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Description: Bianco Nero restaurant, right in the heart of London's Hammersmith, may be modern Italian but specializes in old-fashioned great service. The dining room is a sleek concoction of cool white floors, tables and seating that softens the look with a few silkscreens of herby plants made graphically large. What's authentic about this relative newcomer is its dedication to fresh, inventive flavours - not your usual spaghetti shop. For instance, signature dishes include pan-fried king scallops with celeriac puree and pancetta, bianco nero sautéed calamari and squid ink, trio of stuckling pig with cavolo nero, and pud of white chocolate and raspberry cheesecake. The cheesecakes are sin city, generally, and the wood-fired pizzas superb any time. Downstairs lounge is a warm local scene.
Phone: 020 8748 0212
Open: Mon - Fri 12pm - 3pm & 6pm - 11pm. Closed Sundays & Bank Holidays
Dress code: Casual
Payment options: All major cards except Diners
Humanising Hammersmith: Bianco Nero's head chef Aron Johnson, formerly at Al Duca
The gyratory system around Hammersmith Broadway is one of London's inhuman ensembles, right up there with the Elephant and Castle. Despite the presence of so many head offices in the area, it's been quite a gastro-desert, too, if you discount the geographically close but financially deterrent River Café.
Bianco Nero is a new-style Italian restaurant, on the site of a very old one. It's emphatically designed, all in black and white, of course: black and white walls, black and white tables and chairs, black and white floors, inkily dressed staff, too.
The main room, which seats about 70, is one big space, after you come through the entrance capsule, and offers a view of the Hammersmith Road and the bus-station building-site opposite. It's very noisy here when busy, and the chairs are quite canteen-like and don't invite lingering, either.
The food, prepared by a chef who came from Al Duca, is mixed modern Italian, not from any one region, unless that region is west London. It's pitched, says one of the owners, somewhere above chains such as Strada but below the River Café. The ingredients are pretty luxurious, the menu short but enticing - and the service is notably friendly.
Risotto Bianco Nero with squid ink and sautéed calamari (£8.50 as a starter, £10.50 as a main) offered an opportunity to carry the black and white theme through onto the plate. The little pile of squid rings in the centre of the dish was tender and delicious; the tasty black risotto, though, was slightly undercooked, the grains of rice chalky rather than unctuous. Pan fried King Scallops with celeriac purée and pancetta (£10) were so good - very fresh and juicy, not cooked a moment too long - they didn't really need the routine surf 'n' turf accompaniment.
The fish in "Pan fried wild sea bass with fried artichokes, courgette ribbons and a sweet and sour caper dressing" (£19.50) was great quality, too, but the dish as a whole was far too salty - had anchovies been used? - and the courgettes were crunchily near raw, while deep-frying artichoke seems a daft idea.
Beef "tagliata" with sautéed spinach, marinated mushrooms and a port wine sauce (£18.50) was slices of seared steak, not perhaps the tenderest cut, nicely pink, with some enjoyably leafy greens. It was fine: nothing wrong with it at all, nothing special about it either. It's just what you'd like from a neighbourhood restaurant, but maybe a little more cheaply.
The puddings, for them as takes the plunge, offer all kinds of eyetie dolciness: white chocolate and raspberry cheesecake, for example. We had a little selection of ice-creams, all good, even one taking on the challenge of Christmas pudding.
The wine list is appealing and reasonably priced, opening with a Veneto white or red at £12.50 or £3.25 a small glass. A Cortese from Piedmont (£16) was fresh, delicate, lovely - Ca' del Matt turns out to be made by the travelling winemaker Matt Thomson, from the St Clair Estate in New Zealand, and Bianco Nero lists several other of the delicious wines he has made in Italy for Alpha Zeta. And the bread is great here, too - the ciabatta had the light elastic texture that supermarket versions never get right.
We drank quite a lot and ordered from the top of the menu, ending up with a bill for £102.09, which seemed expensive. But it would be possible to go to Bianco Nero and have pasta for much less - the pappardelle with rabbit and rosemary ragu (at £9.50 for a main) looked good. And downstairs, there's quite a funky bar that would work just for a drink, though it also offers "sharing platters", including a "pizza del giorno".
Bianco Nero is operating at a different price level from both old-fashioned, family-run small Italian restaurants and the likes of Strada. But all the food here, including some imprecisions, tasted like the real product of a one-off, relatively small kitchen, in the way that meals from chain restaurants never do. And anything humanising Hammersmith has to be welcomed.
Details are correct at the time of publication - please check with venue before booking.
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I went here last night, absolutely fantastic. My main of fish stew was superb, and the desserts were the nicest I have had for ages. Finally, a reason to go out in Hammersmith. It's my local restaurant and I feel very lucky.
- Tommy, London
Great meal last night. Calamari fritti excellent. Zuppe di pesce would have like something with it but flavour great. Cheesecake delicious. Great fun in bar after dinner.
- Peter Woodhead, Richmond England
