Luna Rossa in Notting Hill, the latest place from the Made in Italy restaurant group, is set to re-launch in mid-July, and it has a rather special feature to entice Londoners through its doors. The revamped restaurant will feature a conveyor belt concept (as you'll have seen in certain sushi restaurants) but here it'll serve ‘sfizi’ (small plates) of authentic southern Italian food direct to its diners.
Up to 20 people at a time can sit up at the moving counter and choose from around 10 to 15 cold ‘sfizi’. Dishes will include octopus carpaccio and Sicilian caponata.
The double-fronted restaurant will also be open for breakfast and brunch for the first time. The menu offers a halfway house between the full English and a taste of Italy, aptly named ‘The Full Italian’, including eggs cooked any style, crispy pancetta, home-made fennel salsiccia, cannellini beans and toasted sourdough bread.
The new split-level dining room will serve diners seven days a week, and will continue to offer Neapolitan pizzas served ‘al metro’ (by the metre), as well as a ‘grab and go’ selection from the deli. Grills such as rib-eyes, scallops and Italian sausages will be cooked to order on the new charcoal grill in the kitchen under the watchful eye of head chef Eduardo Tuccillo, with diners having a ‘front row’ view through the glass screen separating the restaurant and kitchen. There’ll also be dishes such as Tagliolini basilico con burrata and Blood oranges, fennel & salted ricotta salad on the a la carte.
Luna Rossa's Italian wine bar will serve wines from five different regions straight from the barrel and there's also the option of having an ‘ombretta’ (a small glass of wine), with prices starting from £1 for 50ml. The bar will also include Italian-inspired cocktails such as the Portobello Bellini and the Lemon Cheesecake Martini (gulp!).
Luna Rossa reopens on 24 July at 190-192 Kensington Park Road, London W11 2ES. Tel 020 7229 0482.
