A bargain in deepest Bermondsey
This review was published in May 2002
'You snob,' said my actor friend, when I described the diners at Bermondsey's Arancia as the poor, educated middle-class - meaning junior doctors, teachers and other hard-pushed professionals.
But what other demographic are you going to get in one of South London's most reputable restaurants? The food is Italian with an esoteric spin, the chef is an Irish lady with a passion for all things Italian. The d?cor is simple - bare boards, exposed brickwork, burnt orange paint and abstract art by a local artist on the wall.
By the time we arrived, it must have been 11pm, so the other customers were settling their bills as we tucked into our starters. Fiori di zucca ripieni (courgette flower stuffed with ricotta and amaretti) was soft rather than crisp; orecchiette alla pugliese (pasta with sprouting broccoli, chilli and anchovies) was 'a bit oily' for the actor.
An 'unplugged' Sting playing in the background took the edge off the fact that by the time our mains arrived, apart from the staff, we were on our own. We chatted to the manager, an ex-concert pianist with a lion tattooed on his wrist, the remnant of a crazy weekend in Amsterdam. He was an unlikely restaurant manager, all the more so when he guided me to the cheaper wines on the largely familiar and reliable all-Italian list. The house came in at an absurdly cheap £8.40 a bottle and was hugely gluggable.
The actor's main course of trota arrosto was great - flavoursome trout, blood oranges and radicchio salad. My spiedini di maiale (pork skewers served with beetroot salad and piadina) was disappointing. The pork was tough and the flat bread it came with was hard, but it was redeemed (just) by the huge garlic leaf strewn across it, full of zingy, hot flavour.
Portions were generous - our side salad could have fed a family of four. For pudding, we had the only dish which is always on the daily-changing menu, an ace chocolate semifreddo.
It is extraordinarily good value for money at Arancia and, had we arrived earlier, I suspect the adventurous food might have been hotter, in every sense of the word.
