L'Anima is a top end Italian in the City and has won much praise from leading food critics like Jay Rayner. Located just a few minutes walk from Broadgate Circle, Bishopsgate and Liverpool Street station, it clearly has its eye on the deep wallets of the financial community and the offering is set accordingly. With our own meal however being at best hit and miss, a bill coming in at over £100 a head with little by way of drink seemed like a lot of money for anything other than a first class meal.
While the restaurant is set within the ground floor of an office block, it's a new construction such that the space is quite stylish though a drink in the bar first provided a wobbly table and high chairs that were essentially uncomfortable; fashion and comfort are only ever bedfellows by accident after all. Staff however were pleasant throughout the evening.
Moving from the bar to the restaurant, it is very smart indeed and I imagine that lunchtimes see the venue full of the City's great and good; the venue itself presents an air of modern professionalism well suited to business lunches.
A basket of bread arrives at the table first but a rock hard bread stick almost breaks my teeth while the focaccia and other breads feel too doughy. Then the starters: Mazzara shrimp salad with tonnato sauce and bottarga, together with Norcia hand carved ham with pane & pomodoro. Portion sizes here are very large indeed (to go with the very large price tag) but these were both excellent starters. The salad was somewhat overdressed but at least it was overdressed with a very tasty sauce. The ham meanwhile was perhaps the best Italian ham I've tasted.
While the restaurant is set within the ground floor of an office block, it's a new construction such that the space is quite stylish though a drink in the bar first provided a wobbly table and high chairs that were essentially uncomfortable; fashion and comfort are only ever bedfellows by accident after all. Staff however were pleasant throughout the evening.
Moving from the bar to the restaurant, it is very smart indeed and I imagine that lunchtimes see the venue full of the City's great and good; the venue itself presents an air of modern professionalism well suited to business lunches.
A basket of bread arrives at the table first but a rock hard bread stick almost breaks my teeth while the focaccia and other breads feel too doughy. Then the starters: Mazzara shrimp salad with tonnato sauce and bottarga, together with Norcia hand carved ham with pane & pomodoro. Portion sizes here are very large indeed (to go with the very large price tag) but these were both excellent starters. The salad was somewhat overdressed but at least it was overdressed with a very tasty sauce. The ham meanwhile was perhaps the best Italian ham I've tasted.
Moving to pasta dishes, the Tagliolini with aged Parmigiano Reggiano & black summer truffle was perhaps the dish of the day. Excellent. My own Basil risotto was however a disappointment. A very big plate of risotto, the risotto was done well but the dish didn't offer enough interest to make you want to eat a supersize portion of it and after only a few mouthfuls of this I was somewhat bored and half the plate was returned to the kitchen.
For the mains, the veal chop was over cooked and had dried out making this the disappointing dish of the day, especially when priced at £36. Better was the Black Scotch beef tagliata, marrow bone, 'ovinsardo' and 'magliocco sauce'. Presented intriguingly as a tower, the beef sitting on the upturned bone, unlike the basil risotto, there was plenty going on here to keep you interested and the cheese and the bone marrow were excellent accompaniments that together with the sauce made the dish as the beef by itself was a touch lacklustre.
The dessert, a hazelnut bomb was essentially a fail also. Predominently hazelnut and pistachio ice cream that was so cold and frozen it anaesthetised your mouth, it lacked throughout hazelnut impact, I think I found two close to the centre; without being told, I doubt you'd guess this is a hazelnut dessert. Proportions were also wrong: the liquid chocolate centre offered little more than a dribble for this gigantic dessert and despite the fact we shared it between the two of us and still left a third of it on the plate.
There were some very good dishes but also some very so so dishes. Together with the food, we had between the two of us one non alcoholic cocktail and three glasses of wine: with services, the bill was £211. Three course a la carte at double Michelin starred The Square costs £80 per person, with service, £90. To eat at L'Anima therefore will cost the same as eating 2 star Mayfair.
This felt to us too much money for a meal that we're not raving about; we can't imagine returning and will leave it to those with the appropriate expense accounts to fill the tables.
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This felt to us too much money for a meal that we're not raving about; we can't imagine returning and will leave it to those with the appropriate expense accounts to fill the tables.
Return to homepage