The general manager was charming but the head waiter rather curt, and service is an area for improvement in my view based on the experience tonight. This was clearly an inappropriate recommendation and although he "sold" the extra dish this was sharp practice. The waiter recommended that I have the spinach as a side dish despite my asking what vegetables it came with, and being told none (the duck actually rested on a bed of, guess what, spinach). In three courses for two people they couldn't get one course correct, which is not what you would hope from a restaurant that clearly has ambitions (just toss a coin and you'd get more accuracy). For each of the three courses we either had "who ordered what?" or alternatively dishes confidently presented to the wrong person. The two problems for me were the service, which was amateurish, and the price. Roast potatoes had good texture and were cooked with a little rosemary, while the spinach (if that is what is was) was again tender. There were no nibbles offered, and the bread itself was charged extra at £2.50 a helping, while vegetables are also extra at £4-£4.50. Foccacia and onion bread were extremely good, as were breadsticks (16/20). The bread is home-made here, and is very good indeed. Plum tart with yoghurt sorbet was pleasant, though the pastry was just a fraction harder than ideal (12/20) while baked Alaska (hardly Italian, surely?) with rum and raisin ice cream worked well, the meringue nicely made and the ice cream very good (14/20).
This was better than my wife's pan-fried whole lemon sole, served on the bone, correctly cooked with mammole artichokes (traditionally from Lazio) though somehow lacking excitement for me (12/20). My main course was duck, a fan of Gressingham duck breast cooked pink and resting in cooking juices, alongside a potato cake containing confit of duck leg, tomatoes and wild mushrooms. The duck rested on an unannounced and very tender bed of what may have been spinach (but whose leaf size suggested to me another member of the cabbage family). The pasta had very pleasing texture and the dish worked well as a whole (15/20). Better was home-made tortelli pasta filled with ricotta, pecorino nero and broad beans. The dressing was nicely balanced and the leaves of good quality, though to me they were not of the level that the ones Zafferano manages to get for its salads (13/20). I started with salad of wild leaves with a soft boiled duck egg and anchovy dressing. the excellent Bonny Doon Pacific Rim Riesling at £23.50 (which retails at £8.49). The wine list was manageable in size and as well as Italian choices had a smattering of alternatives e.g. The chefs also have a good pedigree, with Bobby Cabral training at Zafferano and Tom Salt at the River Cafe. Indeed there is a deli attached to the premises selling the Machiavelli produce.
Produce is of a high standard, as one would expect from the Italian importer Machiavelli, which owns the restaurant and provides Harrods and Harvey Nichols with its Italian deli produce.
Manico mio movie#
Manicomio means madhouse in Italian, reflecting the building's history as an military insane asylum no doubt in a Hollywood movie there is a potential for a slasher horror film here (ghost of madman possesses chef with cleaver, you get the idea) but fortunately the cooking is very sane, with not a lunatic taste combination in sight. It is a quite large venture, with outside seating in nice weather, a bar and dining room as well as a conservatory that doubles as a private dining room. It is tucked away opposite Peter Jones near Sloane Square. Manicomio is situated in the redevelopment that was once the Chelsea Barracks.
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