Optima Magazine

451 Uxbridge Road • Hatch End • HA5 4JR • 020 8421 5550

Reviewed by Jill Glenn

Cafe Rialto, newly arrived in Hatch End via Fulham and Dorking, promises ‘good quality, freshly prepared dishes using the finest seasonal produce available’ – but the owners of this small chain could just as easily tempt customers in with the dramatic decor: a fabulous mural of Venice that stretches around two sides of the interior space: gondolas, birds, the Rialto Bridge and the houses on the Grand Canal, all extending into a midnight blue ceiling studded with little starry lights. It’s truly impressive – and it took a great effort of will to drag myself away from it and back to the menu in front of me.

There’s certainly plenty of choice. A dish of Spicy Olives appeared almost at once, and sustained us – along with a fiendishly expensive (£27.95) but really rather splendid Chianti – while we trawled through the menu.

Starter was easy: Antipasto Rustico (for two), described as ‘a great selection of dry cured ham, salami, mortadella, baby mozzarella, olives, artichokes, sun dried tomatoes and gherkins’. It offered us the opportunity to mix-and-match in very convivial fashion (trading the last slice of mortadella for the last piece of mozzarella, for example), and to check out Cafe Rialto’s buying policy over a range of ingredients. And… pretty good, actually. The meats were flavoursome, the mozzarella melt-in-the-mouth, and the presentation delightful. Somebody really cares here.

Main courses took longer to select. The impressive range of pizzas and pastas is topped off by a selection of traditional meat and fish dishes, which won our vote in the end. Lemon Sole for my partner, from the day’s Specials menu, was light and delicate; Fegato Venere (pan-fried liver and bacon served with spring onion mash) for me, was tasty and generous, although I was surprised that the side dish of seasonal vegetables also included potatoes – didn’t they think the mound of mash on my plate was enough? The presentation of the main courses was a little dull, sadly: not half as appealing as the starter, nor half as dramatic as my dessert – a traditional Italian Panna Cotta made with strega liqueur and served with grappa raisins – which could have graced the table of many a more sophisticated establishment. Tasted wonderful too.

Our waitress urged us to sample the artisan ice cream, so I succumbed to a mouthful of the Bubblegum Blue: an eyewateringly vivid shade, an astonishingly accurate taste, and a lovely texture.

When local Italian restaurants are ten a penny (or ten a euro…), each needs to differentiate itself from the rest. A mural, a great menu and a marvellous range of homemade icecreams and sorbets might just do the trick for Cafe Rialto. Shame it’s not really in Venice…

Starters: £4.75 to £6.95
Main courses: £6.25 to £17.45
Desserts: £1.95 to £4.75
House wine: £11.95