Donna Margherita: Review
Monday night, I made my way down to Battersea for the first time since I moved to London. The purpose for the journey was to head along to Donna Margherita and boy was I glad I did. My friend and I met at Clapham Junction station and wandered down the short journey to the restaurant. It’s actually in a perfect location, close to the high street but further enough away to feel like you’ve escaped the hustle and bustle.
The restaurant is really cute and we loved the decor. I must admit I always feel more comfortable in restaurants that look like family restaurants and aren’t too flashy. Staff were friendly and welcoming. One particular staff member helped a young mum by entertaining her daughter who was a tad upset. This was really nice to see as some waiters can get really annoyed at young children who get bored while their parents eat dinner.
The menu is full of delicious authentic food from the Naples region of Italy and a long time was spent trying to decide exactly what to eat. To start with we chose the Bruschetta Napulitane (homemade sourdough bread topped with marinated Sicilian cherry tomatoes, basil, oregano, garlic and chilli) – £6.90 and Fritturina Di Calamari E Gamberi (lightly floured and fried Sicilian Prawns and squid with mayonnaise) – 12.90. Both amazing dishes to start our meal and we knew things were just going to keep getting better from here.
Moving on to mains my friend and I both chose seafood pasta options. Riavoli Del Golfo (wild English lobster ravioli served with prawns, langoustines and cherry tomatoes) – £16.90 for my friend and O’scialatiell Ro’re Ferdinando (homemade pasta with extra virgin olive oil, garlic, prawns, langoustines, squid, clams, mussels, cherry tomatoes and touch of chilli and parsley) – £13.90 for me. The size of the prawns on both these dishes were huge. Sometimes with extremely large prawns, the flavours can be lost but I’m happy to declare that wasn’t the case here. Both seafood dishes were amazing. The seafood in my O’scialatiell Ro’re Ferdinando wasn’t overpowering and the flavours in the sauce complimented it perfectly. The Riavoli Del Golfo was epic. The lobster ravioli were little parcels of pasta heaven.
I must apologise here because I got so excited by our dessert I forgot to write down the names. We ate Cannoli and a pear tart for dessert. These were definitely the perfect way to end our meal and didn’t last long on our plates. Both dessert options were quite light which were impeccable and the perfect portion size. Considering the amount of food we ate, we left the restaurant feeling contented rather than the overly full feeling that comes from eating pasta dishes. Definitely homemade pasta is the way to go.
Make sure you head down to Donna .Margarita for an authentic Neapolitan dinner. You won’t regret it! Their menu is definitely full of delicious sounding food which uses the freshest of ingredients. It’s on my list of places to return to!
Reporter: Tegan LeBon – twitter and Instagram – toogs1
DONNA MARGHERITA
183 LAVENDER HILL, BATTERSEA, LONDON
T: + 02072282660
A: 183 Lavender Hill, SW11 5TE
W: www.donna-margherita.com
S: @dmargheritauk
