Cucina Asellina - Removed from website August 2021 (closed) , London

London isn't starved for Italian restaurants. It isn't even starved for New York Italians, as Cucina Asellina has been billed. But it is starved for decent Italian eateries in the Manhattan mode, and Cucina Asellina appears to be filling in the gap. Nestled on the ground floor of the ME Hotel in Covent Garden on Aldwych, the restaurant dovetails with the youthful, fun-loving attitude of the property. Like the clubby, female-friendly steakhouse STK which is located adjacent to it, Cucina Asellina originally hails from New York City, where it's difficult to find a table without booking weeks in advance and there's a clatter and hum wherever you sit. London is a bit more spacious, and whilst our Cucina Asellina may not be as busy as its NYC namesake, it certainly exudes its Midtown classiness.
    
The dining room was masterminded by Foster + Partners and plays out like an amalgam of the aforementioned Manhattan setting and a whitewashed Mediterranean finca. There's a striking wine display, blackened metal lighting frames, copper filament bulbs and rich terra cotta walls that create a warm environment whilst an open plan kitchen lends a frisson of theatricality to the room. When the climate is mirroring the cuisine during the summer months, there's an al fresco terrace that seats thirty diners.

The kitchens bring the sumptuous simplicity of Italian fare to the table, with everything from coffee and breakfast plates to handmade pastas, wood-fired pizzas and flatbreads to cichetti and cocktails prepared within sight. On our visit were steered towards a reasonably priced bottle of Italian red by our enthusiastic waitress. This coupled well with a serving of grissini and breadsticks, the perfect snack to tide us over until our starters arrived.

Deep fried, stuffed cerignola olives were dusted with a semolina crust to give them an added crunch and impregnated with juicy roast veal and parmesan. The frittura mista was also nice; with whitebait, zucchini, calamari, and pepper given a light batter and served with a roast garlic and chilli mayonnaise. Mains were heartily apportioned. A fillet of crisp stone sea bass came to the table with agretti, braised fennel and brown shrimps. A massive grilled cutlet of new season lamb was plated up with braised shoulder, gnocchi and broad beans - it was a very filling northern Italian dish. For dessert we decided to split a beautiful whipped chocolate tortino with popping candy, a blood orange sorbet and a dark chocolate coulis.