Eating Out at Padella London

Back in May when restaurants were allowed to open, we decided we would be eating out at Padella London for our first ‘girls lunch date’ with the lovely Winsze of WinceEats.com. Over the last couple of years of our friendship, Winsze and I have been a point of meeting at least once we month and normally its over food or staying over at each other’s homes. We realised early in our friendship how much we both enjoyed eating out plus adulting is hard at best of times and sometimes, you just need a nice mimosa with a good friend to set the world to rights.

Padella is a small pasta bar that serves fresh hand rolled pasta dishes and sauces inspired by their trips to Italy and, it is a highly sought after eatery. Prior to our visit, I had not heard of the place but Winsze had and recommended eating out at Padella London for our first meet up in London since lockdown restrictions were lifted. My first impressions of the place was that it is quaint and very cute, the aesthetics worked and played into people’s desires and reminiscing about our visit which is almost 3 months ago now, I can practically taste the dishes we ordered.

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Eating Out at Padella London

Girl’s lunch dates are one of my favourite past time activities that I always look forward to every single month and they are always included in my budgeting. I think it is just as important to spend time with your family as with your friends, its not only good for your mental health but I feel its a form of self-care. Eating is a social event and there is no better time that eating with close friends and family, catching up on all the happenings and living our lives abundantly. I am thankful for the type of friends I have in my life and eating out or at home with them makes me very happy.

Our decision to eating out at Padella London came with raving reviews from Winsze, her last visit she absolutely enjoyed the dishes and wanted a round-2. I was more than happy to oblige because I love eating out with my friends and it was a great atmosphere for me and her to catch-up after many months of not seeing each other. Those who know me know I am not big on the city of London, its big, loud and noisy for my liking but I enjoyed spontaneous visit to the English capital especially when it involves food in some shape or form.

What we ate

Padella is a pasta restaurant and their limited menu has attained them restaurant awards and it is easy to see why. My first impressions on their menu was that it was truly small but that was the point for Padella, it gives you just enough choice of their signature dishes. Recommended by Winsze and the staff, we went for Gnocchi with nutmeg butter (£6) which was super creamy and just melted in your mouth. The portion size was not too big but could be shared between two if needed. Pappardelle with 8 hour Dexter beef shin ragu (£12), this was another taste dish that reminded me of lasagna but more elegant and the beef shin ragu was nicely prepared but probably would order the Gnocchi over this dish.

We also ordered ordered two other dishes, the Burratta and pici cacio e pepe which we found the former to be incredibly yummy and the former was very peppery. For the pici cacio e pepe, the spaghetti was nicely made, it was definitely fresh once you got over the peppery feel of it. Though not a dish I will be trying anytime soon at Padella London, Winsze seemed to have enjoyed her Burratta and rates it highly. If you are in London, then I highly recommend this place but be prepared to wait unto 30-45 minutes as it is still one of the most popular eateries in Borough Market. I am sure the sentiment is carried over for their Shoreditch location as well.