Restaurant Review: Lardo ? Art Wednesday
- 205 Richmond Road, London
Perhaps one of the hottest days of the year wasn?t the best day to pick a restaurant with a gigantic disco ball furnace flaming away in the corner. Thank God then that the food at Lardo was so spectacular, we saw this raging heat more as a cosy teleportation to a baking Italian holiday town, rather than a nuisance. Lardo opened a short while ago just off London fields, and has been gathering rave reviews over the past month, of course we had to pop down and try it for ourselves. The first thing to flag up is the area. A restaurant of this quality, this far out from the usual east London restaurant hub of Shoreditch and Smithfield hints at quite how far the gentrification of the east has spread. The fact that is it practically the first of its kind this far away from the normal higher-end eatery gives it a back alley New York kind of feel and the decor fits this image perfectly ? with bare walls, scaffolding set up for shelves and the wonderfully constructed gigantic, mirrored, heat expelling oven. Walking out like overly stuffed, overly wined Michelin men into the clammy heat of London fields kept the relaxed holiday feel going long after we left the restaurant.
So onto the meal.?We kicked off with a superbly refreshing Albi cocktail (as God knows we needed it) from a short, but sweet menu of three, which combined apricot, aperol and one of our favourite wines, Riesling. The syrupy, intensely sweet cocktail added to the boozy holiday feel, and kicked off the strong flavours that followed nicely. Rather than sit about all watery in the glass towards the bottom, the thick quality of the drink held its own and had to be practically dragged away from us to prevent us from sticking our tongues, bear-to-honey-like, right into the bottom of the glass. It was so delicious that we chose to accompany the meal with their full-blown bottle of Riesling, much sweeter and fuller than most Rieslings, but again, heavy enough to complement the rich variety of flavours in the food.
Far from being your bog standard pizzeria, Lardo splits the menu into small sharing dishes, all costing around the ?5-6 ?mark, and then there?s a list of highly imaginative pizzas with quality toppings. Dishes were brought out to us, as and when they were ready, which makes for a full, but relaxed dining experience of each dish. We started with panzanella, a gooey mix of bread and juicy tomatoes and such beautifully smoked swordfish that it tasted somewhere between smoked ham and octopus, which we could have probably happily just munched away at until we were kicked out of the restaurant. That was followed up with chilli and lemon calamari ?served as the most miniature squids we have ever seen, whole. These were incredibly moreish and delicately cooked, and we gobbled them down like they were a bowl of nuts, rather than a group of tiny sea creatures who had given up their lives to go down our cake holes.
The final small dish we picked was fregola; clams and chilli, with just enough chilli to give the dish a kick, but not too overpowering that the flavour of the clams or the tomatoey sauce was lost. These too were absolutely delicious and we would have happily consumed them as a gigantic main course.?By the time the pizza arrived ? a courgette flower, goat?s curd and anchovy concoction on a paper-thin, wonderfully crisp base ? we were almost too stuffed and boozed to handle it. But we rolled up our sleeves and handle it we did. There was no tomato sauce, which thankfully made it a lighter accompaniment to the rest of the dishes than your standard pizzeria pizza and could just have easily have been eaten as a bread accompaniment to the rest of the food. We aren?t quite sure show we did it (although or cankles were looking a little more swollen than usual), but we managed to make enough room to order not one, but two deserts to share. It would have been rude not to. The peach gelati with biscotti was both delicately peachy and had a light enough texture that it didn?t feel too heavy, and the tart of the day, almond and berries took us back to our mum?s wonderful summery baking. All in all, we left with big, drunken, full-up smiles on our faces and would recommend this restaurant to anyone and everyone.
Here is what we ate?
Drink:
x2 albi cocktails. ?15.00
x1 bottle Riesling. ?38.00
Food:
Panzanella. ?4.00
Deep fried calamari, chilli, lemon. ?5.80
Smoked Swordfish, salmoriglio. ?7.00
Fregola, clams, chilli. ?6.50
Courgette flower, goat?s curd, anchovy pizza. ?9.50
Dessert:
Peach Gelati with Biscotti. ?6
Tart of the day. ?6
Total (excluding service): ?105.38
For contact details, and their hopefully soon to be developed site [click here]
Words by Emily Steer.




Source: http://artwednesday.com/2012/08/22/restaurant-review-lardo/
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