Carluccio's Notting Hill

 I felt particularly beastly and went a little overboard with the food ordering. I've been to Carluccio's many times before and have probably tried nearly everything on the menu, this time I stuck with some of my favourites.

The Antipasto Supremo; a great mix of little things to pick at. My favourite part is the balsamic onions and the chargrilled aubergine. The balsamic onions are the sweet but with a slight tang from the pickling balsamic vinegar and the chargrilled aubergine has deep smokiness from the chargrilling, but is naturally sweet from the aubergine and is slightly fruity from the olive oil. The pancetta wrapped prawns are a little too salty for me. The hams are good but were slightly raggedy from the cutting.

In my beastly state I also ordered their fixed price menu which they offer all the time, which I think is good value. Bruschetta and penne alla luganica. The tomatoes on the bruschetta are amazing, they're wonderfully sweet and juicy. I could happily eat a plate of the bruschetta topping!! Penne alla luganica is penne served with a spicy sausage creamy sauce. The sausage has been broken up so is like mince, gives a background kick against the rich creamy tomato-ey sauce. This is definitely my favourite pasta dish at Carluccio's.

I'm glad Carluccio's permanently offer the fixed price menu, as the penne dish might be just enough for lunch, but for dinner not enough and you would need to get a dessert or starter.