Costly new Italian is a safe bet for good clients
RESTAURANT
COTIDIE
50 Marylebone High Street, W1U 5HN Tel: 020 7258 9878
FOOD ***
SERVICE ****
ATMOSPHERE ***
You wouldn’t think London needed yet another high-end Italian restaurant. Well, apparently, it does – or at least, it won’t say no to one. For a late sitting one recent Thursday, the (fairly) new Cotidie was surprisingly busy, full of boisterous, Armani-clad European bankers. At a table near us was a table of young Russian men in suits, who kept a bottle of vodka on ice alongside the fine wine.
But it’s not strictly that sort of place: it’s expensive, yes (a starter of asparagus with prawns for £14), and elegant (lots of lacquered minimalism and interesting light fixtures), but it’s friendly. I was there with my mother and we sat together at one of the elegant yet cosy oval tables, wedged together on the same side.
The food was clearly composed of the highest quality ingredients. The idea is that they come from many regions of Italy – but as someone not equipped with an encyclopaedic culinary or agricultural knowledge of Europe’s most various food country, I can only say that what we ordered was generally very tasty, but also a bit skimpy where portions are concerned. (Occasionally the reverse was true and the plates came heaped.)
To start with, my mother was seduced by the sounds of the “traditional Culatello di Zibello with ‘crescentine’ fried bread and preserved fruit mostarda” – this came as a curiously simple, repetitive plate of cured meat with dough-ball style bread; puffed up and lightly fried. The bread was a naughty fairground treat; the meat very good – but all together, it felt a bit samey. For £16 you might want something with more dimensions.
I went with the aforementioned asparagus: seasonal, yes, and sweetly sautéed, with lovely sizzled “mazzancole” (triple-grooved) prawns still with a bit of shell, and a herb mayonnaise. Nice, but small – four or so spears of asparagus and three or so small prawns huddled together. I wanted more.
We next indulged in that mysterious extra Italian course of carbs (do you have it instead of a starter? Is it greedy to have it as well as one?). The fresh handmade guinea-fowl ravioli with butter and black pepper, diced char-grilled ham and green pea velouté called to my mother, who wanted something unusual – it came al dente, with some sort of cheese having snuck into the ravioli filling, and thus very rich when you added in the ham.
My mother felt the pea veloute didn’t work harmoniously with the pasta – I begged to differ, finding in it a welcome, earthy counterpoint to the animal flavours of the rest of the dish.
But unexpectedly, my country soup of beans – “warm Frantoio soup with pistà pasta and chervil” was the winner. It was rustic a bowl so densely packed with fibre that it would have satisfied a hiker fresh from a freezing day in the Dolomites. The broth had the the consistency of baked beans gravy, and there were flecks of cheese accompanying the beans and pasta.
Onwards to fish: fillet of gilthead sea bream steamed with seaweed, pesto and garlic broccoli was a cleansing, low-fat dish but small. Very small at £26. If your priority is your waistline, though, this is a great choice. Meanwhile, I was trying to make sense of “white fish salad” which I had imagined as something containing vegetables. It was more of a French fish stew without the stew – prawns, a few large pieces of white fish, clams, mussels, and a wasabi mayonnaise I didn’t like much. I don’t see the point of ordering such a dish unless you’re avoiding carbs and meat, but at the time I had thought of vegetables, and the meat on the menu hadn’t appealed for some reason.
Now, looking closely, I see there’s a rooster stuffed with duck foie gras and lardoons and served with spinach flan. I imagine that’d be a stonking dish.
Finally, we inferred that the puddings at Cotidie – based on the petit fours we nibbled – must be excellent. They all looked tempting but we were feeling virtuous after all that fish.
All in all, this is a very Marylebone sort of place: European, expensive, elegant. But it’s more than that, too: the service is excellent, executed by a team of light-footed, earnest Italians, and there are no short cuts with quality. But given the sort of food now available in London for less money, Cotidie is just a bit too far off the mark when it comes to offering bang for buck. If that doesn’t bother you – for example if you need a classy place to bring clients, go forth and enjoy.