Osteria Basilico

FeignedMis­chief ( 40s, Female, London, UK )

My sister gypsy has been obsessed to dine in this restaurant since she heard about it from Jimmy James, but we failed to try it on both occasions that she was in town, so she finally had her wish come true the third time around when we made a go for it today. As the case with any good restaurants around London, weekends is their most busy time so a reservation is always worth it, so I have booked my reservation whilst we were still in Edinburgh to come this Wednesday. To get there is a challenge not being that familiar with every nook and cranny of Notting Hill but we eventually found it after a very exhaustive search. Well, this restaurant better be worth all the hype! It was packed with what seems like yuppies to me, the Italian waiter who welcomed us and pointed us to our seat was very friendly, I suppose that goes for all Italians, who seems to be almost always sweet.

For starters, we opted for their once-only visit to the buffet table but with a huge plate to put your selection in, at £7.00 it’s a steal. Just look at the choices! I ordered a glass of the Pinot Grigio, Andrea di Pec Igt. (£4.50) which was fruity enough and tasted so much better after having had the buffalo mozzarella. And their olives are to die for.
For our main course gypsy chose the flat spaghetti with sea-food in a fresh tomato sauce (£10) and being a huge anchovies fan, I chose their pizza capricciosa – artichokes, anchovies, sweet peppers, ham and egg (£8.50). It was pure heaven. I have always loved Italian food but was always stuck with the franchise restaurants which is really not that bad at all but then of course you’ll be singing a different tune once youve tasted a much better Italian meal elsewhere. Now my sister having just returned from Verona where all she ate the 4 days she was there was (you guessed it right) purely Italian food vouched that the food at Osteria was the best outside Italy. For afters we settled to share the Chocolate cheesecake served with chocolate sauce which just melted in our tongue, it was absolutely divine and a moccachino. Osteria Basilico didnt disappoint us at all and I will no doubt go back there again one day to try the rest in their menu. A three-course meal for two with wine will cost around £40-45 plus a 12.50 % discretionary service charge added to the bill.