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An awesome and ridiculous film that leaves you thrilled beyond the point of your natural endurance
2012
Theatre
The show has suddenly become quite wonderful, and the galvanising factor is the terrific stage debut of Melanie C
Blood Brothers
Music
The British pop music industry may be eating itself but if Muse are the pick of what it can offer the world in 2010 then British music is in rude health indeed
Muse
I was smitten by both Gilberts enormous luxuriant moustache and the intelligence and nuance of this highly entertaining play
I totally recommend Babbo to anyone who is looking for really good and traditional Italian food
Always been a fan but never seen them live. I was ecstatic to be part of this epic event. WOW!
London,
David Sexton's rating
Reader rating
Phone: 020 7613 0015
Open: Open Tue-Wed 11am-5pm, Thur-Sat 11am-7pm, Sunday 9.30am-7pm.
Home from home: Campania Gastronomia barista Ivano Leopore in the kitchen
Columbia Road is a mix-up. The Sunday morning flower market, always quite scarily rammed, is still a proper East End furore, knocking out trayloads of garish bedding plants.
Behind the stalls, though, the shops are increasingly chi-chi and expensive,
specialising in offerings that are not strictly necessary to life: crafty clothes, obtrusive ceramics.
And midweek, Columbia Road doesn’t quite know what to do with itself. Most of the boutiques are shut, although there remains a baffled passing trade. And the evenings are even more deserted. Campania Gastronomia’s odd opening times reflect that problem, as does the fact that it’s half deli, half resty. But it’s made a brave effort to be here at all.
The products on sale in the shop part — salami, cheese, dried pasta, passata, fine big fresh Italian sausages, plus fancier preserves such as a fig jam with balsamic vinegar — wouldn’t quite add up to a square meal but that’s not what such a focused little alimentari is for. And you can eat and drink here very satisfactorily, at half a dozen tables in a friendly, rustic room with a basic, home-sized, open kitchen.
The cook, Enzo Giustiani, is from Naples, and the barista from Campania too — the coffee is great. They do appealing cooked breakfasts (brunch, if you must) — eggs in olive oil with parma ham on a rocket salad, for example, at £7 — and more ambitious meals at the weekend with fish — mussels, squid and clams in a white wine and chilli sauce — and lots of sausage and rabbit.
Midweek, though, there’s little choice for lunch.
In the Antipasto della Casa (£9/£16) there was some decent mortadella and some piccante salami, alongside chunks of gorgonzola and a pretty hot pecorino with chilli. Less good was the sliced coppa, a change from Parma ham but quite tough, despite being fatty. The pasta on offer, Paccheri Tonnaiola (£9.50), was outsize tubes with a simple and pleasant sauce, using top-quality tuna, cooked cherry tomatoes, good olive oil and olive, all nicely herbed up — easy home cooking, a very proper way to eat.
The wine list features Southern Italian bottles, specifically those from Campania, a good idea when it comes to reds, less so for the whites, which are surprisingly expensive — Greco di Tufo is £21, Flanghina di Benevento £23.50 — and inevitably lacking in acidity compared with wines from cooler climates. Much better value are the Pieno Sud house wines from Sicily at £14.50. A request for tap water, smilingly accepted, was promptly forgotten, the service being, in the nicest way, a touch amateur.
What you get at Campania Gastronomia is limited compared with, say, Carluccio’s and it’s not particularly cheap. Perhaps it needs to make up its mind if it is mainly a restaurant or a shop. On the other hand, it is, unmistakably, the real thing. And that’s charming.
Details are correct at the time of publication - please check with venue before booking.
