44 Harrington Road, SW7 3ND
www.iddulondon.com
Down in South Kensington, Nik finds that restaurants still have the edge on any virtual reality headset – transporting you from the streets of West London to the alleyways of Palermo in a single bite.
The problem with this particular future, as I see it, is two fold: 1) you can’t take photos of what you’re looking at, as it’s only happening an inch from your own eyes; 2) there are a couple of key ingredients missing – taste and smell.
IDDU is a tiny all-day Italian restaurant. It’s neat, clean and full of the sort you expect to find in South Kensington – i.e. those who know how to actually read a wine list – plus plenty of Italians. The latter is a good sign, as I can’t imagine the Italians, of all people, will accept a substandard imitation of their own cuisine.
Keeping with the tiny/delicate theme, I opted for precious, delicate courgette flowers and cheese. This wasn’t as tiny a dish as I’d expected; stuffed almost to breaking point with a lip-smackingly good ricotta. Even so, my knife and fork glided so effortlessly through the paper thin flowers and soft cheese, the plate was clean in seconds.
I’m a big pasta fan, so this was perfect. I can see some being disappointing though; the handful of small prawns and nuts scattered across the surface are quickly lost as you stir the pasta round the bowl. Don’t say we didn’t warn you.
IDDU offers that rare understated quality that a lot of restaurants in London fail to achieve. Given the area, I was expecting more pomp, more flashiness, more unnecessary shine added only to justify the restaurants address. There was none of that, just friendly (albeit slightly quiet) staff, a well-priced menu of simple dishes, and a feeling that your chair had been couriered straight from a Palermo restaurant. Virtual reality is going to need to try a lot harder if it’s to beat what they have to offer here.
More from this reviewer?
Check out The Plantation, in Poole