Restaurant Review: Trattoria Sapori, Newington Green

Antipasto vegetariano at Trattoria Sapori

After visiting the Geffrye Museum we ambled along the Regents Canal and past impressive houses in Hackney's backstreets on our way up to Newington Green for dinner at Trattoria Sapori.

It has been a while since I've had Italian food and I was a little apprehensive over whether pizza was the ideal preparation for my 25km run the next morning, but once I saw the pizzas coming out of the oven I couldn't resist!

I had an excellent view of the open kitchen from my seat. There was a solitary chef making all of the pizzas. He worked with a quiet efficiency, making the pizzas before popping them into the oven heated to 370 degrees for a few minutes to cook.

Occasionally he'd be overtaken with a little bit of flair, throwing the pizza dough up into the air as he shaped it. Or artfully flicking the paddle as he took the pizzas in and out of the oven. But most of the time he kept the flamboyance in check and went about his work with a quiet efficiency.

Calabrese pizza

To get things started we decided to go for the Antipasto vegetariano (small £7.50). The platter of aubergines, courgettes, sun dried tomatoes, artichokes, olives and cheese, while tasty, felt a little calculated rather then generous. With the exception of the aubergine and olives there was just two of everything. Surely it wouldn't have hurt to throw in an extra couple of sun dried tomatoes?

As good as the pasta at a nearby table looked it had to be pizza. I chose the Campagnola (£10.50) which was topped with tomato, mozzarella, Italian sausage, sweet peppers and black olives. The pizza base was as thin and crispy has hoped with just the right amount of char. The sweet peppers and Italian sausage were the main flavour hit.

Campagnola

I also tasted the Calabrese pizza (£11.50), topped with tomato, mozzarella, spicy salami, aubergines and onions. The pizza had the same excellent thin and crispy base. The generous covering of salami lived up to it's billing of being spicy.

Tart of the day: ricotta, lemon and pine nuts

Unable to resist dessert our waitress did a good job of selling the ricotta, lemon and pine nut tart of the day and it didn't disappoint. It was subtly different texture from a cheesecake with he ricotta crumbling slightly as I cut into it. Dense and rich with hint of lemon helping to cut through everything I was disappointed to had it over half way through.

Tiramisu

However, getting the tiramisu (£3.95) was an excellent trade. The tiramisu was lighter than you'd expect which meant I could close my eyes and indulge guilt free (almost).

Trattoria Sapori is worth a visit for the pizzas, just make sure you leave room for dessert too.


All of the places that I've eaten at are marked on my map.

Trattoria Sapori
Alliance House 44/45
Newington Green
London 
N16 9QH