Mele e Pere (Restaurant)

Top 10 things to know about Mele e Pere:

1) Can you have too much of a good thing? Well, of course the answer is yes: too much booze - you get a hangover; too much food, you’re liable to get, well, bigger; and as we learnt from visiting Mele e Pere too much truffle on your gnocchi makes the whole dish a bit of a disappointment. I know, I know, #firstworldproblem.

2) This is a shame because what I can’t get enough of is delicious food, and the other dishes that danced before us at Mele e Pere, an Italian restaurant in Soho, were fantastic.

3) The rabbit loin was packed with flavour; the meat tender and succulent.

4) The gilt head bream was perfectly cooked, delicate and overall fantastic.

5) The decor was comfortable – think bookshelves and arty photographs – and while the main restaurant is downstairs in the basement - something I usually hate as, like any sane person, I like to know that in case of emergency I can get out a window - some clever lighting person has made it feel cosy but not claustrophobic.

6) The clientele were a friendly looking bunch, lots of groups out for the evening and a few couples dining on each other rather than the food. All being served by attentive waiting staff, keeping everything moving quickly.

7) Mele e Pere specialises in vermouth, which I get served on a regular basis by my grandmother and unfairly dismissed as out of fashion for a reason. Mele e Pere were serving a different drink entirely to the martini I get at Gran’s. Their home made vermouth was delicious - dry and not too sweet.

8) You can also sip it while sitting at their Vermouth Bar, which is a rather stylish silver number that I have put down in a mental note as a perfect place for pre-dinner drinks in Soho.

9) Now I would like to finish this by reviewing the dessert, but my stomach having manfully done its best through starters, a pasta course, and a meat course, took one look at the desert menu, briefly wavered on the tiramisu, and decided that when it comes to Italian cooking, you can have too much of a good thing – in fact to the point, when you cannot fit another good thing in.

10) Well, apart from a little lemon sorbet but that doesn’t count, right?...read more