REVIEW: Numero 28, Kensington Park Road, Notting Hill

There is never such thing as too much Italian food in my opinion. From a heart attack worthy ossobuco, to a crispy wood fired pizza, or an antipasti so fresh that its burrata and sweet cherry tomatoes leave your mouth salivating – It’s a cuisine which offers everything. I seem to be finding myself in the Notting Hill area more often than ever right now and It does take time to realise just how segmented this part of town really is. With its authentic street food on Golborne Road, Caribbean spice at the end of Portobello Road and what I didn’t realise until now, is the mini Italy on Kensington Park Road. On this one street there is more Italian restaurant then I can count on both hands. When I heard of yet another opening, Numero 28, all I was thinking and hoping, was for this place to be good, because there’s already so much established competition – it needed to stand out.

Thankfully it did stand out, offering some fine Italian food at competitive prices. If you think you’ve heard of Numero 28 before, then you probably have, as this concept has travelled all the way over from, New York. Priding itself as an authentic Neapolitan Pizzeria, it really doesn’t get anymore authentic than this. The hand painted furniture is imported, I suspect lots of elements of the food are too and even the staff have been flown in to lend a helping hand. Be prepared however, their English language is conversational at best – although it all adds to the charm I say. A bottle of Gavi settled us in nicely too – fresh, full bodied and a good amount of citrus to leave us salivating.

Being authentically Italian we had no idea how portion sizes would be, so decided to tread carefully and share this orgasmically fresh and vibrant burrata with prosciutto crudo parma ham. Smothered in good lashings of olive oil, this dish couldn’t have been more perfect. It’s all about the ingredients and any Italian restaurant which tries covering it up in every flavour of balsamic glaze going is hiding something, here it was served naked and was screaming quality. Sharing turned out to be a great idea too in terms of its portion size, but bad because It meant I had to share it.

Numero 28 is really all about the pizzas. Pasta courses turned out to be tasty and fairly pleasant affairs but could certainly do with some improvements. Gnocchi (who can resist) with mozzarella and tomato sauce. Most people would say it’s a boring choice, but for me I love to get a real taste of that pomodoro sauce, it’s the heart of Italian cooking. Here it had a nice flavour and was certainly not tart or acidic, but it just needed more depth and a little extra seasoning to that sauce. The gnocchi on the other hand was really very good and was firm to the touch, but a little fluffy in the middle. Mozzarella cubes on top seemed more of the pizza topping kind – some fresh torn up chunks would have been much better suited.

More successful was this ravioli stuffed with Gorgonzola cheese and coated in a sage butter sauce. I’m going to be very picky here because this dish (or similar) is one of my favourite things to order when dining out. I just couldn’t quite work out if the pasta was homemade or bought in – the texture just seemed quite tough and thicker than I’m used to. The cheese filling also needed to be much more potent in flavour and the sage hadn’t been properly infused into that butter, either that or this fragrant herb was not fresh enough. This dish tasted good and was very pleasant, but its flavour was much too tame for what it was offering.

Glance across the pizza menu and you’ll realise things are starting to get serious. You’ll want to order everything. Unfortunately that wasn’t possible so we started with a pizza bianche (no tomato sauce). It turned out to be one of the best pizzas Notting Hill surely has to offer (the best one is yet to come). A beautifully thin and crispy base, covered in those lovely charred pockets, which have erupted all over the crust. Mozzarella cheese sat bubbling away when it arrived, along with some smoked scamorza and layers of smoked pancetta. Despite everything being smoked I’d have like just a touch more of that element coming through if given the choice but as it was, it was a very good solid pizza offering which I’d came back for time and time again.

The bad side of writing about food is that from the moment you tap away at the keyboard, you’re hungry. When I have to recall just how devilishly good this next pizza was, it’s been difficult to get it off my mind. This 14″ pizza was part of the special editions section of the menu and was made up of buffalo mozzarella, speck ham, homemade truffle cream (yep) and champignon mushrooms. This was pure gluttony and you won’t find a pizza this decadent in London. Again the base was still beautifully crisp, the ham smoky and full of flavour, but that cream was just something else altogether. From the moment it arrived the smell and taste of that truffle lingered, all the way home. This is the dish you order when visiting Numero 28 – no exceptions.

The traditional tiramisu didn’t disappoint either. A bit of a language barrier did however cause our lovely waitress thought to think we declined it at first – at least our food had time to go down, I guess. Finally armed with a spoon there was no chance of this creamy classic lasting more than a few seconds after we’d practically inhaled it. It was good. By this point in the evening we were wobbling out and incredibly full. It’s clear that Notting Hill has gone and got itself yet another great restaurant, particularly one serving delicious pizzas. For those of you really wanting to immerse yourselves in Italy in London, come to Kensington Park Road. It’s got everything your appetite could desire and a truffle cream which will leave you longing for only more.

7/10