Some restaurants "seem to burst into bloom without a smattering of foodie-scene turbo-hype, industry gossip or 11th-hour drama", says Grace Dent in the London Evening Standard.
So it was with modern-Italian spot Canto Corvino in Spitalfields, London, which opened its doors last year and "took next to no time for the rave feedback to come flooding in" says Ben Norum, also in the Standard.
The food menu is authentic Italian, says Time Out, "but with more than a nod to the new". Hence swordfish cooked on a Josper grill served with baby squid and panzanella, and old spot pork belly with artichokes, onions and salsa verde.
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Split into seven sections, the menu also includes starters of portland arancini, a contorni list featuring maple chilli roast squash, mains of saltmarsh lamb ribs with smoked aubergine and deserts of salted chocolate delizia and home-made tiramisu.
"This is imaginative, carefully hewn food which still remains hearty." – the Evening Standard
"Moody and masculine in demeanour, this handsome, beautifully lit" restaurant "is a bit special", says Marina O'Loughlin in The Guardian. With clued-up staff and reservations as standard, it is "that rarest of current restaurant attributes: properly grown-up".