The Verdict
MANTECA is Chris Leach and David Carter's Shoreditch whole-animal Italian pasta and salumi restaurant on Curtain Road whose house-made pasta programme and in-house salumi communicate what Italian cooking looks like when the whole-animal philosophy is applied through genuine pasta and curing knowledge. The pasta programme whose daily production communicates genuine commitment to what the Italian tradition requires; the in-house salumi programme whose daily curing communicates the nose-to-tail conviction applied to the Italian pork culture; and the Shoreditch setting whose creative neighbourhood creates the audience for an Italian restaurant whose culinary philosophy communicates complete whole-animal conviction.
Why It Works for a First Date
Manteca's Shoreditch whole-animal Italian pasta and the in-house salumi — the nose-to-tail conviction, the daily pasta production, the Curtain Road creative energy — creates the first date that communicates genuine knowledge of where London's most whole-animal-devotedly available Italian cooking is practised.
Also in London
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