Aug
4
2 Veneti, Wigmore Street
Posted in Where to Eat & Drink Now
The two Venetians in question are the owners and one particular Venetian makes himself known as we walk through the door. Simon Piovesan is on hand to give us the low down on exactly how Venetian his restaurant really is.
In my shame and ignorance I wasn’t aware that Venice had any specialities but I was soon put right by the lovely Simon who chose our food for us so that we could experience the house specialities and accompanying wines.
We had a tasting selection of starters chosen by Simon. 2 Veneti’s specialities include fried courgette flowers with mozzarella; carpaccio with rocket and parmesan, which was feathery light and a soft and creamy mozzarella with asparagus. The mozzarella was a large lump of the softest, buttery mozzarella I’ve ever tasted. I could pull it apart with my fork and could simply swallow without chewing. Devine.
My friend who was accompanying me on the night was a vegetarian and 2 Veneti caters easily for the veggies among us. Rocket, pear and parmesan salad was an additional delight on my friend’s plate.
Above: The Dining Area @ 2 Veneti
As with most (traditional) Italian restaurants, there’s antipasti, a pasta dish and then a mains before you even consider desert. Normal appetites need not apply. Simon led us in with a pasta dish and chose a combo of two of 2 Veneti’s finest. Linguine with fresh lobster and bigoli pasta with duck and porcini ragout. The lobster portions were far from mean.
2 Veneti’s Bigoli is the finest pasta I’ve tried, soft and sumptuous and a cross between the thickest round spaghetti and the chunkiest noodles. I’m now searching out a place to purchase Bigoli to try to emulate the experience I had at this Italian restaurant.
My favourite was the duck dish and we took a breather before heading to desert by comparing our wine selections. Our antipasti was accompanied with a crisp white Sauvignon Blanc and our mains were accompanied by two glasses: a light Valpolicella and a darker, heavier Cabernet Sauvignon. I’d recommend the Valpolicella.
Above: Meringue Is Given Away To Complement Your Coffee
For desert we tried a selection of chocolate ‘salami’, which was sliced chocolate with biscuit; chocolate and hazelnut truffle ice cream with dark rum sauce, which was the thickest ice cream in a perfect half sphere mould but I found the rum sauce to be a bit too much for me. The piece de resistance however was the filo pastry cannolo with white chocolate and wild berries. This deserves a special mention as the crunchy filo pastry housed a delicious mix of white chocolate in a thickened condensed milk textured sauce. The accompanying berries provided contrasting acidity.
Above: Sbresolona Is A Typical Venetian Dessert
We were pleased to find that there were a few Italians dining as it’s always encouraging to find a restaurant is frequented by nationals. The food was absolutely sumptuous and yet enticingly simply: the way good Italian food should be, as if you were in a Trattoria in Italy.
Bear in mind that prices aren’t Trattoria style, it is in Wigmore Street. This is a great ‘date night’ restaurant. 2 Veneti gets the thumbs up.
Top Tip: We tried some beautiful desert wine and the Recioto was a new addition to my wine drinking repertoire: red, sweet and ice cold. Give it a shot instead of coffee with desert.
1 course: £16
2 courses: £25
3 courses: £29
4 courses: £33
2 Veneti,
10 Wigmore Street,
London, W1U 2RD
L.S.
