Bottega Caruso — Restaurant in Thanet

Lovely little Italian place that feels like you’re eating inside a home. Friendly service and some very delicious food.

We ordered a mixture of starters/ small plates and 1 main as we wanted to have variety. We had the polpette di pane (bread balls in tomato sauce), alici (marinated anchovies), verdura e fagioli (greens and beans - very hearty comforting stew), pork collar and chanterelles (slices of cured meat with mushrooms), scallops, the ragu and some bread to scoop up all the lovely sauces. For dessert we got the cassata with blood orange and tiramisu. Did not get a picture of the bread balls but it literally looks like meatballs in marinara sauce and the flavour was incredible.

Most things we got were excellent, some seriously tasty food. My boyfriend’s favourite was the greens and beans stew and I think mine is the bread balls / cured meat with chanterelles. The scallops were good as well and the ragu was ok but nothing really to shout about/ very average and at £18.5 a plate, you’d be disappointed if you came to the restaurant and only ordered the pasta. Cassata was really tasty and something different and the tiramisu was good but I find most Italian places do a decent tiramisu in my experience anyway. We got two glasses of the house red and found them delicious 🍷

Very busy so definitely...

Without doubt, the best restaurant in Margate. In fact, I’d go as far as to say that this was the tastiest and most authentic Italian we’ve enjoyed outside of Italy. It’s hard not to fall in love with a restaurant that cooks food based on Grandma’s recipe back in Italy, Grandpa’s herbs foraged from the families village back home and honey produced by Grandpa for the light and refreshing honey, lavender and baked fig ice cream we enjoyed for desert. The story behind this little gem is dreamy. We had the greens and beans...simple but so tasty, plus the anchovy, chilli, garlic and parsley pasta...packed full of amazing flavours. The only downside is that it’s in Margate and not East London! I’m not sure what this seaside town has done to deserve this place but they’re lucky to have it. If you’re a foodie, it’s a must if you visit Margate. Make sure you book as it gets super busy. We managed to squeeze in at the end of a Sunday lunchtime having missed the boat for dinner the two...

Pure magic. This place blew me away - not even sure where to start.

Food-wise both their wet cured beef with parmesan and the home cured coppa was melt-in-the-mouth perfect, the ziti was hearty heaven, the verdura e fagioli was a proper ratatouille moment...i want to learn to cook like that! Every plate felt so carefully and lovingly calibrated. And then the tiramisu was so gorgeously pillowy and balanced - no element jumping out too sharply - i could have eaten two of them.

The service staff were also so attentive and dialled in too - they seemed to adjust their approach cleverly per table (we were eating casually without much plan - but I could see other tables having a more classic traditional a la carte starter, main, dessert etc...they managed both with ease). Mimi and Lily were clearly run off their feet but they handled it with such grace - and they/the kitchen staff were having fun together! They created such a beautiful atmosphere in that room. Exquisite - how eating...