Terra at Eataly is an Italian wine lover’s dream
We are celebrating the best of the Square Mile this October with ! Voting is open now so on the website. In the run up, we’re honouring some of our favourite City hotspots
For the Italian wine lover there is no better Canada spot than Eataly, which boasts the largest selection of Italian wines in the UK. Terra is the beating heart of this ode to Italophilia, focusing on simple Italian dishes cooked with flair and fire in their wood-burning grill.
There is a comforting buzz about this place, with its bare wooden tables, napkins tied with twine and ceiling festooned with hanging greenery and warmly glowing lightbulbs in coloured jars. The clever cocktail list is divided into the four elements, and I started with a Spritz Torbato which, with its mix of smoke, spritz and sparkle, tasted like the hedonistic summer parties of my twenties.
Dishes are served with a sense of theatre, juicy prawns hanging on a huge, suspended skewer, and my excellent Filetto di Manzo presented with a flourish on a bed of smoking hay. I opted for a bottle of Marco De Bartoli’s Grillo from Sicily, a lesser-known grape but a white wine that paired well with my winning starter of grilled squid Panzanella salad and had the structure and depth to handle a steak. It is at the end of the meal however that Terra really comes into its own, delivering its own take on the cheese and dessert trolley tradition.
Two large, creamy spoonfuls of gorgonzola are scooped from a massive wheel of cheese and served decorated with dried fruits, nuts and drizzles of honey. The Maritozzi, a homemade sweet sourdough brioche, is selected, sliced, and filled with whipped cream which, our waiter tells us, is so fresh and rich it reminds him of the gelato shop he used to live next to as a boy. Like the pizza parlour ice cream counter of our adult dreams, this can be covered in anything from Nutella to pistachio cream to chopped hazelnuts, amarena cherries and mini amaretti.
The whole experience feels like a sophisticated nod to ‘80s nostalgia, minus the kitsch. That feeling is cemented by the polaroid photo taken of every new guest as a parting gift.
