Italina385 — Restaurant in London

It's a low key neighnbourhood Italian in Bethnal Green that probably mostly supplies locals with pizzas, but is a surprisingly terrific restaurant. Not living in the area, we were last here maybe eight years ago, but I still remember the pasta alla vongole I had on that occasion. We've been to a lot of more expensive, and more famous Italians in London, but this place really reminds me of eating at trattorias on vacation in Italy. Simple menu, terrific ingredients cooked in a way you can taste the individual components, and everything homemade. They do serve dried pasta, which I actually prefer because its texture is more chewy.

My companion had the bruschetta to start followed by the burrata served on a bed of grilled vegatables. Both of his starters came with a fantastic focaccia which had big airy bubbles toasted to a crisp. There was a tiny drizzle of pesto on the burrata that looked bright green and tasted homemade. I didn't taste the bruschetta, but my companion praised the sparing use of red onion in the tomato mix, making it perfectly balanced.

I had the scialatelli alla vongole, of course, with a side of the grilled vegetable salad with goat cheese. I asked them to just bring both dishes as ready because I didn't want to eat them in sequence. That's exactly how I got them, with the grilled veg first, and the pasta maybe 5 minutes later to eat along side. My partner got his two starters in non overlapping sequence, exactly as requested as well.

The vongole was great. There were maybe 8 clams in shells decorating the dish but plenty more shelled clams stirred through the pasta. The clams were perfectly cooked and still tender and juicy. I liked the restrained use of fresh cherry tomato sauteed in olive oil, which didn't dominate. I could taste the good quality olive oil. The thick scialatelli was delightfully chewy. It wasn't quite as spectacular as the version I ate on my last visit eight years ago, which included an unorthodox quantity of garlic. Maybe next time I will ask if the current chef is willing to put in a little garlic for me. The grilled vegetable salad with a thin slice of toasted goat cheese was excellent. On top of the mixed green salad there were slices of grilled courgette, grilled eggplant and very sweet strips of peeled red pepper. I was happy to note that the roasted pepper was homemade, having no hint of the acidic preservatives that peeled roast peppers from a jar has.

The cheapest bottles of wine are £29 and £30, and dinner including a bottle of red came to £78. Music and noise levels are low. There was an 80s pop soundtrack playing during our visit. We will definitely be back and won't wait eight years before...

We just had dinner there tonight and felt compelled to leave a review. I cant believe it has been there four years and we only just tried it. Firstly, Carmen, our waitress was super attentive and friendly. She made us feel at home and welcome from the word go. I was impressed that the restaurant was busy (on a Tuesday night) and Carmen was the only waitress. Despite this, she handled the room with ease and made sure we had what we wanted, when we wanted. (I have had the experience in other places that they have a lot of staff and yet getting service is difficult.) We ordered the burrata and then a pizza. The dough was great and according to my Italian partner, resembled the pizzas of Naples. The house red was very drinkable also. Thrilled to have found this gem on our doorstep that is totally unpretentious (that is saying something for the area) and...

There's an argument for putting 3 stars if you're happy with cheap and somewhat cheerful. If you're looking for a lower than average price pizza or bowl of basic pasta and beer then this place may well do the trick. If you're interested in any sort of quality cuisine however then steer miles clear. The sauces are from jars (I'd imagine from the Tesco down the road), the pasta from ready meal packets, the starters heated up from earlier, wine list dreadful. Chefs disinterested, waiters incompetent, not a trace of Italian between them. The fact that they had Kiss Italia blaring out of the speakers for a touch of cultural authenticity probably sums the experience up. My girlfriend and I were lured in by the gushing reviews left by other presumably less fussy former diners - I only hope that our mistake might save anyone reading this the...