Burro e Salvia Pastificio, 52 Redchurch Street, E2 7DP

Burro e Salvia Pastificio, 52 Redchurch Street, E2 7DP

 

I’m now getting so used to finding tiny restaurants and bars secreted behind fridges, florists, pasta shops and what have you that I’m rather disappointed when I go snuffling around to the back of any given shop and opening doors only to be knocked sideways by a mop and bucket instead of enticed into a twinkly ambience.

 

Burro e Salvia is a rather excellent purveyor of handmade pasta, created in front of your eyes and packaged to make you feel special. Behind the rows of tortellini and ravioli though, you’ll find a small restaurant with only ten covers.

 

On a Sunday afternoon this hideaway is the very essence of civility; glistening glassware, white china and clean and simple décor. We even achieve the larger table to the back under the skylight which drenches us in warm sunlight throughout, tempered by (free) filtered water and a chilled glass of wine.

 

Starters of anchovies and toast is delicious and very reasonable at £5. The high quality anchovies were served in the tin, which is novel but does remind you of the markup. I would be SO tempted to place them in the porcelain anchovy tin they have on sale (to hold toothpicks and the like) for aesthetic reasons but also to promote their own products! Everyone’s a winner. The other starter of devilled eggs with tuna was served with homemade mayo, oh so subtly curried (might not be enough for some) and was another billy bargain at £4.

 

For mains we had ravioli alla Norma (ravioli with aubergines and ricotta swimming in a melting tomato sauce) and ravioli agli Agrumi, Bottarga e Prezzemolo (ravioli filled with ricotta, lemon and orange zest, mullet roe and parsley). The former was simply delicious and impressive to find tiny cubes of aubergines (when aubergines are SUCH hard work what with their salt scrub preps before you even get to dealing with them). The Agrumi was rather special too, brave with the amount of zest but made the meatiness of the roe light and citrusy. Not bad at £12 a plate for something so delightful. We both heralded this as the best pasta we have ever eaten, and boy have we eaten a lot.

 

The beer and wine selection is equally impressive and although we ducked out of pudding, both options of chocolate and amaretti pudding and sabayon mousse were extremely tempting when we nosed at others!

 

Two ate a relaxed and intimate lunch for just over £40 all in. The combination of small space and well deserved popularity makes booking a must (particularly in the evenings – they’ve started serving a few nights a week in celebration of their first birthday).