<a target="_blank" href="https://www.mantecarestaurant.co.uk/">Manteca – Spitalfields</a><a target="_blank" href="https://www.mantecarestaurant.co.uk/">

</a>49-51 Curtain Road, 

London 

EC2A 3PT

(nearest tube – Liverpool Street)

BY&nbsp;NEAL MARTIN |&nbsp;FEBRUARY 09, 2024The Food:

Coppa

Pheasant
cotoletta with three-cornered leek mayo

Pork
and beef meatballs with San Marzano tomato sauce and Parmesan

Tagliatelle al ragù Bolognese

Amarena cherry and almond cake with vanilla gelato

The Wine:

2020 Garesio Langhe Nebbiolo&nbsp;&nbsp; 92

Not so
long ago, the weakest link in London’s dining scene was finding top-notch
Italian restaurants. There are so many pizzeria chains in London that you can
smell melted cheese in the air. But exciting Italian chefs pushing boundaries
seemed few and far between. I guess the last high-profile opening was Locanda
Locatelli. That was so long ago that Radio One DJ Chris Evans was wooing
Billie Piper at the adjacent table. (I am aware those names will mean little to
those in the USA, though Piper turned from a teenage pop star to one of the
UK’s best actresses.) Thankfully, matters have changed in recent years. There’s
Bocca di Lupo, still firing on all cylinders when I took that Martin
clan several years ago and probably overdue a Vinous Table. More recently, I
visited Brutto in Farringdon, where I enjoyed a delicious porcini
tagliatelle shortly before the untimely passing of founder Russell Norman.
There’s also Padella in Borough Market, which is more casual, though
queues stretch a long way every lunchtime for good reason.

In early
2022, I attended a tasting of Chris and Andrea Mullineux’s wines at an Italian restaurant
called Manteca. After stints in Soho and Mayfair, the restaurant had recently settled
down in the posher part of Spitalfields, around a 15-minute walk from Liverpool
Street Station. It is a joint venture between David Carter of Smokestak and
chef Chris Leach, ex-Kitty Fisher’s and <a target="_blank" href="https://vinous.com/articles/vinous-table-petersham-nurseries-cafe-richmond-uk-mar-2021">Petersham
Nurseries</a>. The dishes served that day stuck in my memory. Manteca subsequently
gained a reputation as one of the capital’s go-to Italians. So, just before
Christmas, I met a friend to check out whether Manteca was as good as I
remembered.<img alt="" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/images.vinous.com/uploads%2F1707489237600-manteca+coppa.JPG">Coppa 

The
restaurant occupies a ground floor and basement, a former Pizza Express. On a
drizzly cold December lunchtime, I found it was jam-packed, buzzy, and so noisy
that often I had to raise my voice above the din. It’s not a place for a
romantic meal to whisper sweet nothings into your lover’s ear. In the basement,
you walk past a salumeria where assorted salami, prosciutto and hams are aged,
tables here packed closely together. One thing that bothered me was that our
coats had to be slung over the chairs, and mine kept sliding off. The theme is
nose-to-tail eating, certainly leaning towards meat dishes with an in-house
butchery and pasta made on-site. Many of the dishes are designed to be shared. What
the dishes might lack in subtlety and presentation is more than compensated for
with lip-smacking, deliciously, bold flavors. You’re not going to leave feeling
hungry because just about everything on the menu is tempting.We
chose coppa from the salumeria, sliced perfectly thin with just enough fat. Delicious!
The next dish was Pheasant cotoletta with three-cornered leek mayo. I was a bit
shocked with the claw, which might be off-putting for some, yet the meat itself
was delicious in terms of gaminess, perhaps just a tiny bit drier than
preferred, the splodge of leek mayo lending welcome tanginess, powerful flavors
with real punch. I could have eaten another, maybe just requested slightly less
cooked. <img alt="" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/images.vinous.com/uploads%2F1707489275624-manteca+pheasant_copy.jpg">Pheasant cotoletta with three-cornered leek mayo

The
pork and beef meatballs with San Marzano tomato sauce and Parmesan were a
conservative choice, but hey, you just cannot go wrong. These were, again,
perfectly cooked and had an oozing flavor.<img alt="" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/images.vinous.com/uploads%2F1707489311976-manteca+meatballs.JPG">Pork and beef meatballs with San Marzano tomato sauce and ParmesanThe
tagliatelle al ragù Bolognese was another safe choice, but I was in a pasta kind
of mood. My only quibble is that I could have done with a bit more on my plate.
Maybe looking back, I should thank the kitchen because I still had room for
dessert before my tummy said “full”.<img alt="" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/images.vinous.com/uploads%2F1707489343019-manteca+tagliatelle.jpg">Tagliatelle al ragù Bolognese 

The
Amarena cherry and almond cake with vanilla gelato was to die for. Moist and
crumbly, partnered with the gelato, this was a perfect finish to what had been
a superb Italian lunch.<img alt="" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/images.vinous.com/uploads%2F1707489379711-manteca+dessert.JPG">Amarena cherry and almond cake with vanilla gelato 

The
real attraction for wine lovers is a superb list of mainly Italian wines from
various wine regions at reasonable prices. One section labeled “down the rabbit
hole” has a long list of cultish names. There are a few orange wines for those who
don’t get along with sulfur. I chose the 2020 Langhe Nebbiolo from
Garesio at around £60 for a bottle, and it was perfect. I don’t mean it was
the greatest wine in the world; rather, at that precise moment, if you had come
out with a bottle of, say, Sassicaia 1985 on a silk cushion, I might have waved
you away and declared that I was perfectly fine, thank you. Garesio is not a
producer that I had heard of before, but I will certainly be keeping my eye
out. Lively red cherries and wild strawberry commingle with hints of loam on
the nose, the palate quite tart in the mouth, racy acidity with a brisk and
lively finish that ably handled with the potent flavors on the plate. I exuded joie-de-vivre
and adored it from the start until turning the bottle upside down to eke out
the final drops.<img alt="" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/images.vinous.com/uploads%2F1707489420582-manteca+wine.jpg">Manteca
does not quite have the same high profile as its peers, yet it was packed to the
rafters, probably more of a lunch venue than an evening. It is not pursuing
awards or Michelin stars, and all the better for it. Given the escalation in
restaurant prices across London, while Manteca is not inexpensive, it is
certainly affordable, and the wide choice of wines will please oenophiles. If
you find yourself in the City or around Spitalfields, I heartily recommend this
Italian. I’ll follow this Vinous Table with another that has been touted by a
friend who knows his stuff. Stay tuned. 

At
last, London has plenty to offer pasta-hounds like myself who desire more than
Pizza Express.© 2024, Vinous. No portion of this article may be copied, shared or re-distributed without prior consent from Vinous. Doing so is not only a violation of our copyright, but also threatens the survival of independent wine criticism.

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