no pictures as they wouldn’t be the prettiest! If you want information about the studio, you can find it here.