Manteca, London review: an ‘absolute belter’ of an Italian restaurant
This Shoreditch hotspot is a blooming nice place where you can have a genuinely great meal

Between the visit and writing this review, Manteca was declared the UK’s 11th best restaurant in the National Restaurant Awards. That places Manteca – and its Bib Gourmand – between L’Enclume in Cumbria and The Angel at Hetton in North Yorkshire, who can claim four Michelin stars (and one green star) between them.
You could look at all of that in a number of ways. One, the NRAs are a little all-over-the shop or simply work to a different scale than Michelin. Two, that’s the sort of pressure no restaurant really needs. Three, expect to see Manteca step up to a star in 2023… And, having subsequently popped back to Manteca, I can assure you that it’s none of the above.
Manteca is as Manteca was: a blooming nice place, run by charming, knowledgeable people, where you can have a surprisingly good value and genuinely bloody great meal. If there’s pressure, they’re not showing it. If there’s a star inbound, well, it’ll happen because Michelin likes what they’re doing, not because Manteca is trying to impress the judges.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
What should you order?
Manteca, according to Google, is a “simple, Italian-inspired diner” where “fire-cooked nose-to-tail cuts of meat meet hand-rolled pasta.” That’s not a bad description as it goes. There’s an ethos towards sharing, the cooking makes a great spectator sport (at least three of our selections come from this influence rather than the menu) and that nose-to-tail thing (and whole animal butchery) shines through in several dishes and, particularly, the house-made salumi (and the glass fronted ageing room is an interior-design flourish I’d like in my flat please, however impractical that may be). The restaurant itself is sort of standard Shoreditch industrial chic but, after pop-ups in Mayfair and Soho, there’s a style and energy to the space that makes it feel like Manteca is finally home. It’s also as comfortable as it is practical, which comes as something of a surprise given the trendiness of the postcode.
So, once settled, what should you order? Well, assuming you’re not vegetarian or vegan or have any dietary requirements… anything. Or, indeed everything. And, by the time we’ve skipped through the menu – effectively broken down into snacks, small plates, pasta, bigger mains and sides – we’ve erred much, much closer to the latter. And, frankly, there’s not a misfire among them. Sure, there are things I’d order again – and, in the case of the fried olive (stuffed with pork sausage) we do – and things I wouldn’t, but all is good. And, frequently, very good, the salumi a case in point. Some places being so self-sufficient feels like a gimmick, a little bandwagon chasing but whoever’s running the programme here knows what they’re doing.
Fat tastes good…
The “signature” dish – if Instagram-coverage is an indicator of such things – is probably the pig skin ragu, parmesan, crispy skin and, it’s a little bowl of rich, fatty, crispy, porky genius and indicative of Manteca’s grasp of the rule that fat tastes good. There’s fazzoletti with duck ragu and duck fat pangrattato (breadcrumbs), there’s a Herdwick Cull Yaw chop… everywhere you look this is cooking for flavour, not fitness. I mean, salumi roasted potatoes anyone? You just have to really, right?
There’s a short, regularly changing list of puddings. The wine list has a good selection by the glass, and knowledgeable staff will happily steer you through the lesser-known grapes. With small plates coming in around the £8-£10 mark, pastas at around £15, you can also leave well-fed and watered for around £40 a head. You probably won’t – and doing so requires levels of willpower I simply don’t possess – but you could. Irrespective, it’s good value for the quality of ingredients and cooking on display. Eleventh best restaurant in the country? That’s debatable, however, Manteca is an absolute belter with considerable promise for the future.
Manteca, 49-51 Curtain Rd, London EC2A 3PT; mantecarestaurant.co.uk
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
The Week contest: Flight fraud
Puzzles and Quizzes
-
Is Trump sidelining Congress' war powers?
Today's Big Question The Iran attack renews a long-running debate
-
6 productivity-ready homes with great offices
Feature Featuring an office with a gas fireplace in Oregon and a shared workspace with wraparound windows in Massachusetts
-
Marfa, Texas: Big skies, fine art, and great eating
Feature A cozy neighborhood spot, a James Beard semifinalists, and more
-
Best Caribbean restaurants in London
The Week Recommends From bold flavours to twists on tradition, these restaurants serve up a rich tapestry of food culture from across the West Indies
-
The battle to be named the world's oldest restaurant
Under The Radar Two Madrid restaurants dispute the historical record but could both of their claims be cooked?
-
Critics' choice: Restaurants that write their own rules
Feature A low-light dining experience, a James Beard Award-winning restaurant, and Hawaiian cuisine with a twist
-
Summertime eating is good at these 7 restaurants across the country
The Week Recommends Patios and big flavors are in season
-
Critics' choice: Steak houses that break from tradition
Feature Eight hours of slow-roasting prime rib, a 41-ounce steak, and a former Catholic school chapel turned steakhouse
-
America's favorite fast food restaurants
The Explainer There are different ways of thinking about how Americans define how they most like to spend their money on burgers, tacos and fried chicken
-
Ozempic and its brethren are running headlong into American dining and dieting culture
In the Spotlight Some restaurants are feeling the burn. So are beauty expectations.