Forchette e verde - West Green Cafe goes Italian nelle serate

A month or so back, I walked over Seven Sisters to get a bag of masa harina from the Latin grocer so I could try my hand at home-made tortillas. On my way, I noticed that the F*** and G*** café by the West Green Road entrance to Downhills Park seemed to be doing a thriving trade. Investigating a bit further, I noticed that they now do Italian food in the evenings. Always on the lookout for a good new local restaurant, I made a mental note of it and a few weeks later we walked over one evening to give it a try.

I have to say that I was very pleasantly surprised. We really enjoyed our meal there, all prepared by Sardinian Chef Claudio Covino.

Whist we were waiting, we were brought a basket of various types of Italian breads with an absolutely delicious bowl of Claudio’s Sardinian sun-dried tomato pesto paste. I’d almost have been satisfied to have just added a few cheeses and cold meats, along with a nice bottle of wine and left it at that.  It would have done the job nicely. As it happens, though, I’m glad we didn’t.

Our starters were excellent. We loved the freshness of my burrata and datterino tomato salad and the Mussels in a white wine and garlic sauce (impepata di cozze) were a hit too!

For the pasta course, we chose trofie al pesto and  black pasta with prawns (TAGLIOLINO al nero con gamberi). Both very well done.

To be honest we were stuffed by this point. So we decided to round off a very enjoyable meal off with Affogato, Tiramisu, coffee and just maybe a sneaky Mojito.

We went back a week or two later for a mains course rematch. We chose grilled sirloin steak with shaved parmesan cheese and balsamic vinegar (tagliata di manzo) along with pan-seared sea bass with artichoke hearts and grated bottarga (savoury cured fish roe) and a small Mediterranean salad of olives capers and tomato.

If I have any reservations about either visit they were about the mains. I thought the chef had rather over-salted what would otherwise have been a quite delicious steak dish and the sea-bass whilst good seemed a little on the small side to me. 

Otherwise we had nothing but praise for our experience. The food was very enjoyable and the staff were attentive and friendly. I’m the first to admit that West Green wouldn’t be at the top of my list for an evening meal, but the owner is doing a great job here. We went on a warm dry night and so even enjoyed our walk there and back (about 15 mins or so fro the west end of a mid-Ladder road. It’s also on a bus-route and if you really must I think they even have evening parking arranged for their customers.

Definitely worth a try.