Trattoria da Luigi – London

On a cold Saturday afternoon, we decided to head to East London, in search of something exotic to do. What we found (“The Last Tuesday Society”) was something that you can call in this way for sure…

Anyway, we left the place and our bellies were already complaining for being left with no food for what it seemed eternity (more or less 3 hours); we then went towards Stoke Newington and had a pint pit-stop in pub called Auld Shillelagh. Let’s be clear: they have the best Guiness we’ve ever tasted in London.

As dinner time was approaching, we decided to try a Sardinian restaurant called “Trattoria da Luigi”.

We were welcomed by the staff that immediately led us to our table; the inside looks really nice and cosy, with pictures on the wall and blackboards with specials on them.

As you probably guess, to begin with, we went for an antipasto for two to share, that was essentially a platter of charcuterie and cheese. The portion was quite generous and included prosciutto, speck, local salami, dried prunes that went very well with the few pieces of cheese; as a very nice touch, we were also offered complementary bread and olives with a vinegar and oil dip. Everything was tasty and was truly coming from Italy (no chorizo…).

We accompanied with a good bottle of Cannonau, red wine originally from Sardinia (we did say that the bottle of red was a recurrent theme on this blog!). The wine was pleasant, easy to drink and overall a good bottle to have it during dinner.

For the main dishes, I went for “Gnocchetti Campidanese” and my husband instead got the “Spaghetti Vongole e Bottarga”.

The gnocchetti were cooked in a tomato sauce and had also traditional sardinian sausage inside; the portion was quite substantial and the dish was really, really (really!) tasty. It was in that moment that I realised we finally found a true Italian restaurant!

My husband dish was also very good, having both clams and bottarga, which is essentially made of salted cured fish roe; again, the pasta was really tasty and it also came accompanied with a small dish with water and lemon, to make sure your hands won’t smell after. Another nice touch!

It’s also important to say that I did develop the usual envy of what my husband ordered and I will be back to eat the same dish another day!

As my husband is always hungry, we also added a nice homemade portion of tiramisu: I mean, if you are in an Italian restaurant, you need to have a tiramisu!

Throughout the dinner, the staff was always nice, not putting any pressure on us (even though the place became quite full and they had to turn down other customers) and they were always receptive and very friendly; on a side note, in case you would care about it, the staff was not composed of Italian nationals (except, what I assumed to be Luigi). Not that this makes any difference to us, given the high quality of food, but maybe some of you might care about it.

At the end of the dinner, they also gave us two complimentary shots of Limoncello, in a truly Italian tradition.

Overall, we really enjoyed this place and we will be back to try other dishes, especially the pizza: thank you Luigi!

Food Quality: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Value for Money: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Service: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Verdict: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Categories: London, Restaurant review, United Kingdom