I usually miss out wandering up
the stretch of Kingsland Road north of Haggerston to Dalston, usually just passing
through on the 243. There’s now a very
good reason to, with Rotorino open at number 432 (a second actually until middle of May, as the
Mussel Men site is a few doors down – apparently the Sunday seafood roast is
the thing to go for).
Stevie Parle (of
the Dock Kitchen) is behind the menu, with Ruth of Legs Long Length behind the
wine, and Jonathan Downey as a partner (of Milk & Honey, Streetfeast
etc). The interior is a rather gorgeous
mix of geometric 60s wallpaper, shiny over-sized industrial hanging lamps, bare
brick and blond wood. There’s a bar and
long sharing table at the front, with tables and boots for four people at the
back.
The menu is split into First (small dishes, under cured, raw/cold, fried and grilled), Second (pasta), and Third (meat and fish dishes). From the first, we started with the octopus (£4), grilled with the smoky fragrance of its rosemary sprig skewer, and really tender with the chilli and soaked bread sauce (I’ve forgotten the rubbery over-cooked sort, with all the lovely silky/justthe right bite kind I have had recently).
From the
First, the chickpea fritters (£3.50) came as little square pillows, with fried
sage. N thought they were a little bland, but I really liked them
alongside the sweet/salty tang of the aubergine, tomato, celery, pine nuts and
raisins in the caponata (£4.80).
There was a selection of four
pasta dishes, to come as a small or big bowl (great blue and white spot
spattered enamel bowls by the way). We
had the pistachio casarecce (small £7.50), a little like a non-cheesy pesto
with lots of crushed pistachio nuts with the basic, garlic and olive oil. The other we tried was the mussels fusilli
longhi (£7 for the small size), with the seafood chopped and intense, with
tomato, oregano and chilli. Rotorino
will definitely be added to my top 5 London pasta places (in progress at the moment).
It’s often good to go with the
waitress recommendation. It paid off with
the Sasso chicken (chicken’s usually my last choice on the menu) – there’s
tender meat, with ricotta stuffed under the crispy chicken (£14 for a
one-person version). It came on rich
chicken juice soaked toast, and was absolutely delicious. We had it alongside the Monk’s Beard (£4.50) with
lentils (Monk’s Beard looks a little like samphire, and tastes similar but less
salty, and has only a five week season where it grows in Tuscany).
The rest of the bottle of very
good red wine (all very reasonable) and pudding pretty much finished us
off. The pudding was billed as chocolate
cake (£5), but it came as a very rich, dark fudgey cocoa ball, sprinkled with
pistachios and honeycomb. They also
obliged with swapping the sour cream on the side with the excellent hazelnut ice-cream.
You can really tell the team
behind it come from successful existing places – service was spot-on, and it’s just the relaxed room you want to rush back to.
Alongside the excellent, and well-priced, interesting Italian menu, I’ll
be hopping off the 243 bus on Kingsland Road more often.
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