On a London "walkabout" on our recent trip to the U.K., my co-workers and I had just gotten off the "tube" at the Embankment station and were walking toward Trafalgar Square. Along a small street that was clogged with pedestrians we found a number of little restaurants. Figuring that we should probably eat lunch sooner than later, we started looking for a restaurant that was suitable for us all, including one of my colleagues who has diabetes. Looking at the menus of the small restaurants along the streets, we found an Italian place that appeared to fit the bill for us all - L'ulivo.
The L'ulivo (pronounced lu-LEE-vo - which is Italian for the Olive Tree) on Villiers Street in Charing Cross (see map) is one of two family-owned locations in the greater London area. The original location in Leicester Square opened over 15 years ago. The Villiers Street L'ulivo opened in 2000. They had a third location in Baker Street, but closed it down earlier this year. The two L'ulivo locations are open daily for lunch at 11 a.m. and continue to serve dinner up to midnight.
L'ulivo is not large, but it is open and airy. Contemporary lights hang from the ceiling, but pictures of old world Italy adorn the walls. We had to wait while they put together a couple tables to seat us back toward the kitchen of the restaurant.
The kitchen is open and you can see right in on the chefs making the food. There was a large pot of marinara simmering on the stove top. You could smell the sauce as it lightly bubbled on the stove.
Because of that, I was thinking about getting something with a red sauce. But looking through the menu at L'ulivo, I also found that they featured Neapolitan-style pizzas, a number of veal, beef, chicken and seafood dishes, and, of course, pasta dishes. The more I got to thinking about it - considering all the walking we were planning on doing after lunch - I didn't want to get too filled up. I forgot about the pizza and ended up ordering the Vitello con Prosciutto - baked veal medallions topped with prosciutto and mozzarella with a tomato cream sauce.
House-made bread was brought to the table. If the bread was any indicator, I knew this would be a great meal. It was warm, soft and had that great Italian bread taste. Dipped in olive oil with parmesan cheese, the bread was just outstanding.
A salad came before the meal. It featured an assortment of lettuce greens and chopped vegetables in a wonderful aged balsamic vinegar and oil dressing. The salad was also very good.
The entrees came out and below left is my veal and prosciutto. Three veal medallions were topped with prosciutto and mozzarella with the light tomato sauce. The veal was tender and full of flavor. The addition of the prosciutto gave it a slightly salty taste. But the tomato cream sauce was an excellent accompanyment to the overall meal. The overall taste of my meal was beyond delicious.
One of my colleagues got the Insalata Nicoise - mixed lettuce leaves with chopped tuna, chopped boiled eggs and anchovies, topped with French-cut green beans and a house-made Italian dressing. He said it was very good, as well.
Some of my colleagues at my end of the table got pizzas. Below left is the traditional margherita pizza they serve at L'ulivo. I don't think they had a coal-fired brick oven in the place, but the misshapen pizza had small burn marks on the outer crust similar to what you'd see from a brick oven pizza. And the pizza didn't have the big chunks of fresh mozzarella that you normally find with Neapolitan-style pizzas. Still, they looked pretty darn good.
Above right is the the Pizza ai Funghi - basically a mushroom pizza made with fresh sliced mushrooms. With some pepperoni and Italian sausage on it, that would have been the perfect pizza for me. But they didn't have sausage OR pepperoni at L'ulivo for their pizzas.
But the most interesting pizza was the one my colleague Ian ordered - the Pizza Prosciutto e Rucola. It was topped with fresh - not cooked - pieces of prosciutto ham and chopped fresh arugula. When he offered a slice to me, I couldn't say no. The salty taste of the prosciutto mixed with the tomato sauce and fresh mozzarella made for a great pizza taste combination. The pizza crust was light and airy, very pliable and great in taste. It had that sort of coal-fired brick oven taste quality, but - as I said - I didn't see a brick oven in the kitchen.
My colleague Francois had the mushroom pizza and he said, "Please, have a slice. I won't be able to eat it all on my own!" The mushrooms were fresh and earthy. They went extremely well with the sauce and mozzarella. These were great pizzas.
And, of course, as I'm wont to do when there's a lot of good food around, I overate. My veal dish - as good as it was - was probably more than enough. But the great pizza that my colleagues shared with me was too good to pass up. L'ulivo was a great find during our little walking tour of London. The meal I had was very good, the service was impeccable and the surroundings were warm and welcoming. For those who think there isn't any good food in the U.K., they need to seek out L'ulivo for a very good and authentic Italian meal.
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