L'anima soft launch

Last Wednesday we visited Francesco Mazzei's newest venture - L'anima Cafe for their soft launch and were impressed from the second we walked in (if not feeling a little under-dressed). The decor was really fresh and spacious with a really large bar and some of the tables had a flame in the middle which was producing some serious heat (not needed with the current weather!) From start to end we were impressed and found the staff really friendly, smartly dressed and attentive and it was nice to see Francesco walking around - felt a bit sorry for the bread waitress though as she kept crashing the trolley as she wheeled it to peoples tables.

Check out the bread and dip selection - absolutely delicious!  We were able to select 3 breads to try accompanied with a fish, vegetarian and spicy dip.  Our favourite bread was probably the olive bread however they were all great.  Beware that you will have to pay for the bread.

Starters:

Carpaccio di manzo & tonno crudo

-Both starters were a decent size and very flavoursome. The carpaccio melted in the mouth and worked really well with the blue cheese. The tuna was beyond fresh but we felt it was slightly overpowered by the celery.  Despite this the dish not unpleasant and was great for a summer evening.



     

Mains:

Calabrese & Sybarita
- Both pizzas were on a great base with the right amount of crunch (around the edges)! The nduja one was by far our favourite with really fresh mozzarella and watercress helping cool the mouth down as nduja can be really spicy! The roast potato and italien sausage pizza were not what we were expecting at all.  And in all honesty we did not enjoy it, the base was very soggy and it was very bland.  We were left disappointed.

Desert: Caprese - we were super full  after our first courses but just had to try the flour free chocolate cake! This reminded us of a cherry bake well due to the use of almond flour and the second it arrived we managed to make room and the cake was soon demolished!

We had a pretty good meal here despite some slight disappointments and encourage everyone to take a trip East to this eatery. After watching masterchef we would also love to go to L'anima restaurant and sample some more of Francesco's Italian classics!