The River Cafe, Hammersmith

One Michelin star restaurant, with great Italian food, friendly service, and lovely ambience.

Some delicious soft bread to start

Our first starter: Scottish langoustines roasted with garlic and parsley

Beautifully flavoured

You can’t go wrong with garlicky seafood

Fritto Misto – red mullet, violetta archichoke, and sage branches

I was slightly disappointed when this first arrived. It looks like a plate of regular deep fried bits & bobs

But the artichokes were delicious (I ate them all)

The bay leaves are sandwiched together by anchovy paste in the middle. So good!

And yes, there was a ray of sunshine that day.

Although, by the time we left the restaurant (mid afternoon) it started to rain, and felt like an entirely different day.

My main: Scottish scallops seared with datterini tomatoes, capers, chillis, wild oregano, and polenta

The scallops cooked to perfection, and the seasoning spot on

Although I could be biased, because I love capers)

Hubby’s main: Pacheri pasta with rabbit slow cooked with pancetta, rosemary, livers, bay, black pepper, and selvapiana chianti rufina

Ok, so we were, again, initially disappointed when the dish came out

I was fully judging my husband at this point. How the heck did you keep picking weird looking stuff !?!?

To be honest, when we first read the menu, we thought it was going to be some rich deep-red ragu sauce. So this was just unexpected.

But oh my, when I tasted that sauce, I wanted to swap our mains (well, not really. More like, I want to order another one for myself lol)

You can really taste the liver (which is another flavour I enjoy) in the sauce.

The pasta was a bit too undercooked for my liking.

I suggested sending it back.

He suggested he doesn’t mind it.

Seriously, it’s so hard to get him to make a fuss about anything.

For dessert: “The” Chocolate Nemesis

I have heard much about this cake

… and expectations were high

Hubby wanted to order the Amaretto cake

I said no, you MUST get the chocolate nemesis

He said “why don’t YOU get the chocolate nemesis”

I said “because we MUST try the chocolate nemesis. This is the only reason why we’re here”

He said “YOU can have the chocolate nemesis, and I’ll have the Amaretto cake”

I said “No, I’m so full, I can’t eat a whole dessert by myself” (he gave me a “pfft” look) “So we’re ordering one chocolate nemesis and splitting it”

He said “OK, fine”

Cue: a waitress walks pass our table with a plate of gorgeous looking panna cotta

Me: “Oh myyyyyyyy that looks soooooo goooooooood”

Him: “Do you want it? Get it”

Me: “No, I’m too full”

Him: “You can do it. Get it”

Me: “No, I’m too full. We’ll just split the chocolate nemesis”

Him: “Ah-ha. Whatever. Just get it”

….

….

Where were we?

Right…. the chocolate nemesis

Well, it was extremely delicious. Rich, chocolatey, but light, but not mousse-light.

It was like a hybrid between a cake and a mousse.

Very good indeed.

Oh

…and I did get the pannacotta

This, my friends, is the pannacotta with grappa and pomegranate

The pannacotta was, well, perfect

Smooth, jiggly, vanillary

The grappa and pomegranate complement the richness perfectly

Yes, I ate the whole thing

The meal wasn’t cheap, but we thoroughly enjoyed the food and the experience.

…and especially the dessert

Menu, location, etc: http://www.rivercafe.co.uk/