Wansteadium reader Marian Temple writes:
After a shaky start, things are picking up for Piccolo [the restaurant which took over from Giorberti’s]. Julio the chef and his delightful wife Marta, the new owners, are determined to offer a successful Italian cuisine on Wanstead High Street. Julio trained at the prestigious Italian “Il Cucciaio d’Argento†in New York and for many years he was the head chef at the Adriatico and the Bel Sit in Woodford Green. He is a true master at creating delicious sauces to complement his pasta, meat and fish dishes. All the ingredients are locally sourced; the fish is fresh daily; the deserts are made in house; nothing is bought in frozen.
Marta and the front-of-house team, Nino and Lenka, will be sure to give you a warm welcome, helping you to make a wise choice from the menu and the wine list. Of course there are specials on the blackboard; these change every week. And there is also a take-away service but you do have to collect the food yourself.
Plans for the future include upholstering the benches, refurbishing the toilets, extending the kitchen area – but these will take time and money. Another long term project will be offering an English style roast dinner on Sundays. I am only one of the many Wanstead residents who are delighted to have this Piccolo gem on the High Street, so please go and try it out for yourself.
Suki Orange, Wansteadium’s food blogger, writes: Thank you Marian for this – I confess I haven’t made it to Piccolo since it opened, so it’s good to hear promising things about it.
Really? I must be having one of those parallel universe moments.
The food I tasted the two times I have visited since the management change has been nothing to write home about. And whilst it’s great to have Niño and Lenka back, the lady who I presume to be Marta lacks the warmth of her predecessors.
We eat out several times a week and like to support local restaurants. We’ve given it a few goes but this place just doesn’t hit the spot for us.
Agree with the previous comment.
We’ve been twice. The lady is delightful, and the pasta/pizza was an improvement on Giobertis (hardly a high benchmark) . We’ve also eaten a la carte and it was very average indeed. In addition, the pricing is way, way over the top. Starters and wine particularly. A “small” calamari starter at £8 is just crazy. The superb mixed smoked fish in Provender is £7.50. A good Italian will never fail in the High St, and whilst this is the only option, it will probably do OK. It is not in the same league for value as Sumo Fresh, or Dama De Elche, however.
We will do the odd pizza and pasta, but if we wanted to spend £50+ on dinner we could go up town and do far better.
@xftrev ; that’s a really good comparison with the smoked fish starter at Provender, which is streets ahead for the money ( and better quality.) PS Don’t ever have the Bresaola at Piccolo, which is 9 quid, lol.
Got to say Piccolo is looking like a real missed opportunity, and I reckon even my made from scratch pizza is better.