Crab and gazpacho
Such a range of top-notch well-priced pasta places in the city these days. Mostly thanks to Padella, who – whether they were the original or not – certainly put the spotlight on the format and spawned the repeats. It works like this: small hand-printed menu, handful of simple starters, handful of simple yet beautifully executed pasta dishes, two desserts, negronis and a small wine list, keenly priced.
Bancone is aiming for a chicker look, but basically the same idea. Hmm. Chicker? Chicer? Chiccer? How the heck do you spell “more chic”?!?
Anyway, it’s nice. My burrata was paired with peas, cucumber and mint, actually a nice marriage and a new one to me. Maureen’s white crab meat salad with watermelon gazpacho was a bit less impressive. The gazpacho was more of a dressing, and as such light on flavour. So it was some white crab meat on a bed of avocado. It was fine.
Burrata n peas
My pasta was probably the best dish; rosemary braised rabbit stirred into tagliatelle. The meat was unctuous and the herbal flavour powerful good. Very nice. Maureen’s tagliolini with razor clam, lime and bottarga was an odd one. Sounds good on paper, but the silky buttery sauce rapidly became clammy on the pasta and was all overly rich and creamy for razor clams. Not the greatest pairing.
That said, I don’t want to imply that Bancone was terrible. It was all very edible. Just not as deft and brilliant as some of the other places working this “modern pasta resaurant” schtick. At £28 for three courses before drinks, it’s also pretty sensibly priced.
Razor clam pasta
