Having visited “Eataly”:https://www.eataly.co.uk/restaurants/ Eataly, near London’s Liverpool Street Station, before their restaurants opened, we decided to eat at Pasta e Pizza. We were pleased we’d booked, as at 12:30pm, the restaurant was already buzzing with a wide variety of diners. We were shown to a lovely table by the large glass window which meant one of us faced into the restaurant whilst the other had a view of Bishopsgate and Middlesex Street. Whilst it was an area very familiar to us, it was interesting from a first-floor perspective and so whilst we were finishing our wine, we swapped seats.
As its name implies, the restaurant concentrates on pasta and pizza, and has a relatively limited “menu”:https://www.eataly.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Patsa-e-Pizza-Menu.pdf. We decided to share a simple tagliatelle bolognaise with fresh home-made pasta rather than dried pasta from Naples (slightly cheaper) and pizza Napoli with mozzarella, anchovies and capers. I ordered for both of us, and the waitress asked if we wanted to share which was our plan, and this worked out extremely well.
Disappointingly the wine list was very simple. House wine was available by the glass, 125ml for £5, and there was a sparkling, white and red at three price brackets – £29, £35 and £47. When I asked if there was another wine list bearing in mind the very extensive collection of wines on sale, I was told this was it, which seemed incredibly strange.
The food arrived relatively quickly with the pasta arriving first: it was placed in the middle of the table with two side plates being provided so ideal for sharing. The tagliatelle was cooked al dente and the bolognaise sauce was rich and flavorsome. Just after we’d finished, the pizza arrived, and again it was absolutely delicious, and we were pleased we were sharing. We spotted a table further down the row where two girls had just been served a shared starter, when less than a minute later, their mains arrived making a rather full table.
Perhaps the reason for the simple wine list is that you’re not encouraged to linger: a rather measly hour is allocated for tables of two, and 90 minutes for tables of 3 to 4. However, the house wine was poured directly from the bottle rather than being pre-poured which was a nice touch and we felt that we had a more generous serving than 125ml. We had two glasses each which lasted well throughout the meal and at £20 was relatively cheap as we’d expected the wine to be expensive.
Bearing in mind the huge venue, it was good to see it busy and tables being turned over quickly – this is not really the place for a relaxing leisurely lunch but more appropriate for a decent quality, fast paced lunch. We also noticed a group of six Asian girls where the two in the middle wore their masks continually throughout the meal, only slipping them down to take in a mouthful.
Having decided that we’d browse the shop area on the same floor, we left the restaurant, admiring the chill counter of desserts on the way out, and had spent around 10 minutes choosing bags of lovely pasta before being approached by security guard as we’d forgotten to put on our masks. As anticipated, we picked up some lovely gifts for upcoming anniversaries and birthdays.
Overall, it was a very interesting experience, and it’s definitely worth trying the other restaurants as well as the counters.
