Sardo

The day: 6^th March 2007, Dinner.
The place: 45 Grafton Way, London W1T 5DQ
The venue: Sardo
The food: Regional Italian
The drinks: Reasonably wide selection, many Sardininan and several Italian choices, starting from the low teens. A few choices by the glass

We were back home in London for just a few days and we decided to focus on Sardo. We knew it was popular and we read mixed reviews about it: so we had to investigate. To be honest, by looking at the simple trattoria style dishes at fine dining prices we suspected something was deeply wrong. But let’s say we did it for you, dear readers

Still, as we got in the place was buzzing and the rustic decor was warm and enticing. So we had some hopes after all. We were seated at a table which was comfortably away from the others. In other sectors of the elongated room, however, the situation looked a bit more crammed. Most tables are quite tiny.

The menu offers traditional Sardinian dishes, especially as far as first courses are concerned (culurgiones, malloreddus, bottarga spaghetti, fregola), while all other sections of the menu consist of more ordinary proposals (e.g. tomato and mozzarella, beef carpaccio and wild boar prosciutto as starters; grilled swordfish, grilled tuna, lamb ‘battuta’, calf liver as mains; and tiramisu, almond and chocolate tart, and panna cotta as desserts).

We decided to begin with ‘bottarga spaghetti’ (£9.90) and culurgiones (£9.50). The latter are ravioli-like pasta with a cheese and potato filling.

Normally at this point we tell you about the complimentary starter (available even at a much less expensive place like LMNT). None of this at Sardo.

In the meantime the bread basket arrives.

In all fine Italian dining establishments we have introduced to you so far, the bread basket is complimentary. At Sardo, no. you pay £1.50 per person for the privilege. Is it at least a special offering? Yes: it is a pathetic assortment, a grand total of two varieties: greasy focaccia-like bread and ‘cartamusica’, nowadays definitely not rare in London. Ah well there were olives too, bar for three of them of the tasteless pitted variety, they, too, bathed in oil to at least add some flavour.

For the three stone carrying olives there was nowhere to put the stones. Man had to suck one such stone for a couple of minutes before a plate for this purpose finally arrived (after we asked for it). Perhaps the presence of the three higher quality olives was an unintended treat…

The primi arrive.

The culurgiones have a very characteristic (and definitely not easy to make - see the sequence here) seal, looking a bit like a wheat grain. On this basis what was brought to us was not culurgiones, but rather ravioli with a culurgiones filling. A pity for a restaurant whose distinctive name appeals to its regional character. Man found the taste of the cheese filling unrecognisable, difficult to square with the samples we had several times in Sardinia. Woman was more taken aback by the shallowness of flavour of the tomato sauce: bar for the colour, the presence of tomatoes was barely detectable.

The spaghetti alla bottarga had a more definite flavour. They were cooked well (nicely al dente), but the quality of the spaghetti itself left Man underwhelmed. More fundamentally, the sauce was terribly heavy and greasy. Woman found this excess fat flattened the flavour considerably. Man only worried about the fat content of his diet.

For mains, we went for a homemade Sardinian Sausage, the cheapest option at £12.00, and grilled tuna steak (£15.75).

As you can see from the picture, the cooking of the sausage is not of the classy type. We worried about the free radical content of our diet… However the taste was OK, though the copious amount of pepper in the meat was enough to cover most other flavours (fennel, bay, not to mention the meat itself!). The accompanying potatoes were duly greasy, too, but comforting, we have to admit that.

A nice touch, the two types of mustard (French and Italian) accompanying the meat.

We agree the tuna was the best part of the meal: the fish itself was of good quality and it had been cooked aptly. It was tender and moist. We had asked it medium, and so it was. The accompanying rocket was soggy. Man enjoyed the asparagus more than Woman, but both agreed they were cooked very well. Notice the roughly cut and presented tomatoes, pure pizzeria style.

As we said we were doing this for posterity , but we were not willing to invest much more money in this enterprise, so we shared a dessert. No ‘seadas’ on the menu (you can maybe still find them in Via Condotti, though), so we shared a chocolate and almond tart with ‘filuferru’ sauce (filuferru being a strong spirit) at £6.

The flavour of the sauce was hardly discernible. Woman found the ice-cream too sweet. By this time Man was too dejected to notice, and even talked himself into liking the cake. Woman found the latter pleasant though unremarkable.

At the end, the light: for the first time something complimentary was offered, a glass of limoncello or mirto. Had they noticed Man’s desperate look? No, they did it for everybody. Anyhow, we passed on this one.

We drank a bottle of (0.75l) water at £2.95. For wine, for a second we thought we had found the bargain of the century: a bottle of Sassicaia at £18.00! Oh no, it just a Sardinian table wine called Saccaia (Mancini), a decent and forgettable easily drinkable blend. The overall bill including 12.5% service (and the £3 for bread we can’t still get over) came at £86.74. With a better wine and a more expensive main course than the sausage, not to mention a second dessert, we would have broken our £100 rule. At Sardo of all places.

The service was friendly and polite. The portions are trattoria style. So is the lack of subtlety in cooking and (like some but definitely not all trattorias, more on this story later…) the lack of true passion for the food. So is the complete lack of presentation. Not so the prices, which top those of many fine dining Italian restaurants in London. Though the food is of acceptable standard, we fail to understand how people can patronise this place at these prices, when with a short walk Southwards they could pay less for incredibly more inspiring culinary experiences in venues such as, just to name a couple, Via Condotti and especially Latium. It is a nice thing to have a restaurant in London which concentrates on Sardinian specialities which are sometimes hard to find even in Italy. But this place could have a sense at half the prices. As it is, it doesn’t. Shame on all the British critics whose positive reviews adorn the webpage and the front entrance of Sardo. What do they understand of Italian food, we wonder? Do they think it must be cheerful, greasy, hearty, rustic, unsubtle stuff at overblown prices?

Matthew Norman, hang your head in shame! You wrote: ‘Sardo serves some of the best food to be found in London, and at much more sensible prices than such celebrated rivals as Locanda Locatelli’. Sardo a rival of Locanda Locatelli? Have your taste buds gone mad?!

Terry Durack, hang your head in shame! You wrote: ‘Sardo is the sort of place where you could happily go back to once a week for the rest of your life’. We definitely wouldn’t, even if the meals were paid for by the Independent, for which you wrote this nonsense.

Jeremy Wayne, hang your head in shame! You wrote: ‘A Sardinian restaurant of exceptional quality’. Please go take a vacation to Sardinia and only ever come back if you intend to write seriously about Italian food.

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