10 April 2012

This review was first published in May 1999

It is places like the O2 Centre in Finchley Road that send one scurrying down passages like Goodwin's Court (see review of Giovanni's) relieved to see timeless architecture and touch real bricks - as opposed to fibreglass Flintstone rockery that is a feature of the interior of this new shopping and restaurant mall. The oxygen theme is alluded to by bubbling fish tanks which punctuate the walls and is perhaps an unconscious naming of the response most sentient people have to these conglomerates of consumerism which is to rush to get the hell out. If you have come to O2 by car you must pay for that privilege - £3 on the evening we visited ZUCCATO.

Both Cafe Urbano (as they put it) and restaurant with bar, Zuccato looks to be the most interesting and the most independent of the catering ventures on site. However, Zuccato turns out to be owned by The Etrusca Group, mostly concentrated in South-wark and the City but moving out northwards as evidenced by the recent opening of Artigiano in Belsize Village.

From what would seem to be a company pool of truculent managers they have found a corker for the O2 Centre. It was care-fully explained to us by him that any shortcomings in the meal such as the pronounced saltiness of the prawn and monkfish risotto and the sheer awfulness of the veal escalope Milanese was in fact our responsibility.

My sister's dislike of the veal was due to her not realising that there were almonds in the coating. The same chap did explain that the poulet noir chicken advertised as spit-roasted would in fact be coming from a conventional oven but so over-cooked and dry was the shrunken bird, it would have been more helpful to suggest something else entirely. There is some competent cooking taking place in the open kitchen as frittata of smoked mozzarella dressed with homemade pesto and the excellent dish of grilled calves liver with pancetta and spinach proved. And the prawn risotto was, in fact, all right in its complex, over-emphatic way.

Prices are eminently reasonable with many dishes offered at two sizes and two prices and let it not be overlooked that a window table gives you an uninterrupted view of Finchley Road. Wednesdays nights are live jazz nights. Tomorrow Tim Jackson "soulful jazz pianist and vocalist" plays and sings.

Zuccato
Finchley Road, London, NW3 6LU

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