Restaurant Review: GOAT Chelsea merges chic West London sensibilities with cosy Italian cooking

In a district where there’s a shop selling door knobs for £300, and people called Tabitha fall out of art galleries drunk at 2pm, somewhere like GOAT is a welcome respite. Slap bang in the middle of the frivolously fulsome Fulham Road, this little pub-come-Italian is a cosily casual cableknit sweater in a supercilious sea of cashmere coats.

We arrived on a blustery late February evening, and were welcomed in with characteristically expressive Italian gusto. The staff are friendly without being overbearing, which is the winning formula as restaurant staff go isn’t it.

The clientele seemed mostly local – another good sign. Effortlessly cool young couples on a casual mid-week date nights, with the occassional raucous table of friends tucking into pizzas and merlot. We think we spotted Sienna Miller sipping a boho-chic Beaujolais.

We went for humble pizzas ourselves – usually something more adventurous would have been on the cards, but the smells from the woodfire pizza oven were intoxicating, and the hangovers from the night before needed to be soaked up. One, sprinkled with san daniele ham and oozing with pesto and burrata (creamed buffalo mozzarella) was a winner for not just pizza of the night, but pizza of the decade.

We followed up with two almost insultingly decadent desserts – a mouthwatering cheesecake and possibly the most flawless fondant this side of Nigella Lawson’s Instagram account.

The people behind GOAT have discovered the holy grail of West London restauranteuring – taste without pretension, and good food without astronomical prices.

For more info and bookings, head to goatchelsea.com

 

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