Imagination that shines through

10 April 2012

This review was first published in April 1999

Artigiano is the Italian for artisan. Would I have included this new restaurant in Belsize Park had it not fitted so neatly into my theme? Yes. For a start it is considerably better and better-looking than its Italian predecessor on the same site and, when you get beyond the surly service, the skill of the chef who has worked for five years in the kitchens of the Italian Embassy shines through some of the quite imaginative dishes.

The notion of a carbonara di mare - a mixture of seafood in an egg-enriched broth - is a clever one for dressing spaghetti lightly. On the other hand, perhaps it is over-egging the pudding to add a saut? of chicken livers to a saffron risotto, but both parts of that dish were very well-prepared. In the main course, a veal chop was swamped by its garnish of onions, potatoes and wild mushrooms and a sauce too vigorously reduced, but once these elements were pushed aside the meat revealed itself as tender and flavoursome. Grilled calves liver in paper-thin slices served on grilled ribbons of courgette and endive with pancetta was a much more refined assembly. The chocolate dessert chosen by my lunching pal resembled a dark, wet sponge.

Artigiano is part of The Etrusca Group Ltd who own Caravaggio, Tao and the Taverna and Bar Etrusca in the City, among other outlets. They would seem to have found their manager for the Belsize Park venture from staff central casting circa 1970. Pleased to ignore us when we arrived, even more pleased to turn away a couple wanting to eat at 2.30pm and positively gleeful in denying another couple a drink on the terrace which is open to the quiet street (it was a lovely sunny day), this sort of antediluvian behaviour cannot be a boost to profits and it certainly adds no pleasure to the event of eating out. But something can be inferred from the company's general approach when you see that the recommended wine for the specials of the day is a Giada Barbera d'Alba at £32.50. That won't wear well near Hampstead.

Artigiano
Belsize Terrace, London, NW3 4AX

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