Gatti’s Restaurant Review: Enjoying Hearty Classic Italian Food at Gatti’s Restaurant City Point

Sometimes there is simply nothing better than a hearty, classic Italian restaurant which takes you back to those years ago when Italian food wasn’t fussy. Nowadays it all has smears, the pasta is filled with unusual ingredients and the famous large portions are rarely unheard of. Thankfully, there are still some of the classics clinging on and one of those is Gatti’s. Located in the business district of City Point, the restaurant serves a classic Italian menu of comforting dishes. Before heading into the dining room we propped ourselves up at bar and enjoyed an inventive sparkling infusion all centred around Veuve Clicquot Rich. A large glass filled with ice, topped up with Champagne and mixed with either celery, pepper, cucumber or pineapple. I was a little sceptical at first, but surprisingly it all worked very well. The red pepper being the favourite.

We dined between two of Gatti’s brand new Summer menus, the contemporary and classic menus. Personally there is far too much selection here and it’s a little overwhelming – they should seriously consider removing one. The smaller the menu, the better the quality is how diners generally perceive the food to be. We started our Italian journey with a couple of starters. Favourite was the gorgeous beef tartar with poached quail’s egg, rocket, parmesan and béarnaise sauce. A slightly more unusual blend to the classic offering, but I loved every bit of it and the beef was so fresh. A rather large offering of the house tempura di mare was another reminder of our Italian trips. Golden crispy tempura encased delicately cooked squid, prawns, scampi and served alongside a lovely home-made tartar sauce.

Main courses continued with the gargantuan sized theme with a plate of pasta, and steak the size of my face. Home-made pasta parcels were filled with a duck leg confit filling, porcini sauce and grated foie gras all over the top. A lovely, if not rustic dish. The star of our entire meal however was the Scottish beef fillet in a port wine reduction, served with crispy onion and Parmesan gnocchi laced with fragrant sage. That piece of beef quite literally cut through like a block of butter and each mouthful barely needed chewing. It was full of flavour too, perfectly seasoned and the gnocchi was surprisingly good – so good in fact I wished I’d ordered a full bowl of it.

Very full by this point, we somehow managed dessert – much to my surprise. A trio of mini versions to tempt us from the dessert trolley of chocolate mousse, tiramisu and panna cotta – the latter of which could have done with a little more flavour. The home-made pie on the other hand, later drizzled with fresh cream was gorgeous. Rich buttery pastry, stuffed with a sweet apple and fruit filling.

Gatti’s was a real blast from the past and reminded us so much of our trips to Italy, especially Bologna. While the food here isn’t going to win awards for being the best in London – it’s still very satisfying. The portions are generous, the Italian hospitality is lovely, wine is delicious and the steak is even better. If you’re looking for classic Italian food without the stuffiness – then Gatti’s City Point couldn’t be any more suited.

I was invited to review