Manteca

"Patchy food and service. The small plates to start were excellent. The ‘sharing’ concept of the larger plates is flawed and in spite of a small menu the arrival of the food and sides was erratic. The crab cacio e pepe was almost cold. Disappointing."

"Hits and misses - great pastas but some of the small plates don't match up - in this bustling, noisy but fun couple of rooms in Shoreditch."

"I’ve been hearing good things about Manteca for quite a while now so it was about time we decided to pay a visit ourselves. Well I can honestly say that all the great things I’d heard were true. This was a fabulous dining experience where we enjoyed amazing Italian food , fabulous wine and the friendliest of service. I really can’t wait to return. So now let’s move to the day itself. The restaurant is on curtain road and just a short five minute walk from Liverpool Street station. The place used to be prezzo until it was taken over to become Manteca. We arrived a little early which didn’t turn out to be a problem and we were escorted to our table in our choice of the dining room right in front of the open kitchen. You can also book to sit at the counter or downstairs. Once seated we looked around and quite a lot of the tables are close together and when we went downstairs there are obviously no windows and was very busy so I don’t think I would like to sit there unless there was a group of you perhaps. So my recommendation would be to book the dining room. We then got to meet our waitress for the day Candela who I really can’t praise enough as she did an excellent job in looking after us. This started by her coming to say hello and asking if we’d been before. We said this was our first time so she firstly said welcome before bringing us the menu and explaining how it all works as well as giving us her recommendations. The menu is italian small plates designed for sharing of snacks , starters , pasta , mains , sides and a separate dessert menu. This gives you the opportunity to choose as many dishes as you like and where you can make your experience as short or as long as you wish. We decided to start with some Wildfarmed Focaccia with rosemary which was brought to our table along with a fabulous orange wine. The Brisat 2021 from the Entre Vinyes in Spain was a skin contact , natural wine that was light and fruity and complimented every dish perfectly. We now moved on to the starters. Here we ordered the Bitter Leaf Salad with pear , gorgonzola dolce and pecorino romano , Cornish Squid with green pepper salsa , Venison Buttata with an egg yolk dressing , cicoria and pangretatto along with the Nduja Steamed Mussels. Everything was cooked to perfection and the flavours in each dish were amazing. Next to arrive were two absolutely delicious Pasta dishes. One was the Strozzapreti a brown crab cacio e pepe. The other was the Campanelle a beef ragu , lettuce and remoulade. Now it was time for the Main course and wow. The slow cooked Pork Blade with roasted blush onions and three cornered leek was simply stunning. We accompanied this with the Escarole , shallots and chilli (sorry no pic) that really enhanced the flavours of the pork. Dessert Time and we wasn’t to be disappointed here either. The Pistachio and Fennel Cake with pistachio ice cream was a dream and the Chocolate Cake with whey caramel was absolute heaven. Then to top it all of I had an Espresso con Zabaglione that left me in paradise. This brought to an end an absolutely fantastic dining experience and one I’ll be looking forward to repeating again soon. The food is amazing , the wine was heaven and the service from our waitress Candela and the team was excellent. I really can’t recommend a visit to Manteca highly enough. I would advise to book the dining room as it gives you views of the kitchen , the bar and the bread / pasta making and dessert station."

"Very good Italian food, but service can be slow. "