Locale

Angella

Comfy Italian 21st December 2008

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Location
Golders Green is always humming since the Boots chemist is open until 8 every night and there are several cafes and take aways and fast food places. On this occasion we did not want to eat Indian (had it yesterday) nor Chinese nor kosher. The two ladies sat in the car whilst the two gentlemen did a chase up and down the road to find a place that suited all four of us - Italian.

Osteria Italia means Italian hostelry, or inn, or bistrot. Locale means local.

Jolly Atmosphere
Friendly welcome so we went in. Even when half empty it's quite jolly with some great music, romantic and pop but constantly changing styles.

The walls are a warm red with silver letting, a huge mirror, and a separate back area where you can be private, for a twosome or a foursome. Tables are quite widely spaced. Never heard anybody else's conversation and never thought they could hear ours, with people far away, a quiet neatly dressed crowd, and background music.
At first seats seemed a bit small, didn't support my knees, but I soon got used to them.

The bar area at the front creates a secluded area behind it. A barrier creates a third area. At the back you can see where they mix up the pizza topping and the long poles presumably shove the pizzas in and out of the oven.

Good Tables
Pleasant pale wooden tables with rounded edges. Reasonably large. Pushed together they seat four or more. Very flexible. So twosomes will always find a place.

If you jolt the tables or move dishes towards the middle, watch out for small items tipping over where the tables join. We nearly lost a glass of red wine. Then the salt started leaning unnervingly like a miniature tower of Pisa.

Drinks
The chianti (red) pleased the red wine drinkers.

Starters
Others had vegetable soup. Usually it's called minestrone. The usual Italian menu but no melon to start. No canneloni. I could not eat the shellfish starters (allergy), so the avocado with crab sticks was out. I considered asking if they could do avocado without the crab sticks but decided it was not worth risking getting traces of something which would cause me problems.

I asked for the dessert menu and ordered a double espresso to keep me busy whilst others had starters.

From the dessert menu I considered lemon sorbet as a starter - I like something fruity, then changed to mango sorbet. If I'd realised I would get three balls of the sorbet I'd have asked for a mixture. Strangely the mango sorbet didn't taste of mango until half way through my savoury main course I went back to the last mouthful when the sweet and fruity flavour was intense. I've heard that wine changes its flavour according to what you've just been eating, hence the saying, 'buy on apple, sell on a cheese,' but I'm beginning to wonder how reliable my judgements of desserts and wines are, if they depend so much on what you had previously or alongside.

Smiling Service
The chief waiter brought me a long sundae spoon with a beaming triumphant smile, like a man who's ever to proud to have surprised you with your favourite Christmas present. I don't know if he's just the Sunday man, but his good humour brightened up the whole evening. That's what I like about Italian restaurants. As well as always getting veal. And potatoes.

Main Courses
My main course was veal with mushrooms. I'd expected the cream sauce I get most places. Never mind, it was okay. Potatoes okay.

The other diners with me were happy. One had fish. Another chose steak.

The risotto al mare (rice with shellfish) was pronounced 'Delicious! Soft squid - so unusual - I've only had that one time in ten. And a good giant prawn. And the rice just right, with saffron, not separated like basmati rice in an Indian restaurant, not dried out like in Spanish restaurants, but moist - the Italians do it the way I like it.'

Desserts
Tiramisu was a bit disappointing, solid cream and not much sponge, not as moist and alcoholic as the one we buy from the supermarket. But the lemon cheesecake was very lemony, if a bit too sweet. The Bramley apple pie, more refreshing but still sweet, came with vanilla ice cream.

No rose or sweet wine by the glass so I had to go without.

Happy Ending
The dessert list included limoncello, a lemon flavour liqueur, and all four of us were given a glass of this on the house. I asked if this was just 'for Christmas' but the waiter said, 'It's an Italian custom.' I imagine you get this after dinner drink if you have a three course meal and order wine.

Finally, toilets. Good blue mosaic mirror. Clean and correct. Price under £100 for four and the host deliberately chose a bottle of one of the better, ie dearer, red wines because he wanted quality. I always thought chianti was a nasty cheap wine but he was very happy and said you can't get a meal for four much cheaper anywhere nowadays. So, he who paid was happy and I was happy. I think you can eat cheap or dear at this place. Lingering over a three course meal, or ordering a quick pizza, or they have a board outside offering express lunch from £3.50.