Before La Figa even opened its doors in Limehouse, it caused a bit of a stir due to the crude association of its name, though in what must be a decade on from that, the restaurant has demonstrated staying power, while local residents have not, it seems, been overly corrupted by their new found familiarity with Italian slang. That the restaurant has endured might partially be due to the fact that it is, quite possibly, the only dedicated restaurant in Limehouse, but also because it is actually rather good.

The restaurant itself occupies a large space on the ground floor of a modern block of residential flats and is (we understand) the sister restaurant of Wapping's better known Italian Il Bordello. The staff (in both) are all Italian and there seems an air of authenticity about the place so that you really do feel you're getting a proper Italian meal, and certainly our dinner at La Figa was better than the tourist traps of Venice we experienced last year, and even the quality restaurants that came recommended to us also give or take. It's not quite up there with London's leading Italians like Locanda Locatelli, but doesn't try to be. despite that, it's not so far off, and for our money, it was as satisfying a meal as the one we ate at well regarded L'Anima but most agreeably at half the price.

The menu at La Figa is substantial, a page turner in fact, and unless you really despise Italian food (which would be odd on many levels), it would be hard not to find something you liked; if you love Italian food, you can easily find yourself paralysed with indecision. But not only is the menu big, the portion sizes are huge: we ordered a starter each, a pasta dish to share, a main each and a dessert to share and we still found ourselves taking home a doggy bag. We have been to La Figa several times before and we know that plates piled high is the norm, influencing our decision to opt for sharing the pasta course.

When the starters come, mussels, and bruschetta san daniele (bruschetta topped with Parma ham), we're still taken aback, for both look to be a meal in their own right. The big bowl of mussels comes in a lovely tomato, garlic and white wine sauce topped with toasted bread so that nothing need be left, and if this were your only meal of the day, you'd be happy. The bruschetta offers three thick cut slices that threatens to fill you up there and then, and a tactical 'leave some on the side of the plate' seems necessary even though it is so good that I just wanted to keep eating against my better judgement.

For the pasta, we chose the tagliatelle speciali, which is langoustine, monk fish, sea scallops in tomato and white wine sauce. Two whole langoustine sit on top of the pasta which, covered in the tomato sauce, does make for a messy extraction while making you wonder if the work is worth the effort, but additionally with two scallops and four monkfish medallions the size of scallops, this offers a huge amount of food and seems a great dish for sharing. It does mean at La Figa you never feel cheated compared with some Italians where it's all pasta and virtually no seafood which happens all too often (and is something of a pet hate of mine).

Quantity however is not at the expense of quality and I guess you don't survive 10 years as an Italian restaurant if you can't do good pasta. At £18.95, we're very happy.

Lamb chops in rosemary sauce (don't they mean gravy?) is a slightly tactical order to manage food quantity and it comes with a choice of vegetables or salad. I opt for the salad which is another mountain of a plate, and while in the picture the greens aren't dressed, olive oil and balsamic is freely available on the table. The lamb is lovely and the rosemary gravy is something to mop up with anything available. The veal slice is dauntingly large and most of this made the journey home with us (too good to waste) as we already crumble under the volume of food.

Desserts are all Italian classics and each one not only sounds tempting, but on display in a glass cabinet, you're feasting with your eyes from the moment you set foot inside the restaurant. Profitteroles here are quite something, and no surprise, only slightly smaller than tennis balls. The plate arrives with something like five of these monsters on, wow. By now of course it is quite unnecessary and fortunately, sharing the plate provides some semblance of portion control, though they are so good that had we not been sharing, resistance, as they say, would have been utterly futile. It is a very satisfying end to the meal.

There are two things we like about the bill. First, they do not include service which is left to the discretion of the diner. The almost ubiquitous automatic inclusion of service 'for your convenience' hardly provides front of house an incentive to strive on your behalf and has in our view become a bit of a mockery of what tipping should be about. Leave it off and it's truly a discretionary charge.

Second, we like the size of the bill. The food above, bottled water, a glass of wine, before service came to £90.25 for two people, so £51 a head with service included. For a meal that we really enjoyed eating, four courses, and with enough food to take home also, this is great value.

It is of course a local Italian, not a destination restaurant for West Londoners, but it's walking distance from Canary Wharf and is at least as good as anything you'll find there, so if you live or work East, why not give it a try. And make sure you arrive there hungry.


Return to homepage

La Figa website