Italian restaurant La Tagliata will offer just one main
course option when it launches in Spitalfields next month.
It is perhaps London’s most extreme example yet of restaurants with limited menus, following on from the likes of polenta restaurant La Polenteria, pork restaurant Blackfoot and two-dish menus at Burger
& Lobster, Hixter and Beast.
The restaurant is the brainchild of friends and business partners Andrew Davies, Carlo Palumbo and Lorenzo Boldi, with chef
Antonio Tonnelli in charge of the kitchen. The main in question will be tagliata, a dish of sliced sirloin steak on a rocket and parmesan salad, served with potatoes.
‘We thought we’d stick to a few dishes and do them really well,’ Davies told us, defending the limited menu. ‘In London I think people make a decision on where to eat based on something specific
like ‘I want to eat steak’ rather than ‘I want to go to an Italian restaurant with loads of options’, tagliata isn’t a very well-known dish here, but steak is very popular,’ he continued.
He also points out that a starter and main combined adds up to just 500 calories, making a meal at La Tagliata lighter than most, something he believes is ideal for ‘people in the City who will
have lunch and dinner out almost every day’.
Accompanying the one main will be a sole starter of freshly made pasta served with a choice of three seasonal sauces. There will be slightly more choice for pudding, with diners able to choose
between an Italian cheese plate, tiramisu, or a panna cotta.
A dish of tagliata at the restaurant will cost £19, while two courses will be £24 and three £29. An all-Italian wine list will feature around fifteen bottles, mainly selected from boutique
vineyards and not widely available in the UK.