Piccolo Review

June 16, 2015 by Rich - Foodie Reviewer

Piccolo Review

There has been a little row of Italian eateries just above the arches in Westcliff for as long as I can remember. All of them seem to do very well; they are always packed out at weekends and when a show is on at the Cliffs Pavilion. It’s almost Westcliff’s very own little Italy! Judging by the amount of trade which passes through every week, all three must be pretty good, and not forgetting their great vantage point with wonderful views across the ‘Thames Riviera’. I thought it high time Louisa and I got ourselves down there to give it a go. But, which one do we go to, after all we have three to choose from, and I can’t do all three in one night that would be too much! Come to think of it, how about, a starter in one, main in the next and pudding in the third! After a little bit of Internet research it would appear Piccolo had been feeding hungry diners the longest, since 1977, almost as old as me! Well, clearly they must be doing something right, and 38 years in business is no mean feat, lets give em a go!

We booked in for a Friday night. The weather that day had been great so we decided to grab a swift early evening bevvie at the Cliffs Pavilion. Much to my surprise, they have recently started to serve three different beers from the Meantime brewery in Greenwich. Great to see the local craft beer revolution gaining momentum, so much so, I reckon I could soon write an article on the rise of glorious craft beer in south Essex, now there’s a thought! After we finished our drinks in the sun we wandered down to Piccolo.

A very warm welcome greeted us as soon as we walked through the door. Immediately after being seated at our table, we were asked what we would like to drink, a big plus point. I have mentioned this is in earlier reviews, if a restaurant doesn’t offer a drink with the menu, not only are they missing out on selling more, they are depriving me of another refreshing drink, after all, it was a warm evening. We ordered two bottles of Moretti, a classic Italian lager. I was hungry so to go with the beer, and whilst we pondered the menu, we had some garlic bread, both plain and with cheese, very nice it was too. So what did we have? The starters sounded good, king Prawns, steak carpaccio, together with pasta dishes, which most are available as starters as well as mains. But Lou and I were tempted towards the specials board, whitebait fritti for me, prawn and porcini linguine for Lou. For mains Lou went for the Lamb Shank again from the specials board. Now I could have ordered steak or a lovely sounding fish creation, but I went for liver and bacon! I’m sure a lot of you may think I’m crazy, but being the foodie I am, I love offal, it has so much flavour! Based on these rich main dishes I thought a bottle of red would be perfect, so lets go for an Italian classic, a bottle of Barolo.

I’ve got to be totally honest, when the starters arrived I suffered a little food envy, and there’s nothing worse than that! Lou’s dish looked great, creamy linguine with garlic and porcini mushrooms, with a generous amount of prawns, it just looked classically Italian, I wanted to get stuck in. My whitebait on the other hand, just looked like, well, whitebait, and as it should! I shouldn’t moan its not Piccolos fault, I ordered the dish! Maybe I should have been a little more adventurous, after all I am a self confessed foodie! But saying that, it was not a disappointment to eat. Superbly crispy, and quite a pleasure when dunked in the garlic mayonnaise, I polished it off without an issue.

So on to the mains. Lou’s lamb shank was a good size! But even better it was cooked, as a good shank should be, it just fell straight off the bone; you could have eaten it with a spoon, and with the rich gravy, it was good eating! Now, on to the liver. I had a little concern over the sauce, it just looked a little too gloopy. I got stuck in, and I was right, the sauce had been a little over reduced, it didn’t taste too bad though, but if it was just a little thinner it would have been perfect. The liver and bacon underneath the sauce was spot on though. When Calves liver is cooked well it really is a delight to eat, and Piccolos liver was just that, not dry at all, and with the bacon it’s just the perfect combo. Because of this, I will let them off the slightly over reduced sauce! On the side we ordered chips! Now these were superb homemade chips, I just love a good homemade chip, and they went pretty well with the liver and Lou’s shank! Maybe mash would have been a more classic accompaniment, but when I see homemade chips on a menu I just have to order them! The wine, how was the wine? Well that was lovely, and powerful enough not be overwhelmed alongside my rich liver dish.

I owe you all my usual apology! Although I have done my best in my past couple of reviews to have a pudding, and thoroughly enjoyed all of them I hasten to add, I just couldn’t make room after all that rich food. But I did have a good look at the desert menu. Profiteroles, Sticky toffee pudding, chocolate soufflé all the way down to the Italian staple, Tiramisu! A big, big plus here, they serve Rossi’s ice cream, a local ‘Italian’ classic! The bill was soon to arrive and £90 with a tip isn’t overpriced for dinner on a Friday night in my opinion.

I’m definitely heading back to Piccolo; I’d only scratched the surface. I need to get involved with more of their pasta dishes and pizza’s. The staff? They were very enthusiastic and great fun; it was a pleasure for them to serve us. The restaurant has a superb buzz about the place, and remember they have been here since 1977, 38 years no less, and judging by the amount of diners who were coming in, and already eating, during our visit, I really think they can look forward to another successful 38 years. How many local restaurants can boast this, not many I reckon. Before I sign off for another week, and head off on my next foodie adventure, I just wanted to share this with you. When we left Piccolo we weren’t ready to head home just yet, the casino’s lights were twinkling on the estuary calling us! So we decided to head down for a nightcap, and I’m glad we did. You know I keep waffling on about the local craft beer revolution; well this has spread down to the Casino much to my excitement! Whilst having a little flutter on the roulette table we polished off a couple of Stevens Point IPA, a tasty beer all the way from Wisconsin in the good ol’ U S of A, it certainly went down well. What’s even better we didn’t loose any money; we didn’t win any either for that matter, but what the hell we drank some great beer! A great end to a great evening!