Piccola Cucina

4 Reviews on “Piccola Cucina”

• Jungle Amanda

  Was recommended to me by an Italian friend who said that this is one of the best Italian places in London. Great service and very cosy atmosphere! The swordfish is very nice!

  August 12, 2015, 1:14 am

  Log in to Reply
• Orsola.allocca

  Great new Italian in London. I’ve been living in Notting hill for 2 years and I was very surprised about Piccola Cucina.I was there on Saturday and the restaurant was fully booked. The restaurant is small , maybe 30 covers, you feel like Home inside. It’s very cosy.Service is very good. The manager , that took care of our table, was absolutely perfect.We had parmigiana , tuna tartara, red prawns carpaccio as starters. Lobster linguine as main course. My friend had meat ( he said very good). Everything was really good. You can tell the quality of the products. Portions are not small. Very well presented.This is the best Italian restaurant I’ve been in London so far. Highly reccomended!

  May 22, 2015, 6:02 pm

  Log in to Reply
• Expat_foodie

  2 of 5 stars. I was very optimistic about getting a table at Piccola Cucina. The place always looked busy and the menu looked authentic. Unfortunately our experience fell about a mile short of our expectations. Maybe the kitchen didn’t like us because we were walk-ins, or maybe the food just isn’t good. Regardless, first impressions are important and this wildly missed the mark.We started by sharing the tuna tartare. The tuna itself was flavourful but unfortunately the ‘crusty bread’ missed the plate and was never presented. We were stuck with regular, soft bread (intended for olive oil) which isn’t so nice with soft tartare. Perhaps this was just a service error but it wasn’t a good start. (at this point my rating would’ve been a 3)We each had a first-course pasta dish which were the highlight of the evening. I had a tomato sauce (botargo), my partner had their special which was basically a Parmesan sauce. The noodles were well cooked, the sauces were well balanced, over all very good. In hindsight I wish the meal ended here. (at this point my rating would have been a 4)The true disappointment was the main. We shared the ‘seared tuna coated in pistachios’. Wow did this fail. The tuna was terribly overdone to the point of almost no red in the middle. The pistachio ‘crust’ was literally sliced pistachios poured on top – nothing pressed into the sides of the fish as one would expect. I got the impression the tuna was cooked the previous day (without pistachios) and microwaved. Then, they opened a bag of M&S nuts and poured them on top. This was without question the worst piece of tuna I’ve ever eaten. The kitchen should frankly be ashamed at letting that plate out of the kitchen. (at this point my rating went down to 1)After the previous bomb we skipped dessert. The total bill with wine was nearly 120 pounds.Maybe I should have been more forceful and requested bread with the tartare. Maybe I should have questioned/sent back the seared tuna and demanded a new dish. Then again, it’s not my fault, it’s the kitchen’s. The owners can thank their pasta dishes because it’s the only reason they get 2 stars. Overall, Notting Hill has several Italian restaurants which prepare much better food, have better service, and are more affordable. I will not be returning and would not recommend Piccola Cucina to anyone.

  May 20, 2015, 9:28 am

  Log in to Reply
• TheFoodaholic

  If there was one area in London (apart from the East) I don’t visit enough, it’s Notting Hill. It’s such a diverse part of London which strangely most people only associate with either its Portobello Road Market, the yearly Notting Hill Carnival or the multitude of celebrities who live there. Apart from street food and cheap nasty take-outs it’s never really been known for its food – the only people who seem to know about places worth going are its locals. Word struggles to leave Notting Hill. Business in this part of town thrives on local spending – one reason for that is the area doesn’t have enough ‘destination restaurants’ – ie. ones worth travelling too. But that’s all changing. Destination restaurants are opening up in force, or so I hear.Restaurants such as Chakra Indian is tantalising food bloggers with its modern take on Indian cuisine. John Burton Race has come bouncing back with a strong contender at his new, New Angel with a fine dining establishment and Wormwood, a new modern European tapas restaurant is always packed. Already on the phone booking those? Well hold your restaurant confirmations, because the new kid on the block, Piccola Cucina opened last week and is serving up some astonishingly fresh seafood at its new authentic Sicilian restaurant on the large stretch that is, Kensington Park Road.I’m told that this New York born and loved concept has a fantastic following in the US so opening up in food bustling London doesn’t come as a surprise. It also has some strong backing from restaurateur, Andrea Reitano who has part ownership in the Rome born venture – Assunte Madre in Mayfair. Here at Piccola Cucina they have gone all out when it comes to sourcing produce from Italy – I mean everything. From daily fresh food produce, the staff, the decor, the tables – everything. While it’s not exactly the most striking of dining rooms it certainly evokes homely Italian charm. Nestle yourself away back from the door you can quickly forget which country your in. The only menu I’ve seen was in Italian – which hopefully gets translated to English. Sadly us brits can barely speak our first language, let alone a second. We started on our way through this Sicilian feast with a stunning tuna tartar with avocado puree. It looked absolutely stunning, and it tasted it too. The tuna was some of the freshest I’ve eaten and was incredibly soft to the bite. A fantastic showcase of ingredients which shouldn’t be sniffed at.What you have to rember coming here to Piccola Cucina is it isn’t really designed for carnivores or vegetarians – it’s for lovers of all those tasty creatures of the sea. Sea bass tartar was next up and it was equally as stunning. Laced with a fruity, slightly acidic sauce, its freshness again couldn’t be meddled with. The fish was bursting with such a purity you’d have expected it to still be flapping around on the plate. Seasoning and presentation was very well balanced and refined.Other dishes such as this langoustine carpaccio were a strange affair but one which I couldn’t help but falling in love with. I’ve not eating langoustine served this way before so it was a real treat for me. The thinly sliced flesh was a little sticky to the touch, juicy when bitt into and its flavour sweet and tasting of the sea – it was gorgeous. Why every restaurant across London isn’t serving langoustine this way is beyond me – they’re missing a very clever trick. In case you’re wondering the langoustine head on the plate was for nothing more than decoration. If you really didn’t want to leave a thing I suppose you could grab a napkin and suck out the juices from its head – with grace.If things weren’t good enough already, what turned out to be my favourite dish arrived. Octopus tentacles served with fresh herbs, red pepper, a copious but well balanced amount of seasoning and a lovely deep grilled smokiness – this was easily the best octopus I have ever eaten. We had a spoon to serve it which I thought was a ridiculous idea but when you quickly realised that even the weight of it would cut straight through a tentacle you had to wonder – what trickery was this. Well no tricks were played here it was all down to the utter freshness of that octopus. It was awe inspiring that octopus couldn’t melt in the mouth the way this did. The dish tasted of Italy and it also showed exactly what Italy is capable of with a little care and good sourcing.Pasta dishes came out in force, and fast. First was this huge plate of linguine pasta coupled with sweet morsels of fresh blue lobster. It didn’t let us down. With a richly intense flavour of the sea, sweet lobster flesh (lots of it) and the pasta coated in that concentrated seafood sauce – it was magical. The linguine pasta was cooked perfectly and describing it as being al dente would be an understatement. Pliable pasta yet full of bite and big on flavour – what more could you ask for.Blue fin tuna, from Italy of course was coated in a vibrantly coloured pistachio crumb – also from Italy. I’ve heard fishing for blue fin tuna is completely out of control in Italy and as much as I wanted to care for a cause – it was too good to agree on a ban which the rest of Europe have put to the country so many times. Grilled delicately on the outside and very rare on the inside it really is the only way to cook tuna if you want to get a real taste of such an incredible fish. The tuna was coated in a generous helping of pistachio crumb, straight from Sicily. Served with a side of fried purple potato it was a perfect way finish up before we delved into desserts.An Italian feast is never nearly over until tiramisu is served. It’s a classic staple to many Italian homes, and us British have adopted it like it’s our own. Served in a jar this version was very much as expected. A nice balance of coffee but perhaps just a little too much cream and certainly not enough sponge to soak up all the juices those sponge fingers let loose. For what sounds like such a simple dessert, it’s so hard to get right and every person has their own favourite version and recipe of making this dish. And for those of you who don’t like tiramisu, send me you IP address so I can block you ever reading my website again – or alternitively make it for you, whichever you prefer.Out of everything we ate here this dish (pictured above) looked the most suspect. A little messy, and that chocolate cake reminded me of something you’d most likely find in a BHS caf, and if you’ve been there recently you’ll know what I’m talking about – fighting past all those zimmer frames. Sometimes looks can be deceiving and this was one of those occurrences. A devilishly moist and rich chocolate cake literally fell apart to the touch and was as light as a feather in the mouth. A spoonful of this cake, topped with a helping of those white chocolate shards, and a dollop of ice cream – words left my mouth. Advice? Go eat it now before everyone else in Notting Hill finds out.Our epic Italian feast quickly came to an end and with it came this panna cotta topped with a red fruit coulis. I never like to refer to anything as the best (although I’ve reffered to it numerous times in this review already), but this was the best panna cotta I’ve ever eaten in England – hands down. Piccola Cucina is certainly a new gem in London. With all the positive comments aside my real worry is, will this place go on to become an undiscovered gem? It’s in a strange area just off the beaten track in Notting Hill and sometimes location can mean a lot. The owner here is only 21 and has a real passion for food, but the guys here really need to tone down the slightly snotty service and this place will be great – I’m all for Italian charm but I’m not fluent in it. Best Italian food in Notting Hill? Most probably. thefoodaholic.co.uk

  March 3, 2015, 7:11 pm

  Log in to Reply