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| Donna Margherita |
I’ve been living in SW London for a very long time, and I have crossed Battersea almost every week to reach Central London. Battersea is a very vibrant area with fantastic little independent shops and lots of places to eat.
Donna Marguerita, a family-run Neopolitan restaurant, is on Lavender Hill somewhere between Clapham Junction and Wandsworth Road, so you have an idea of the location.
The beloved Battersea Arts Centre is just across the road from Donna Marguerita which makes it a place to go before or after theatre, exhibitions, events and the odd antique market that used to take at the arts centre. I’ve passed in front of Donna Marguerita lots of times, but I never went in. It looks modern from outside, and the menu looked always appealing.
Finally, I visited Donna Marguerita last Monday evening. When I arrived the place was almost empty, no surprising for a Monday, so I thought. After about half an hour of my arrival, the venue was full! It was incredible! The servers were running up and down the length of the place. It was so busy that the chef came out a couple of times to bring dishes to some customers tables.
Despite that the service was attentive and food didn’t take too long to arrive at the table. The atmosphere was buzzy, the clinking of glasses and cutlery together with the noise of conversations filled the room, just like a local, family run Italian restaurant should be, lively!
The decor is simple with one wall filled with bottles of wines, Italian products as well as a range of organic and gluten-free products.
The tables are well placed apart from each other; you don’t feel on top of each other.
The taster menu is good value for money at £20/head is good enough for two people (excluding drinks), and it was well put together. More on the food menu
The wine list was very comprehensive with wines for every budget, but the descriptions of the wine on that list are a fail. I would like to see a more in-depth description of taste which makes the customers understand what they are ordering. On this occasion, the busy service prevented the waiter from explaining the wines.
The wine of choice was the Teroldego Rotaliano 2012, a full bodied intense coloured red with soft tannins, well balance and fruity bouquet of prunes and blackcurrants from Trentino, far North Italy. This wine went really well with the meal at £28/bottle it was a steal!
Dinner
I couldn’t fault the food. The ingredients and the execution were impeccable. In particular, the freshly made pasta with complex and delectable tomato sauce and the utterly delicious pizza Margherita – tomatoes, mozzarella, extra virgin olive oil, Parmesan and fresh basil baked in a wood-fired oven – perfection!
A’ PARMIGIAN E MULGNAN: Baked fried aubergines with tomato sauce, basil, mozzarella and parmesan – love the tomato sauce – very tasty. Peasant style Bruschette, colourful, simple and delicious
L`arancin – Fried rice balls filled with smoked cheese, tomato sauce – love it!
O`scagnuzziell – Fried Polenta with salami and Ham – great texture
Fried courgettes and aubergines batons – always a crowd pleaser
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| O’SCIALATIELL RO` RE FERDINANDO Homemade pasta with Prawns, Langoustine, Squid, Clams, Mussels, tomatoes ,chilli and parsley. the pasta was magnificent , great texture and cooked to perfection and again that tomato sauce – I need this recipe! |
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| Dessert: Torta Caprese – flourless chocolate cake, not too sweet great with coffee |
This meal was the taster menu priced at £20/head plus drinks.
Highly recommended – worth the trip – I really can’t complain; I eat really well at Donna Margherita this week.
Disclosure: I was a guest of Donna Margherita. All views are my own.
Now this restaurant looks right up my street. Amazing bruschetta and wow that seafood!
Wow I havent been here in years, but I am glad to see it's still as good as it was!
Now that sounds like a rather fantastic restaurant! How wonderful to have such venues nearby!
This looks like a fantastic restaurant to try, and I can't see the wine list as being a particular problem as I don't know enough about it in the first place! It's posts like this that make me wish I lived closer to London, so I could go out and explore! 🙂
I really need to make another trip to Battersea, and this looks like a great restaurant to try x
This looks like a good restaurant, I haven't tried anything in Battersea for a while.
The taster menu sounds like great value. The food looks stunning.
Now that looks like a must visit restaurant the Torta Capres looks mouth watering!
This looks like great food! The pizza looks delicious and the other dishes look like they're worth a try as well 🙂
What a beautiful place – the food looks amazing. I do love eating out! Kaz x
This looks like a great place to go and eat. That pizza looks amazing!
The fried rice balls and the torta caprese looks amazing, what a delicious concoction of food.