You’ve already written about Masaniello on the blog, Freddie said, as we came out of the restaurant last night and I stopped to take a photo of the front. Yes, I agreed, but not for a while. And a favourite restaurant deserves to be regularly celebrated.
And there were some new things last night. Firstly, it was the first time I’d taken all three of my son’s boys there in the evening – Freddie (11), Ben (8) and Alex (5). Indeed, it was the first time I’d taken them anywhere for an evening meal, although we’ve ‘done’ lunch a few times. Secondly, Masaniello now offers small and large sizes of all their pasta dishes and pizzas, which is great as I struggle to eat a whole big pizza nowadays and so a small would be ideal. In addition, kids can have a small size of any pasta or a small pizza (a Marguerita with two extra toppings) for £7.50. This seemed to meet the needs of the differently aged boys perfectly. Freddie would have a ‘normal’ sized pizza; Ben had a ‘small’ pizza: and Alex had the kids’ £7.50 pizza with extra toppings of olives and ham. I chose my favourite pasta: Scialatielli: Fresh long pasta with sautéed calamari, mussels, cod, garlic, chilli and cherry tomatoes. And yes, I had a large size (£19.95).
Freddie had a Masaniello pizza: Parma ham, fior di latte mozzarella, rocket, cherry tomatoes & Parmesan shavings (£16.95). It’s his favourite. When it arrived, fresh from the pizza oven, it was huge. I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a large pizza before – even in Masaniello!
Ben meanwhile chose Focosa: Italian spicy salami, fior di latte mozzarella, tomato sauce and chilli (£10.50). It may have officially been a ‘small ‘ size but it was pretty big and would be perfect for me if I was having pizza. Alex’s kids’ size was much the same size. They tucked in happily and – slightly remarkably to me – ate it all.
I had a zero Peroni to drink; Freddie and Ben had lemonade and Alex some apple juice.
They all, of course, had room for gelato after. Freddie and Ben had pistachio & strawberry and Alex had vanilla & chocolate. The ice cream – gelato – comes at £2.95 a scoop and I said they could have two. They were quite large scoops too, so a good helping.
I had just an espresso, which provoked the usual comments of – what is it? It’s very small (hidden message: why didn’t you have ice cream like us?).
When we’d arrived, we’d received the usual, warm Italian welcome. Maria (co-owner) was front of house and gave us a big smile and friendly welcome, then asked me where we wanted to sit. I said towards the back rather than near the front and door. It ended up being perfect; a little quieter – and near the fish tank. Alex was excited by the tank of little fish (not fish for eating, I might add) swimming around and wanted to stand and watch them while we waited for our food.
Livio – co-owner and head chef – came to greet us too, giving a special welcome to Freddie who he’s known since he was months old, and meeting Alex for the first time. Livio comes from Naples, hence the fabulous pizzas they serve. He also always has Baba on the dessert menu – a typical cake of Naples – which he once told me was his mother’s recipe. I was tempted to have it – I have before and it’s definitely special – but in the end didn’t have a dessert. Livio also kindly took a photo of all of us and came to say goodbye as we were leaving.
It was a lovely evening with great food as always. Also, that wonderful feeling of familiarity after going there for many years, being known and welcomed, makes it particularly special. The boys were brilliant and took on board this was a more ‘grown-up’ outing than usual. Our first evening outing – in a busy restaurant no less – had been a success. And I’m sure it won’t be long before we’re back.