Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
New Italian/Neapolitan cafe/restaurant on Green Lanes
I am happy to report that as of this this Monday a brand new Neapolitan & Italian restaurant has opened on Green Lanes - in front of Finsbury Park, just after Homebase, in the place where the (short lived) Vegetarian cafe/restaurant was a few months ago.
I've just tried it for lunch today with husband and toddler and it was very nice. The young owners are very friendly and keen on giving locals genuine Italian food.
I will write a longer review on the restaurant section soon but for the moment I just thought it would be nice to give some good news here - that there is now more variety than before on Green Lanes. We should probably make sure we support them - I think they have a chance of doing well as they offer something very different from anything else around here but of course locals need to go and eat there!
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Germana on
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I never said Italian food should be bland. You are misinterpreting me...
In fact there is plenty of Italian food that is genuinely spicy, but I do think people in this country in general are used to standards of Italian food that may not be totally realistic, because they are influenced by a variety of factors (Italian cafes which opened in the 50s, thanks to hard working immigrants from Italy - many of whom still live in Harringay incidentally - but which heavily adjusted Italian food to perceived local taste, plus more recently a variety of chains like Pizza Express which now drown food in things like balsamic vinegar and pepper...).
That said, if this restaurant wants to do well, and people looking for the genuine southern Italian experience are not sufficient for that, they may have to do some adjusting too....and perhaps offer a variety of spices for people who want to top of the flavour. After all that's what Chinese and Japanese restaurants do - they give you soy sauce to use freely on whatever you want, even if they would never add that sauce in Japan to a certain dish...
I am just saying that people may perhaps have different expectations about what Italian food should taste like. Of course I was not there with people who found the food bland - I had the same dish and found it very tasty so either we have different taste and expectations in food - and no restaurant will ever be able to accomodate for everybody's wishes - or we simply went on different days and on the day someone else went the cook perhaps may have had a bad day. That's totally possible too. It's also possible that this thread with all its enthusiastic comments may have inflated expectations somewhat, and then it's easier for people to be disappointed.
As for the microwave, I guess it's not realistic to expect that a pasta bake will be cooked from scratch for one person at a time, in a restaurant with a kitchen of this size.
In any case, while I wish this restaurant well, I do not have any particular interest in over-promoting it. I said very clearly in my posts that there were a couple of things we thought could improve. I do think it has good chances of doing well, and that Italian expats like me if nothing else will definitely go there regularly (and there seem to be loads of us around here).
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Permalink Reply by 2mntljzb0eanz on
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I had to join up now because I can't believe what Germana is saying! This is so patronising! I will say right now to Sassie, David McD and the others that this is not great southern Italian food. I am from Taranto - I know proper southern Italian food - and this is just full stop not great food. Yes it's a nice place but please don't tell people that this is how proper southern Italian cooking is!
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Ho Ho! Just because Italian Unification supposedly happened 150 years ago doesn't mean we expect two Italian women to agree about food (of all things), does it? What have the Borboni/Graeci/Romani/Arabi/Franci/Austriani/Tedeschi/Garibaldini/Cavourini/Vittoriemmanuelini /Americani ever done for us?
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Burlesque, indeed!
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You are deliberately misinterpreting me. Of course in a small cafe on Green Lanes you can't find the same kind of variety of food and specialities with all the variations (which change from town to town....) and ingredients that you get in the whole of southern Italy, or even just in Naples. That would be quite challenging for anyone to achieve....but given most people can't just hop over to Naples every day then this is a nice option in my view.
Also, you have to make up your mind. Is it "a nice place" or "full stop not great food" in which case it's not a nice place? And if it's so bad, be more specific about why so the owners can get useful feedback from someone who feels they understand good food.
Cheers
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Luca that's interesting you don't like it. Fair enough. What Italian restaurants do you like in London just out of curiosity? Perhaps I am missing something. I have been here for a long time and haven't really had many good experiences.
I won't get into a debate about proper southern Italian food anyway. In fact I am from Milan and notoriously we don't really understand food according to anyone from Rome southward. And I really do not consider myself an expert.
You are however quite unfair and actually a bit rude too. I think people who feel patronised can perhaps speak for themselves. I certainly did not intend to - was just trying to interpret things. But if someone feels patronised, then sorry to them.
I was enjoying this thread and even arguing (amicably? that was my intention) over food is more fun than arguing over bollards, but I think I'll check out for now.
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