Ciullosteria — Restaurant in London

I was here for a late dinner on New Year's Eve with family and friends. The atmosphere was buzzing and the music was playing...everyone was enjoying themselves. As there were 5 of us, we decided to share some starters (all £13+ each). We went for the tagliere misto (mixed cold cuts), il culatello (cured rear leg of ham) with mascarpone and torta fritta, and the calamari fritti. The cold cuts were all good (but that's a given in an Italian establishment), including the parma ham, salami, and lonza, but especially the mortadella as it was very flavoursome! The culatello was very good too, and went very well with the mascarpone spread on the fried pizza. Finally, the calamari...the batter was lovely and crispy, and the squid not chewy, but they were too salty, and that let them down! :( For my main, I decided to go for the sirloin steak with wild musroon sauce and Italian style roast potatoes. The spuds weren't too bad, but they were just boiled and quickly sautéed to crisp them up...I could of done with a few more. The steak itself (cooked medium rare) was chewy and completely tasteless! If you'd tried this blindfolded, you wouldn't have known it was beef, and the wild mushroom sauce didn't really help cover it up. I was looking forward to it, but it was a bit of a letdown. So, it was definitely not worth the £22 paid. As it was NYE, there was a different menú and there was no pizza that evening, which is what I would have chosen over the steak. Prices were also higher on the menú because it was the last day of the year. Service was fine...friendly and not too imposing. Only 3 stars as I was let down on the calamari and my main, and the fact there wasn't any pizza available. I'd pop back to try the pizza and give my verdict on that part of the menú. Worth a visit if you like run-of-the-mill Italian cuisine, as they have most of the usual suspects on...

I am usually pretty circumspect with regards to any restaurant that also has a home delivery option. To me, they should be two separate businesses and rarely do they mix in any successful degree.

Pleasingly this rustic Italian, on Balham High Road certainly does deliver the restaurant element with a touch of Italian aplomb. I took my better half out to dinner during the festive period and was initially a bit wary as we arrived to a near empty restaurant.

There is an authentic quality about the place, with good smells upon entry and the staff greeting us with a warm and friendly charm. We chose to sit next to the window and quickly the restaurant filled up with the atmosphere hitting a nice level. We initially ordered the Parmigianina and the Bresaola and as we’d hoped from an Italian that prides itself on fresh ingredients we were met with some tasty starters. The Parmigianina was packed with aubergine, well baked and balanced in flavour. The Bresaola was pretty substantial in quantity with plenty of cured beef and bags of Parmesan with the truffle oil really giving it a terrific finish.

By the time the starters had been tucked away along with a pleasant bottle of the house Pinot Grigio, we were ready for the mains. The Prosiutto e’ funghi and the Firoentina were duly ordered and arrived in good time.

The base was clearly made to order with the usual uneven quality a give-away. Topped off with fresh, tasty ingredients once more, the sheer quantity of the pizza’s left little room for the dessert course,which we had to skip.

Overall this is a good family run Italian; not blow your socks off good, but certainly as a local Italian we’re reassured that if we return it’ll be a filling, tasty visit. It’s not too pricey at all so if you’re looking for only a slight impact to your wallet, with a safe bet at a decent meal in Balham this...

Guess what, it's the best birthday in the world, the real GOAT is celebrating both his first year has a divorced man, and also his first year after being 30 years old We went to an Italian place, I though the lucky Impulsiva was coming but this time he came with a new one, Amisha, I thought it was an Amish in a female version, but that was really her name. The Best is playing russian roulette, if I might saying russian at a time like this, bringing a new girl everytime we meet. The environment looked pretty nice, we ordered very good antipasti, good attention from the staff, but then Picky Boy said "The lightning is bad, The air conditioning is full of flies, too much noise, I need my earplugs" We waited and waited for the food, at some some the Impulse said "Where's my food? Do I need to go to the kitchen and make it myself? I need my protein, I need to grow" When The future King of England asked him for our food, the waiter gives up on his job and immediately pours himself a glass of wine and drinks a penalty. Food arrived, they even gave us a free salad to apologise, nice gesture, and sang happy birthday to Pedro with a very nice presentation, lovely lovely lovely! Overall it was a very good experience, The Avenger was happy, almost smiling, since we know he doesn't like surprises, but the restaurant loved to...