What can you tell us about Mele e Pere?
Chef Andrea Mantovani has a top London restaurant background, having worked for years with Anthony Demetre at Arbutus, Wild Honey and Les Deux Salons as well as being involved with Giorgio Locatelli at Refettorio. This is his first solo spot where he's serving up a mixture of traditional and contemporary Italian dishes. Front of house is run by Hugo Roldan, previously of Maze and Lena in Shoreditch.
Where is it?
They've taken over an odd space on the corner of Brewer St and Great Pultney St, so the upstairs entrance has glass shelves lined with hundreds of Murano glass apples and pears but the restaurant is in the basement, down the old apple and pears (sorry we couldn't help ourselves).
Who's it suitable for?
Anyone interested in good Italian cooking - some of the best dishes we tried during our lunch showed real flair in the kitchen. And there never seems to be enough decent places to eat in this part of town - just trying getting into Polpo or Randall & Aubin without queuing - so they should pick up evening trade. The basement restaurant, light and airy as it is, may be a harder sell for business lunches though.
Where should I meet for a drink first?
Two of Hot Dinners' favourite bars in town are barely a few minutes walk away - Bob Bob Ricard is on the same street and Hix Soho is just across Golden Square from here. Both will do you very nicely for a drink - but as they're in basements, you may have trouble with mobile reception.
And where should I sit?
We went at lunchtime and took one of the tables along the wall. It's probably best to avoid the tables right at the back of the room (they're a bit away from the action) - and if you're a couple, sitting up at the bar looks like it would be fun.
Is bread included?
Nope, but at £2.50 it's worth every penny for the full basket of squishy, oily tomato-studded foccacia with excellent olive oil for dipping as well as homemade grissini.
And what should we order?
The menu handily suggests a few nibbles, so we ordered the Sardinian ham to go with our bread while we decided what to eat; wrapped around the foccacia this was one of those pairings that boded well for our meal.
In the event, the dishes we ordered were in the main good - some great - with a few misses. The buffalo mozzarella with roasted peppers and anchovies was lovely, although we'd have liked more than one anchovy as billed and the sliced tripe was declared really very good by those of us brave enough to try it. Our polenta with mushrooms was comforting but could have done with more seasoning. Main courses were more of a hit with a creamy artichoke risotto and rabbit meatballs perfectly cooked, and a 'stew of rabbit, carrots and black olives went down a treat. The highlight of the meal, indisputably, was the tagliata of beef - tender strips of beef you could have cut with a spoon, expertly seared on a charcoal grill and served up with rocket. It was a lesson for kitchens on how to treat good ingredients with respect and not too much mucking around. Sides were also good - the fried zucchini with mint being pretty much impossible not to love.
There wasn't time to order dessert, but we would have tried the blood orange and campari sorbet if we hadn't been rushing off.
What about drinks?
The drinks list here is really interesting although because we were all returning to the office after lunch we didn't manage to do much in the way of working through it, which is another reason to return. We liked the fact that they make their own vermouths which they serve in a variety of cocktails and there's an intriguing list of after dinner cocktails including a VenEton mess, mixing strawberry vermouth with limoncello and double cream cassis. As for the wines, almost all can be ordered in glass, carafe and bottles. We had a lovely clean Verdiccio to start and our waiter recommended a glass of Puglian primitivo to go with the beef which matched it perfectly.
Overall thoughts?
With a more even treatment by the kitchen on seasoning and plenty of people to give it buzz, Mele e Pere could be a really good addition to the Soho dining scene. Restaurant manager Hugo - who was previously at Lena and Maze - and his staff are incredibly welcoming and helpful and honestly couldn't have taken better care of us. And don't forget to look out for the free pear-drops and apple sours by reception on the way out.
Find out more about Mele & Pere
Hot Dinners were invited to eat at Meursault. Prices are correct at the time of writing.
