A quick light lunch at one of my favourite restaurants in London today, owing to providence booking a hotel four minutes away when organising my husband's business trip.
Since its opening and a rare full marks review by A. A. Gill I have visited Olivomare many times. Specialising in Scilian inspired seafood, I will order almost always anything featuring bottarga or ricci di mare (sea urchin). Today out of nostalgia this is exactly what I did, enjoying a little dish of freshly harvested sea urchin with toast and a salad of olive oil and lemon dressed celery and frisée lettuce, topped with ribbons of bottarga. The latter tasted almost like a marine toffee with its salty, toothsome texture.
In the past a Sardinian baby octopus stew my husband ordered was so full of savoury flavour I made a similar version using cuttlefish at home. Their lobster spaghetti is a celebration-worthy treat. If being in London is making you feel landlocked and you want a breath of sea air then pop in.
10 Lower Belgrave Street
London SW1W 0LJ
Tel: +44 20 7730 9022