Il Bacio - Blackstock Road, Highbury

Il Bacio, the strangely Pizza Express-like Italian restaurant on Blackstock Road, is actually part of a mini chain. Il Bacio the first is on Stoke Newington Church Street with a smaller Il Bacio Express further down the road. I’ve been to the Church Street branch only once a few years ago and I wasn’t that impressed preferring Booths just up the road.

I used to live near Arsenal Stadium and remember Blackstock Road quite fondly, I feel quite sad that the club have chosen to move the stadium, albeit only a few hundred yards down the road. Anyway me and Mr Gorb have long been intending to go and visit this new Il Bacio and last weeks champions league successful semi final made me want to spent some time round Highbury before it changes beyond all recognition.

So off we went. Now when I say it looks like Pizza Express I really mean it does look like Pizza Express, from the full height windows so all outside can stare in, the wooden Phillipe Stark style chairs and marble effect table tops to the little white vases with the carnations and the open plan for-all-to-see kitchen and food prep area. Strangely though, it has a huge plasma screen. Last night this was showing MTV Hits but one assumes it’s really for the matches which seems a bit of a victory for the prawn sandwich brigade to be watching your match over a calzone and ensalata mista rather than a pint in The Gunners.

Wine wise it has the biggest wine list I’ve ever seen. There are separate sections for Sardinia red and whites, roses, sparkling and for ordinary Italian red white and rose etc etc. More wine options than food, proper order thought I. We went for a Sicilian dry white more out of we-once-went-to-Sicily-on-holiday-sentimentality rather than any great knowledge base.

The food is reportedly Sardinian but not having been to Sardinia I’m really none the wiser. We had the house starter which is Sardinian bread with cold meats, olives and mushrooms. Service was on the slow side but not worth winging about. Sardinian bread, when it eventually arrived, turned out to be a poppadom. Don’t let that put you off though it actually works very well with the olive oil and the topping, I’ve decided I’m a fan. For mains Mr Gorb went sensibly for a tagletelli with bacon and mushroom sauce which he rated as fair to good. I stupidly and over ambitiously went for a pizza pleased as I was to see my favourite parmesan, rocket and parma ham combo on the menu. What turned up was enormous, an entire 15 inches of thin crust pizza. I cheated and didn’t eat the crusts but managed to eat the rest. I also had an ensalata mista which wasn’t as fresh as it could have been.

All in all the whole lot starter, mains, wine and salad came to £38 which isn’t bad for your dinner under a plasma screen in a glass box.