Diciannove Italian Restaurant

Cozily nested inside the Crowne Plaza Hotel right across the street from the City end of Blackfriars Station, Diciannove is a smart and delicious Italian restaurant in an atmosphere that is both elegant and friendly with top notch service.

Diciannove has a great selection of food on it’s menu from ingredients that are sourced from Italy. It’s food that is cooked and served with care, with an Italian offering of some of the best pasta and seafood served in this part of town.

At Diciannove, they are able to serve the pasta dishes as either starter (antipasti) or main dishes (primi & secondi). Their pasta is made in-house and I for one can highly recommend their Tagliatelle with minced beef and pork ragout. I opted to have it as my antipasti dish, and it was some of the best ragout I have ever had. The meat was very generous, and the pasta was excellently cooked, and is rightfully so one of their signature dishes. I can see why. And at £8, it was a great deal. My dining companion had the pea soup, with courgette and shallots and sauteed fresh peas. He said it was delicious, very very good, and at £7.50, worth every penny. Other starters include the good ole reliable calamari (£8), Pan Fried Octopus with new potatoes, capers, rocket and sun blanched tomatoes (a steal at £11), cheese and asparagus salad (£9.50) or Ravioli with fresh ricotta, buffalo mozzarella, tomatoes and basil (£12), plus many many others.

I was told by the manager to have the Chargrilled Swordfish (£23), which I did. It was generously-sliced and cooked medium well and served with rocket and cherry tomato salad. I am usually not a fan of swordfish but it was very good, but on circumspect, I should’ve stuck to the Tagliatelle as my main course as it would’ve been a bigger portion than the starter I had. My friend had the very good Panfried Lemon Sole. It was very light and succulent (in a pecorino cream sauce) and was served with excellent green beans. The Sole, at £28, while not cheap, is of a high quality and is very good. There’s so much more on the menu that I would’ve liked to have tried, including the Panfried Pork Chop with red peppers, broad beans pureé and pork sauce (£20), Conchiglie pasta with lamb polpettine and tropea onions (£16) or the 10oz Grilled Sirloin Steak with roasted potatoes, slow cooked shallots, tomatoes confit with veal jus (£28.50). It all looked so yummy.

We added contorni (sides) with our main courses. The Butter Spinach was wonderful, as were the roasted potatoes, which were served cubed, just the way I like them. Other sides included a mix salad, green beans, or wild rocket cherry tomatoes parmesan. All a snip at £4 each.

I had the most interesting dessert at Diciannove. It was the Millefoglie di Frutti di Bosco Misti. A wonderful mix of a small puff pastry with mixed berries, mascarpone and raspberries and strawberries lightly sprinkled with sugar and berry sauce – a most yumsome dish and highly recommended – very unique dish. My friend enjoyed his Gelato which consisted of vanilla, hazelnut, and chocolate with amarena cherries on the side. He said it was delicious. Top it off wth tea, coffee or the excellent macchiato!

As for wine, of course Diciannove does good wine, it’s Italian for goodness sake. We had the most incredible Trebbiano Chardonnay Ribicone, a light tasting white wine that wasn’t too strong – it was subtle and went very well with our dishes. And it was recommended by the staff, they knew we would love it, and we did. Diciannove also does an excellent selection of other whites, reds, and rose wines….but it’s best for the staff to recommend, they know their stuff!

We had a very enjoyable meal in a restaurant that was not that busy on a Saturday night. The tables are spacious enough apart to comfortably and quietly enjoy a business or romantic meal, and if you want even more privacy, Diciannove has a private room in the back that sits around 50. The seats in the restaurant are comfortable, there is a nice long bar that’s perfectly in place in the restaurant, and we were given first class service by Chiara, who excelled in taking care of us.