Restaurant Review - 21 Covent Garden

Earlier this year, on my birthday, Mr R and I went to Covent Garden and reviewed a fab upstairs bar called The Print Room.  Downstairs in the restaurant called 21 Covent Garden they serve authentic Italian food and delicious cocktails. I was asked to pop in and try the menu. I had an event to attend but as Mr R was on holiday he met me in London, we went to The Tower of London to view the moat of poppies, which we got to get a good look at just before the heavens opened up and it started to rain!

We headed to Covent Garden, had a nice wander around and finished up at 21 Covent Garden for our meal.   There are two entrances, one on the ground just by the entrance to The Print Room, the other is accessible from the underground restaurants and gift shops.  These underground places stretch way under Covent Garden.

21 Covent Garden weaves itself under the passages of old offering loads of little nooks and crannies to have a quiet meal for two or a group of friends. There is however room to cater for 80 diners without it looking large and sprawling.

 

They have a small menu but what is on it is really well thought out and good value for money. For our starter we decided to share a salami platter. There were three types of salami in three long rows with little bits of cornichons and cocktail onions dotted around. This came with a basket of breads.

The pace was nice, We were neither rushed nor ignored. We both tried to guess what the other would have for a main course and each guessed correctly! Our main courses arrived, we tucked in along with our glasses of wine (we don’t usually order a bottle if it is just the two of us because Mr R prefers red wine and I usually prefer a crisp dry white.

Mr R has a serious face as he checks out the wine menu!!

I had the Cornish Crab Linguine which arrived in quite a large dish and I was full to the gills (small fish joke) when I finished. It was creamy with great big chunks of crab meat and a background of the crab throughout each mouthful.

Mr R ordered the Salt Marsh Lamb Ragu which came in it’s own little casserole dish, hot and steaming with a thick piece of home made bread on the side.  The meat just fell apart from long slow cooking and the potatoes, carrots and celery were so tender.

The problem only came when we wanted to order pudding! We were both too full to have a pudding although they all sounded enticing such as:

We settled on one Affogato to share, an espresso coffee to pour over a lovely scoop of vanilla ice cream. This is one of my favourite puddings when I am full – it acts as a sort of digestive after the meal.

I think I will have to pop in for dessert and coffee next time I am in Covent Garden!

 

I was not paid to visit or write a review of 21 Covent Garden and as usual all opinions and photographs are my own.