Monday, August 27, 2012

Donna Margherita: An Italian Place that Stands Out, But Not Necessarily for its Pizza

Name Donna Margherita
Address 183 Lavender Hill, London  SW11 5TE
Phone 020 7228 2660
Web site http://www.donna-margherita.com/
Main dish price range   £7.75-9.90
Rating  3.5 Stars.  Great restaurant if you're there for the atmosphere, the football, and the burrata.  
Recommended dishes: Burrata with eggplant puree and pesto, Saltimbocca Fritto e al Forno 

Nick and I, as we've indicated on this blog before, are nothing if not suckers for a good Neapolitan pizza.  In 2009 we took a special trip to Rome, Naples, and the Amalfi Coast, partially inspired by our near weekly trips to our favorite Neapolitan pizza place in New York.  Our regular ritual involved making a pilgrimage there after the gym or work, gulping down a whole pizza each-- savoring the gooey center and the pitch-perfect fresh basil-- before washing it down with a glass of house red wine. Perfezione! 

Football Jerseys inside Donna Margherita.
So we were thrilled when an Italian friend told us about Donna Margherita, a small trattoria in South London that she said was a favorite haunt of employees working at the Italian embassy. This seemed like the perfect spot for us to continue our quest to locate and consume London's best Neapolitan pizzas, a journey that had already made us fans of Exmouth Market's Santore. Reading up on Donna Margherita, we were even further encouraged by its bevy of followers: No less a vaunted source than Dan Lepard, the former pastry chef at St. John's, has called it a source of "near-perfect" pizza.

When we arrived on a sunny Saturday, we were immediately taken in by Donna Margherita's quirky, down-to-earth charm.  Italian soccer jerseys hung on one wall, as did a black and white picture of a person we're told is among Southern Italy's most famous comics-cum-mimes. (Side note: This would be a killer place to watch an Italian Serie A game.) A sculpture/city scene made largely using pizza dough stood in one corner begging for attention. We immediately got the meal off to an auspicious start by ordering a selection of antipasti (not on the menu, but you can ask for it), which included what turned out to be a delicious plate-- a large chunk of mouthwateringly perfect fresh burrata cheese, flown in from Italy and presented in a bed of aubergine puree. Like a good burrata it cut open to reveal a gooey rich  center, rich as butter. A smear of homemade pesto snaked along the side of our plate, tasting like perfection.

Donna Margherita: A burrata to remember.
Next up, we ventured into some main courses.  Although we were there to taste the pizza, at least primarily, I decided to also tuck into one of the dishes on the menu's "homemade pasta" section-- the O'Scialatiell ro' re Ferdinando, a classic seafood scialatielli dish. (On our trip years ago to Amalfi, one of my favorite meals was a seafood scialatielli cooked by a nice grandmotherly like woman in a tiny restaurant in the basement of her house-- so any dish of this sort has a special place in the depths of my food memories.)  At Donna Margherita, the pasta had that perfect consistency, bordering on gummy, that makes homemade pasta such a consistent delight.  The seafood-- which included bits of squid, clams, and a giant prawn on top-- also tasted  fresh and well prepared.  The dish, however, was a bit more salty and garlicky than I would typically consider ideal, and could have used a few more tomatoes to cut those flavors.  Still though, a solid offering.  

Sampling the pasta offerings: the O'Scialatiell ro re' Fernando.  
We then turned to the main attraction: the pizza. Nick and I always try to test a new Neapolitan pizza place by testing the most simple iteration of the dish-- the Margherita pizza, which ideally should be the perfect balance between tart tomatoes, warm mozzarella, and pieces of cool fresh basil.  The best version of this dish is presented piping hot, with an almost liquid center. At Donna Margherita, however, the pizza came out lukewarm, ruining some of the pizza's inherent magic.  The middle felt cool and soggy and some of the tastes dulled by this presentation. A friend who ordered a slightly more complicated pie-- the Prosciutto e Funghi-- said he felt similarly: the pizza was adequate, but definitely not a knockout.

Not living up to the hype: The Margherita pizza at Donna Margherita.
Our meal, however, did include one very pleasant main-course surprise. The Italian friend who joined us skipped the pizza altogether, choosing instead to get one the restaurant's saltimboccas, a small sandwich native to Naples. (Not to be confused with the "saltimboccas" endemic to Rome and parts of Switzerland, Spain, and Greece-- a meat dish that involves marinating prosciutto or veal in wine or saltwater.)  I'd the Naples version of this sandwich before, and always marveled at the texture of the pizza dough that's used as the sandwich bread, which some restaurants, Donna Margherita included, make crunchy and crackly-- almost like a cracker-- by frying and then baking.  Here, this hard-to-find dish was practically perfect.  The restaurant offers versions with four different fillings, and the Saltimbocca Fritto e al Forno, filled with provola cheese, cherry tomatoes, fresh rocket, and shavings of parmesan and porchetta, was a stunner. If I lived anywhere near Lavender Hill, this dish alone would make me a Donna-Margherita regular.

Taste the crunch: The divine Saltimbocca Fritto e al Forno.
All in all, Nick and I were glad to have visited Donna Margherita, and would definitely come back again for sandwiches and some quality football/soccer watching.  Crowds of Italian speaking families also added to the place's quirky charm. For now though, our go-to Neapolitan pizza place remains Exmouth Market's Santore.  But, our journey to try all of London's best-reviewed places continues. The lengthy lines so far have prevented us from trying Franco Manga in Brixton, but we'll report back once we do. Donna Margherita on Urbanspoon

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi there,

I’m Ele, and I’m on the eCommerce team at Square Meal (squaremeal.co.uk). Whilst getting to know the Square Meal world and website, I’ve been looking at the input of bloggers, who link their personal blogs to restaurant pages on our website.

I’ve come across your blog and have really enjoyed reading about your foodie experiences. I’d like to invite you to link your blog to the Square Meal restaurant review.

For our users, it is so useful to have easy access to other diners’ experiences, to help them choose a dining venue. Including a link to your blog on our website will increase traffic to your blog.
The Square Meal website has over half a million visits and 2.5 million page-views each month, so there’s great potential for people to click through to your blog.

Linking is really easy. To add a blog review to Square Meal;

• Visit www.squaremeal.co.uk
• Search for the restaurant and visit its Square Meal page
• Click on the Blog reviews tab (where all blogs appear)
• Select Find out how
• Copy the HTML link of the Square Meal badge (we provide a few so choose which you prefer) and past it into your blog post. Please ensure that you do this in HTML view
The eCommerce team then approves the blog link and your review (and ability to link directly to your blog) will appear on Square Meal within the week.

It would be great if you would try out linking to us as we’re so excited about this feature.

If you have any questions or suggestions about the blog link or about how we can improve your experience, please do get in touch – via email (eleanor@squaremeal.co.uk), phone, Facebook or Twitter.

Best wishes

Ele

Roomguide said...

Food looks delicious

Manish Sharma said...

I have no doubt it is Italy's calling card to the world.

Regards,

Manish

KIRUTHIVASAN said...

I have been visiting your recipe blog from past 3 months. The way of recipe tips looks to be easy for all readers. I would personally recommend our blog visitors to subscribe to obtain useful posts like this periodically. Particularly post on "Donna Margherita: An Italian Place that Stands Out, But Not Necessarily for its Pizza" is awesome. Get in touch with us via our websites North Indian Veg Restaurant | Sweet Shop

Amy Way said...

Nice blog and thanks for sharing it will help to get Italian.
I love the food and drinks of SANDERSON LONDON

PLUGGERS said...

ARE YOU A VICTIM OF FALSE HACKERS & BANK LOAN SCAM⁉️

We have been having recent complains from individuals about how they lost money 💵 to SPAMMERS who call themselves HACKERS or BANK LOAN OFFERS. They are all over the internet sharing false testimonies. Please do not fall for their lies for this is just a way to LURE you to them.

They say lies in the likes of -:
▪️Bitcoin Auctioning ▪️Western Union Hack
▪️Blank Credit Card ▪️Clearing Criminal Records
▪️Loan Offers. ▪️Bank Account Loading
▪️Changing University Grades & so on.
These are all lies and you shouldn’t fall for them.

🏵 PLUGGERS🏵 is here to help you Recover all your Money 💵 that you have been Ripped of.
WHO ARE PLUGGERS⁉️
We are a group of Computer💻 Experts who are memebers of the “HACKERONE” Forum. We have dedicated ourselves to help Victims of these SCAM(s) recover all the Money that has been taken falsely from them.

If you have been a victim of these Thieves, then you need to contact us as soon as possible so you can get your money back.
Email-: globalpluggers@gmail.com
No. +1 (808) 600 0773 ( Number also available on WhatsApp)

Note:
Please know that we do not charge you for Fund Recovery Service, Our Funds Recovery Service is to help and so it’s Free.

We also provide Legit Hacking Services such as-:
🔸Phone Hacking/Cloning
🔸Email Hacking & Password Recovery
🔸Social Media Hacking & Passowrd Recovery
🔸Deleted Files Recovery 🔸Mobil Tracking
🔸Virus detection & Elimination.

Contact-:
Email globalpluggers@gmail.com
No. +1 (808) 600 0773 (number also available on WhatsApp)








Unknown said...

Thanks for such a fantastic Blog. This is an interesting Blog.
Indian Restaurant Islington