Bancone
Italian
39 William IV St, WC2N 4DD
££
Bancone opened at the end of summer last year, and has since been surrounded with a lot of good press. The Guardian heralded it "Casually orgasmic, deeply affordable", whereas Time Out celebrates its "flawless" pasta. You can book, but try and do so in advance as this place gets packed out pretty quick: you're looking at a complete no-go between 6-10pm on most evenings without a booking.
I was lucky - originally told it didn't take bookings, I left it until the day before to book a dinner on a Friday night. Miraculously, there was one table left on the counter at 20:30 which I was able to snap up. We were around 10 minutes late arriving, and were relieved that they hadn't sacked us off and given our table to one of the eager customers waiting to be seated. I was surprised, however, to see that menu prices had increased from the beginning of this month - with Time Out's review claiming the famous Silk Handkerchiefs dish to be only £8, whereas on our menu it was £9.
There was a decent choice of wine, considering the restaurant and menu are small. We went for the cheapest red for £23 which was sweet, full bodied and had an aftertaste of juicy raisins. To start, we both opted for the Burrata with puffed wild rice and charred endive (£8.5), which was an interesting combination, although the Burrata itself could have been a tad more creamy, and to be honest I don't really get the whole sha-bang surrounding endive, which I find a little tasteless. Service was polite, but equally slow and inattentive. One burrata starter ended up getting given mistakenly to someone else, so Tom had to wait an extra 10 minutes for his, which was eventually delivered by a chef - to which the waiter informed us "he doesn't usually serve".
For main I chose the Silk Handkerchiefs (£9) and Tom went for the Bucatini with Cornish mussels and seaweed butter (£11.5), naturally we shared both. The Silk Handkerchiefs were thin squares of pasta, covered with walnut butter and crispy walnuts, with a yolk in the middle and a sprinkle of parmesan. Whilst the flavour was delicate and soft (the kind you'd expect from a dish named Silk Handkerchiefs), I did find it a tad too bland. I preferred Tom's Bucatini, which was garlicky, mildly fishy, and had neat little holes running through the middle of each bit of pasta where the butter got stuck - oozing out with every bite. This wasn't all buttery goodness, however, as the dish only had 4 mussels (3 of which Tom had eaten), despite there being 8 mussel shells. The case of the disappearing mussels is most likely caused by the rigorous tossing which goes on when the pasta's in the pan, but seriously guys... empty mussel shells are a terrible tease.
If this was my first fresh pasta revelation, I would have probably been a tad more enthusiastic about it, however, with competitors such as Padella on the market (one of my favourite restaurants in London), Bancone really does have to keep up. At Padella the pasta is delicious in and of itself, whilst the flavourings which are chosen to go with it are out of this world. For example, the pairing of nduja with lemon and mascarpone, or the anchovy, garlic, broccoli and chilli number. The flavours in Bancone's dishes are a lot more subtle: walnut butter and egg yolk, garlic mussels. This may have worked well if the pasta was as freshly flavoursome in and of itself, as it is at places like Padella. However, I regret to say that these guys could actually do with having a switch around: the pasta quality at Bancone needing the strong flavours of Padella in order to stand out, and Padella probably getting away with Bancone's subtlety more due to the flavour of the pasta itself.
The only number which stood out for dessert was the Gianduja chocolate brûlée (£8), which, again, lacked the flavour it needed for the wow-factor. The thin layer of sugar on top was better than creme brûlée's I've had in the past, but the overall product wasn't anything special. Overall, Bancone is alright - the bill came to £77 for three courses each and a bottle of wine, which isn't bad at all. However, I probably wouldn't go back as I think you get more for your money and better quality of service elsewhere. Verdict: Bancone isn't worth the hype.
OVERALL RATING: ***
https://www.bancone.co.uk/
