Manteca

Italian

58-59 Great Marlborough St, Soho, W1F 7JY

££

Manteca is a recent and permanent establishment of the 10 Heddon street pop up that was open for four months of 2019. It was a recommendation of some old colleagues, who are the type of friends you really trust to get good food right. The focus is equally distributed between heavy meaty options, such as pork chops and beef feather blade, and numerous fresh pasta dishes: two indulgences I commonly rely on.

Manteca believes in a ‘nose to tail’ cooking philosophy, meaning minimum waste and a whole lot of deliciousness. The casual appearance and nature of the restaurant is misleading, as the menu is high end not only on produce, but also taste and delivery. However, when we arrived at 8pm on a Friday evening, our table was delayed by almost an hour. Luckily, our third dinner guest was still enjoying the post-work pub, and we didn’t mind having some more time to sink our bottle of house white (note: weirdly wine doesn’t appear on the drinks menu, but they do have it). When we eventually sat down, we were given a central table and an apologetic, friendly waitress who guided us through the menu.

We skipped through the variety of snacks they had on offer and went straight to ordering three small plates: the potato skins with taramasalata, nduja mussels, and peaches with ricotta (all between £6-£8). The potato skins were the biggest surprise: salty thin shreds of perfectly crisp deliciousness, dipped in a vibrant and flavoursome fishy sauce, I wasn’t expecting to love them as much as I did. The nduja mussels were always going to be a hit, the spicy sausage really elevating the subtle flavours of the shellfish: I’m usually disappointed by anything nduja related, but these were sublime. Finally, the fresh tartness of the sweet peaches, balanced out by a fresh and creamy ricotta and topped with crunchy hazelnuts – a dream come true. 5-star winnings for all of the starters, all original, individual, and darn right TASTY.

For main, I was 100% keen on the tonnarelli with brown crab cacio a pepe (£8), however, after learning the greatness of sharing in the previous round, I decided to go with the table and share a parpadelle with ox cheek ragu (£11) and wood pigeon ravioli (£12) too. The decision was a good one, as whilst the cacio e pepe was undeniably delicious, the other two dishes were even better. Cacio e pepe is such a simple but flavoursome dish as it is, I felt that the crab meat was a little lost in the cheesy peppery sauce. Whilst I’m not usually a ragu kind of gal, this was some of the best I’ve ever had, and was much tastier than the one I’ve tried at favourite Padella in the past. Finally, the star of the show, the wood pigeon ravioli: what a hit! Incredibly rich parcels of punchy game were encase in perfectly al-dente parcels, smothered in butter and topped with parmesan.

Manteca’s organic nose to tail take on food makes each dish distinct from the other, with worldly flavours coated onto brilliant British cuts of meat, or infused into fresh pasta. This is not the ‘simple Italian diner’ it is advertised as online, but so, so much more. I’m even willing to overlook the hour late table, due to the amount I have been salivating reminiscing on this particular taste sensation.

OVERALL RATING: *****

https://mantecarestaurant.co.uk/menus