Bocca di Lupo

I've really tried hard to fall in love with Bocca di Lupo the way the rest of London has. Seriously, I have gone and attempted to be wowed every time and yet it has never happened. Every time I'm left with the feeling that perhaps, I'm just ordering wrong but after three attempts I have officially given up. It is the kind of restaurant I know I should like - Italian food from a variety of different regions, flexible ordering, an elegant dining room and prime location in Soho. This is technically the kind of restaurant that could suit every occasion, if only the food lived up to everything else. 

Travels in Italy (4) - Rome, San Crispino Gelateria

I expected most meals in Italy to challenge my thoughts abut food. I expected the pasta I ate to show me how "real" pasta should be. The vegetables, to show me how "real" vegetables should be cooked and the beef to show me what "real" beef was like. High expectations, non? But on a culinary pilgrimage to Italy would you expect any less?


In reality, only one experience confounded my thoughts about food - San Crispino. It seems like a lot to say about an Ice cream place. I accept that. I, myself am not a big ice cream fan, in our 10 days we only ate the stuff twice but San Crispino changed the way I felt.  San Crispino is now infamous as Rome's best ice cream. There's two locations, but we headed to the one near the Trevi fountain.

Travels in Italy (2) - Tuscany

We had five days in Tuscany, and in those five days, with a car and a trusty TomTom we covered most of the area. I have no idea why but both The Boyfriend and I had very high expectations of Tuscan food. For some reason we seemed to think that even if we ended up in a Tourist Trap food would still be much better than your average restaurant. As if any restaurant in Tuscany was automatically destined to be better than the rest because of the region's culinary heritage. How wrong we were. Of the ten meals only three were memorable. Another three were goodish, and the other four were either okay or crap. They are ranked in a complex equation of quality of food + view or venue + price, and by complex I mean we just vaguely remember which ones were the best -a suprisingly difiicult feat (but understandably difficult if you look at how much wine we consumed, sometimes I'm amazed we even managed to take photos of the stuff). Anyway, here goes.

Travels in Italy (1) - Florence

After two months of hectic work for The Boyfriend, and exam season for me, we decided to reward ourselves with a holiday. The first stop of our two week trip was Florence. 

We had two days in Florence. Four real meals and The Boyfriend and I were determined to make the most of them. Having been so busy we failed to book any restaurants (a big no-no in Florence, especially in summer) we turned up at midnight on Friday, armed with three guidebooks and absolutely no knowledge of Florence or Tuscan cuisine. Of our four meals - two stood out Il Cernacchino and Trattoria Cibreo.