manteca, shoreditch

manteca, Shoreditch (££)

When I see a restaurant come up a lot on tik tok, I get a bit worried - is it going to be more style over sustenance? are people just jumping on a trend? is it really and actually good? Instagrammable Italian restaurants seem to be on-trend right now, and so when booking I was honestly a little unsure how manteca would fare.

Lucky for me, the Tik Toks were spot on. Here I am at manteca, an Italian nose-to-tail, small plates restaurant. Walking in you get the sense that manteca is popular, trendy; Thursday evening and there wasn’t an empty table in sight. The restaurant is set upon two floors, the choice of which you get when booking, the upstairs which has a more relaxed and open feel, or the more intimidate downstairs, with lower ceilings and great views of the kitchen and in-house meat curing room.

manteca sits at an interesting space of restaurants, it’s not quite the classic Italian down your high-road, but it still feels distant to the high-end haunts of Maurno or the River Café… but that’s why it’s exciting here. I was also taught another lesson very quickly - freshly baked focaccia and house-cured salami really softens the blow when having to decide between what to order.

Unsure how to navigate the menu, we took our servers suggestion and went down the small plates and pasta route, rather than the starters-main route, which includes ordering one of the larger meat dishes. As is key to any small plate restaurant, apart from the food itself, is the pace it comes. Sadly this was not great here, and we longed for the next dish with an empty plate many a time.

First to arrive was Cornish squid with green pepper salsa, the acid from the salsa and lemon cutting through the flavour of the squid wonderfully. After, we were served bitter leaf salad, pear, gorgonzola dolce, and pecorino. Generous portions of all the cheeses here; no complaints in that regard. Gorgonzola can be a powerful ingredient, especially when so generously used, and whilst it was powerful here, it was tempered by the sweetness of the salad, and a nuttiness from the pecorino. The other cheese-centred dish we ordered was the house-made ricotta, wood-roasted grapes, and almonds - a simple but bold dish, it was a masterclass in how to marry ricotta with green, sweet flavours. Our final plate was the line caught seabass crudo, blood orange, chilli, and rosemary - a slight disappointment, I expected much stronger, bolder, punchier flavours, but it was still a dish that put high-quality fish in the spotlight. (alas no photo here - apologies!)

After a suspenseful wait, and another glass of wine (we had a wonderful Spanish Syrah), our pasta arrived. First came the fazzoletti, duck ragu, and duck fat pangratatto. This was simply a wonderful celebration of duck. The pasta itself was cooked perfectly (not that you’d expect anything less), with the ragu rich, and each bite hosting a range of textures. Like a good movie plot twist, this is one that should hyped up, but not spoilt - I’ll say no more so you can experience it fully for the first time.

Finally came the tonnarelli, brown crab cacio e pepe. The first thing you notice is the wonderfully luscious sauce coating the thick noddles, a striking gold colour against the black of the plate. An impressive twist on the cacio e pepe, the subtly of the crab offered a nice contrast against the (and dare I say it) slightly over seasoned cacio e pepe (it was just a touch more salty than I would have liked…sorry?). As we drew our meal to a close, we were presented by a final present from our server; cut ends of focaccia. You can imagine the next few minutes were had in silence as we mopped up every last morsel on our plates.

To hark back to my original worry, I can confirm that this wasn’t style over substance, and that manteca’s popularity is one very well warranted. manteca offers wonderful value, from the wine to pasta, and all the plates in between. The myriad of dishes on offer and many types of plates means that it’s practically begging to be booked again (or at least, I’m finding excuses to book again). Take a friend, take a family member, but do visit - it’s worth it.