TOZI Grand Cafe, London review – Like Pedro Almodóvar and Luca Guadagnino started a restaurant
Godly focaccia, a caramelised bacon pork chop and fluffy, artfully-presented tiramisu - all while surrounded by exhibitionist art? We'd go again.
In Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, the classic screwball farce by Pedro Almodóvar from 1988, a woman wears earrings shaped like espresso pots. I think about this style choice on a monthly basis. I can now say I’ve dined at a restaurant with the same zany energy as those earrings. In fact, the bold, art-focused interior of the brand spanking new TOZI Grand Cafe, located next door to London’s recently made-over Battersea Power Station, has the look and feel of many Almodóvar films.
Tomato red sculptures hang from the ceiling, as do tapestries at once garish and tasteful, depicting bizarre subjects. (Is that a crocodile in a bowler hat?) A gargantuan steel structure in the centre of the room could be the latest glossy mod con to catch the Spanish auteur’s eye. And the world beyond is part of the show, too: through floor-to-ceiling windows, frazzled shoppers pound along Electric Boulevard, all in their own private Almodóvarian movie.
That TOZI serves not Spanish food, but fine Italian fare – and as tapas to boot! – is all part of the clashy fun. (To be fair, the term for Italian small plates is ‘cicchetti’.) And funnily enough, on sipping some of the citrus-heavy, summer-in-a-glass cocktails on offer – the Italian Marmelleta, for example, made of Malfy Arancia gin, Lillet, Campari, marmalade and bitters – my guest and I were transported to the lush gardens of Luca Guadagnino’s Call Me By Your Name. And the food is as indulgent, celebratory and sensory an experience as any of his films. Indeed, one can easily picture Guadagnino and his Spanish peer having a high drama lunch, or wiling away a summer eve at this all-day cafe-restaurant.
Every item on the varied, attractively-designed food menu is 10s across the board. (If you ignore the presence of veal.) For my starter, I plumped for the chicory and pear salad with Pecorino Gran Riserva: the heaped serving was a little messy, but taste-wise, it was a light, balanced entrant. As was the superior quality burrata served with caponata, black olives and basil; so fresh were the ingredients that they could easily have been sourced from Italy that morning.
For his main, my guest raved about the whole gilt head sea bream, served with lemon, dill and tomato – a simple dish, but clean and dense when cooked just so. For my main, I opted for the sugar pit bacon chop, gently roasted and caramelised to perfection. I hadn’t actually seen this item on a menu before, and chose it immediately. I dare say it’ll be a popular choice.
Despite the meal’s energy-producing potential, at 1,113 calories (!), this isn’t the biggest piece of meat. So, the accompaniments might be due a rethink. I’d switch out the nice but thin salsa verde and rocket salad for heavier vegetables. And I took issue with the use of the term ‘chunky chips’, which should describe simple, rustic, satisfying chips only… TOZI’s take on the concept – meticulously confit layered, like delicate pastries – are a little highfalutin.
But there’s more to life than potato. There are also other forms of carbohydrate. And one test of any eatery is how seriously it takes its bread. The Rosemary focaccia at TOZI was godly. Meanwhile, the best barometer of any Italian restaurant, in my experience, is always the tiramisu. TOZI’s fluffy, artfully-presented concoction, complete with pistachio shavings sprinkled on top, was faultless.
Full marks to the staff, too, who were all lovely. When my guest and our server realised they both spoke Portuguese, they happily chirruped away for five minutes, making me feel even more fabulously European. When in fact I’m boring, British and obsessed with chips. I think I need some new earrings.