La Famiglia - Winner of Best Lunch!
Readers
from west and southwest London voted for
La Famiglia in the The Hill & The Village Magazine Restaurant
Awards November 2004.
This is owned and run by one of the old – timers of the London restaurant scene. A pleasant place composed of a number of rooms with a garden at the back. Alvaro recommended the Zucchini flowers deep fried. I was hypnotised by the chopped chicken livers, capers, garlic on toast. Alvaro’s rabbit would never pass as chicken. It was too solid. But the sauce was good.
At La Famiglia there was wild strawberry cheesecake, which I chose without expecting much. Restaurant cheesecakes are usually dire. This was amazingly good. Sweet trolleys are invariably deceptive. Everything looks good but usually isn’t London’s best sweet trolley is the Dorchester. Geraldine and I raved about our desserts. Michael Linnit had a fruit salad. He took a bite and said. “I’ve never tasted an apple like that.
The Sunday Times
Michael Winner February 6, 2005
…The food is impeccable as I remember.
Unbelievably good tapenade, fagioli al fiasco ( a Florentine
speciality which cooks beans in a flask) and legumi misti alla
grilia (grilled vegetables brushed with delicious Laudemio oil)
started us off perfectly. Jane’s main dish of calamari e seppe
(squid and cuttlefish ink sauce) just drew a “wow” from her and was
blackest of black. My spagetti vongole was just as I wanted it to
be –slightly salty and very good…
The Hill
Sarah Hodgson October 2004
…Tuscan
Alvaro Maccioni is rightly famous for his hospitality and profound
knowledge of Italian food, and the menu never strays far from his
philosophy-good ingredients make great food…
Well served on the carnivore front, non-meat
eaters are not neglected. Fish is always plentiful and the range of
vegetarian and seafood risotto is supplemented by the summer special
of strawberry risotto, which, when taken with a glass of chilled
Prosecco, is the perfect accompaniment to any love match.
The Resident
Martin Saxon July 2004
La Famiglia is uniquely capable of transporting
you to the Tuscan slopes and the ambiance was delightful. One glace
at the menu confirms that this is traditionally Tuscan fare…I chose
the carabaccia (garlic toast with vegetable, poached egg and sheep
cheese) as a starter. This proved a winning choice as the egg was
poached to perfection… We will return…
Food & Wine Ireland
Richard Hannaford November 2004
…La Famiglia has long been a favourite of mine
since the heady 80’s…the garden is still very much at the heart of
the restaurant…Alvaro still maintains the traditions of Mamma’s
cooking (“if a chef cooks like his mother, he is a great chef. If
he cooks like his grandmother he is even greater”)…He has applied
this to his fresh, seasonal menu ever since.
SW Magazine
Sarah Hodgson September 2004
I can endorse this review wholeheartedly. I had
the great pleasure of eating at La famiglia last autumn. Initially,
the authenticity creates shockwaves, particularly if you have come
to Italian food via a more conventional route, namely pasta and
pizza. Then the senses take over, particularly if like me, you are
a lover of richly-sauced wild and real food-rabbit, venison, wild
boar, teamed with an extravagantly perfumed substantial red from
Tuscany or Piedmonte. VERITABLE GASTRO-HEAVEN.
Food & Wine
Ireland Editor’s Note
Ernie Whalley November 2004
A great Tuscan restaurant a taxi ride away from
the hustle and bustle of Portobello. Its specialities include
strawberry risotto (I kid you not)-and deep fried marrow
flowers-delicious…Also a great place to spot celebs.
Cara Magazine
Richard Hannarford September 2004
…at the Coselli School of Tuscan Cuisine, near
Lucca, Alvaro Maccioni operates on the theory that “cooking brings
out the best in people,” and proves it with easy amiability.
Brian St.
Pierre
Decanter Special Supplement - ITALY 2005
Cooking Schools January 2005
Expecting a quiet Monday evening’s casual dinner
at a local restaurant off the King’s road, I couldn’t have been more
wrong. The atmosphere was electric, laugh and conversation pervaded
this bustling Tuscan eatery, owned and managed by
Alvaro Maccioni. La Famiglia has been a leading destination
for foodies who love genuine, quality regional Tuscan cuisine since
1975.
www.wine-pages.com
Vivienne Franks Sept 2004
...London insiders know that summer in the city is
all about being
outdoors: eating alfresco at favorite old restaurants,
such as La Famiglia, in Chelsea...
Victoria Mather
Town & Country Magazine USA
Travel Summer 2004
Within
this corner of London Maccioni is something of a legend. What happened
here is very rare in a restaurant, he told me. Normally children don’t
like to go where their parents go, but we are getting the
grandchildren as well.
Toby Young
Restaurant Spy
ES Magazine 2003
Alvaro
Maccioni has been a Kings Road legend since the sixties. Classic food
from Tuscany
& Umbria and friendly staff who are very understanding with children.
Harpers & Queen
H&Q Restaurant Guide 2004
This
is, without question, the best restaurant in London.
Formal without being over formal.
Friendly without being intrusive.
The food is better than anything I've eaten in
Italy.
People will moan about the 'retro' nature of
the food, or complain the table are too close together, but don't
listen to them as they're being pedantic.
If you have a life and something to say you
won't notice the people around you and who wants to eat the same old
thing served up rote by so many of the more modern and populist London
establishments.
Eat here, even if it's your last meal...you'll
die happy.
Aubrey Vincent Chapman
customer web review on london.com
2003
Every ingredient is purchased with care and prepared to perfection.
June O'Connell
ITALIA : UK Magazine, January 2004
Now something of a Chelsea institution, it skillfully attracts new
generations of diners while satisfying regulars. Most of the meat
on the comfortably traditional - which includes roast wild boar, veal
with rosemary & garlic and salt marsh lamb is organic.
House & Gardens
"Who Serves Organic?", Oct 2003
The celebrity crowd still can't get enough of
Alvaro Maccioni's simple Tuscan fare.
OFM Classic Cuisine
Observer Food Magazine
February 2003
Jay Rayner
And to
be truthful, the food – Tuscan pretty much through & through… was
served in a more authentically Italian manner then anywhere else I
have eaten in London, including Locanda Locatelli… The steak was a
tremendous piece of meat, quite the best I have eaten in London for
years.
Matthew Fort
Eating Out
Guardian Weekend June 2003
In 1969 Alvaro Maccioni joined the fray with his 'Alvaro Pizza e Pasta', of which
there would eventually be 18. They were the first to use real wood-burning
ovens, causing Egon Ronay to bark in his Evening News column that
'The pizza craze has hit London!'
OFM London Classic Restaurants
Observer Food Magazine
Sunday July 14, 2002
Jay Rayner
La Famiglia is one of
the few pre river café trattorias worth its salt. One of Alvaro's
passions is risotto. It might sound odd to make a risotto but when
you think about it, savory rice pudding with strawberries isn't a
fusion too far. Gently softened onion and carrot echo the sweetness
of strawberry and highlight their acidity.
Alvaro calls it the Italian adaptation of the strawberries-and-cream
Wimbledon idea; serve it with a chilled bottle of chilled Prosecco...
Lindsay Bareham,
Evening Standard, June 2003
ITALIANS DO IT BETTER
At La Famiglia today there is no mistaking its Italian. The walls
are tiled to the height of about a metre, perhaps a little more. And
hanging on the pale washed walls are lots of black & white photographs
of the nearest & dearest. "I'm an Italian" Says Alvaro
"The last thing I look at is the decoration, for me the restaurant
has to be clean, it has to represent my home, my dining room. My kitchen
might be stainless steel, but not my dining room. To me the best decoration
is the dish that is on your plate". There is no question that
the food at La Famiglia is top quality.
Robert Silver
Restaurant Magazine, June 2003.
A heated, canopied back
terrace is just one factor in the popularity of Alvaro's restaurant
which is truly family run, even unto the second generation. Long ago
when Rosie & Ruthie were as extra virgin as the River Café
olive oil, Alvaro was
offering rustic, Tuscan dishes such as crostini, panzanella salad,
fagoli al fiasco (cooked in a flask) and bistecca alla Fiorentina.
There is emphasis now on organic ingredients. Terrace tables are allocated
to those arriving earliest, which creates a tension in the average
Chelsea diner who likes to roll up fashionably late. I dare say there
are ways round this problem. Risottos and pastas, although not a Tuscan
habit, are well made and generously served. A main course I like is
pollo al mattone, which is cooked in a brick. Thoughts of Alvaro and
chicken bricks take me back to when the Kings Road was a highway to
heaven.
Fay Maschler
Dining, Evening Standard Metro, TOP 5 RESTAURANTS FOR
EATING OUTSIDE. June 12 2003
Walking into La
Famiglia is like walking onto a movie set. There are white coated
Italian waiters larking around, the fast talking, sleek-suited maitre
d', the tables of italiophile regulars and the gargantuan platters
of steaming pasta with aubergines, wild boar or broccoli cooked by
chef Quinto Cecchetti. The gleaming tiled walls are the backdrop to
hundreds of black & white family photographs, testament to decades
of fine casalinga cooking (most dishes hail from Alvaro Maccioni's
mother's native Tuscany). Maccioni learned his trade at Soho's legendary
Trattoria Terrazza in the Sixties before opening a string of restaurants,
then going back to Italy in 1972. He returned to London in 1976, opened
La Famiglia and the rest is history.
Food & Travel
March 2003
Alvaro is "…the
godfather of many London trattoria…"
Fay Maschler
The round table under the clock is popular among regulars, but in
summer the most desirable spot has to be the covered garden - perfect
for observing old Chelsea glamour, fasionatistas and well heeled globe
trotters such as Tony Bennett, Elle Macpherson, Jemima Kahn, Kylie
Minogue, Eric Clapton, Tom Cruise & Nicole Kidman.
Evening Standard
Where the celebrities like
to be seated 2003
The first night my boyfriend
(now my husband) took me out was to Alvaro on the Kings Road. That
was in 1976. Now its in Langton Street, run by the same people and
called La Famiglia.
Catherine Walker
Fashion designer
MY LONDON, ES Magazine My most memorable meal in London 2003
The blue and white
interior has a timeless sort of feel - it could be the 50's the 60's
or the 80's. It's cool, it's understated, it's unmistakably uncluttered
and Chelsea.
As a local restaurant, La Famiglia's been a familiar sight for over
thirty years.
The food and menu are familiar - just how they like it.
"Every Sunday" says Alvaro, "we're full with families
at La Famiglia,
it's like being in Italy, and it's been like that for 30 years...
Alexander Hunt
Man at
top: Alvaro Maccioni Who is he?
Merely one of the inventors of the London trattoria as we know
it.
Wine List: concise, with all the kind of things you would expect to
see,
like Ornellaia and Sassicaia, as well as nice touch of six Italian
sparkling wines.
Customers: Almost anyone of any fame in the Western world has eaten
here.
Dress: Off duty Chelsea.
Nick Foulkes
ES Magazine INSIDE GUIDE |
