La Cucina

2 reviews of “La Cucina”

Ruth Hawkins
• 22nd January 2018 Log in to Reply
My 11 year old daughter and I attended for an early Saturday night supper. She was tired, fresh from performing in pantomime in Abingdon, and also very hungry, so this was a good test for any restaurant, and La Cucina did not let us down!
As soon as we walked into the very welcoming and relaxing restaurant, modern yet warm and friendly, we were given our choice of seating and seated very promptly. Menus were brought out and the variety of delicious sounding modern Italian dishes was vast! We didn’t have to wait long until our orders were taken – Really efficient, friendly and attentive service.
To start, I decided on a portion of calamari and Isobel went for bruschetta. Within about 10 minutes our starters arrived. There is certainly no complaint about the size of portions! Both starters were generously sized, and my calamari was piping hot and clearly freshly cooked. Isobel’s bruschetta was a thick slice of toasted focaccia bread, covered in delicious chopped tomatoes and black olives and served with a small amount of salad (which seemed to find its way onto my plate, mostly!). Both starters went down a treat and left us excited for the main course! For mains, we were sorely tempted by the seasonal daily specials on the board ( updated throughout the day) but stuck with our gut instincts: Isobel went for Pizza frutti di mare, and I decided on Tagliata di manzo. The waitress made sure that Isobel realised that her pizza was served without cheese, and she was happy with that, a nice attentive touch, and I was asked how I wanted my steak cooked too. When the plates came out the aroma was drool-worthy, and my steak was cooked to perfection! The tagliata was served with a side order of polenta chips, and a generous salad of rocket leaves, cherry tomatoes and garnished with parmesan and balsamic vinegar. Isobel’s pizza looked delicious – huge, freshly cooked and covered with calamari, prawns and mussels, and garnished with fresh basil leaves. She managed about two thirds of it before admitting a thoroughly enjoyable defeat.
There is a large and reasonably priced wine list to choose from and the staff are happy to help you pair the best drink to your meal choice. I opted for a small glass of merlot, and a very nice well served glass appeared in a second along with Isobel’s glass of fresh apple juice. Neither of us could manage a dessert which was a shame as they sounded delicious, such as Torta della Nonna, a Limonello Baba or classic Tiramisu. When we return, and we will, the belts are getting loosened and we’re going all out!
A lovely evening for both of us, in a friendly and warm environment with fresh, home-cooked Italian treats right on your doorstop! And La Cucina even have a take-away service, so you really have no excuse not to experience this wonderful restaurant.
5 Things I Loved:
1. Really efficient, friendly and attentive service
2. Variety of the menu – modern Italian
3. Tagliata – cooked just as I asked and a very generous portion
4. The ambiance – modern but warm and friendly
5. Reasonable wine list, not expensive: my glass of Merlot £5.45

Matthew Wright
• 25th January 2021 Log in to Reply
“Oh….I’m so full….I honestly couldn’t eat another mouthful.” The desultory remains of my partner’s chocolate cake lay in small pieces on the plate beside me. Suddenly, out of the corner of my eye, I caught a flash of steel which buried itself deep in my caramel-topped panna cotta – so much for feeling full eh?
However, let’s rewind an hour or so….coming in off the streets on a cold December afternoon, the first thing which hits you as you enter La Cucina is the smell of fresh pizza wafting from the bustling, open-galleried kitchen. Our waitress confessed that her favourite was the ‘Sole Mio’, and when you see the staff walking out with a pizza box from the kitchen at the end of their shift (very good discounts if you work here apparently), you know that the food must be pretty special!
And so it was. Tim, the maitre d’ recommended the Starter Specials – flatbread with pear & gorgonzola along with stuffed mushrooms, or ‘fungi ripieni con scamorza, rucola & pinoli’ to give it its proper name – why do things always sound so much better in Italian? My partner opted for the Aperol Spritz as an aperitif, whilst I plumped for an elegant white Orvieto.
For our Mains, we stuck to the Specials – why ruin a winning formula? – red mullet with saffron fregula (small pasta balls which hail from Sardinia) and veal involtini (stuffed with herbs), bathed in a rich deep velvety sauce, the sort you only usually see glistening from the pages of upmarket food magazines. Paired with a robust Nero d’Avola (literally, ‘The Black Grape of Avola’, a small town in south east Sicily) in order to stand up to the strong earthy flavours, I felt like I could have been sitting in a small local tavern, having just come in from a hunt or after doing something else manly – in other words, authentic cooking….or terroir if you’re an avid reader of the aforementioned upmarket food magazines.
We’ve already covered desserts (still not amused by my partner’s larceny there), so let’s skip onto coffee and the complimentary limoncellos – feeling adventurous by now, I skipped my usual wimpy cappuccino for a proper, hairs-on-chest espresso, dripping with caffeinated intent, before downing the digestif in one and just about resisting the temptation to bang down my glass on the table. That’s what La Cucina does to you – transports you and unleashes your inner Italian!
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