Villa Bianca
Villa Bianca is a popular though pricey Italian restaurant in happy Hampstead.
White Decor
This clean white restaurant is one of the whitest and cleanest I have seen. Bianca is Italian for white.
Two Sittings
They were fully booked for the eight o'clock sitting on a Saturday night so we had to settle for 6 pm - and agree to be finished before 8 pm. That suited the hosts of the evening who had a baby. The main menu does not have the desserts but I always look at desserts first to decide whether I want to leave room for dessert and forego the starter. I also save time on occasions like this when either the restaurant or the dinner hosts might want us to dash off without delay. If I already know what I want for dessert I can whisper my order to the waiter or order instantly without waiting for the menu to appear and delay everybody by reading it and discussing it. I already know from this dessert menu that I want the strudel and when I tell the others we agree to opt for dessert instead of starters.
Extensive Menu at Villa Bianca. Dessert menu. Photo by Angela Lansbury.
Starters
I cannot comment on the starters. Only to say that there were several and shellfish was prominent. I am allergic to shellfish.
We all went without a starter, which saved time as well as money and left room for dessert.
Meanwhile, the restaurant provided nibbles of a delicious tiny, one bite size spinach mille feuille. Also bread sticks.
Bread Sticks
The bread sticks were a hit with the baby. Easy to handle, hold, wave about, hand to mother, and grab back, and chew on with five tiny teeth. Entertainment for all.
Toilets
Time to kill and fill, while waiting for the main course. A chance to locate the toilet, before drinks make me too tired and wobbly to mount the stairs. Yes, the toilets are upstairs.
The stairs have a rail on one side - that's the third restaurant I've visited recently with only one rail. A very elegant rail.
Upstairs was another dining room with a pianist, at what looks like a small grand piano - and a small balcony.
And the toilets? Must be down a couple of steps. I'm fine with a couple more steps. But where do wheelchair users go?
The thickest small towels, folded for each person. The two cubicles were so clean I felt that you could put your handbag on the floor.
Back to the table with its white cloth to chat whilst waiting for the main courses.
Main courses
The menu was not the same as on the website. My husband thought that was good because it showed that the chef changed the menu. I thought that the website should have been kept up to date, as I had saved time by reading the website menu in advance, and had chosen chicken in creamy mushroom sauce and was disappointed not to find it. However, i got to try the mushrooms. Good texture and great flavour.
My main course was poussin. Poussin means young chicken. I think that I speak fluent French. However, I somehow thought that poussin was a different kind of fowl, a cross between a quail and a chicken. I was wrong. It's just chicken. Very young chicken. So you get a whole one. Sometimes called spring chicken.
I am a bit quiet in the conversation. I am thinking about whether it is healthier and tastier to eat young food (veal) (and I now realize poussin). One's first thought might be that an animal should be allowed as many years of life as possible. That somehow a baby anything, cow or bird, is cute, so it is more unkind to kill it than an old animal nearer the end of its life, spared getting old. I am inclined to the view that it is better to have circumcision early (at 8 days, Jewish style, rather than 8 years, Moslem style when the child might fear or remember it, worst of all as an adult, unless an adult has fortitude and a stoic philosophy). The diners ask the waiter about the source of the veal. Is it banned in the UK, imported from overseas?
And what of abortion? Best to have contraception - although Catholics used to ban that, which inadvertently, as so often happens, results in greater distress to the mother and potential infant by making the cut off point later. Better to have abortion than a child killed at birth, like in India, and sometimes other countries. Certainly less strain on the mother's body.
The diners are not so bothered as to refuse to eat or order the veal. Go with the flow. The law-makers have made the rules. Here is the food. Lions don't worry about their lunch or dinner. They just eat.
Two others chose the veal, which came as a cutlet. Almost thick as a fillet steak, and soft to cut and eat.
Another diner chose the pasta with mushrooms. With some fiddling around, I could have constructed veal with mushrooms, or asked for it, since the kitchen had veal and the mushrooms in a cream sauce. My plate ping pong of main courses was good enough to give me a taste of the veal and mushrooms as well as my poussin, which was good enough, although two of us agreed it was a little dry and unexciting.
You had to pay extra for potatoes. Mash or saute or another kind. The saute potatoes were cooked with the skins on. Not my preference. My husband says that is how they should be done Healthier. (And quicker.)
Dessert
Desserts included tiramisu, strudel, chocolate pudding, ice creams and sorbets.
One of our group had the tiramisu.
Ice Cream
My favourite of the desserts was the scoop of hazelnut ice cream. It comes with an upside down cone on top.
Strudel
I also shared the strudel. First bite was perfect, pistacchio nut. (The Italian spelling is with a double c. The English spelling is often with a single c.)
Then on to the apple. My final verdict was that the strudel was tasty, but not much better than my favourite place for desserts, B & K back in Hatch End, NW London.
Coffee and Biscuits
My husband ordered an espresso coffee. In Starbucks he orders a double espresso, which in Italian is doppio espresso (can panne - with milk or cream). I get to finish the last drop with the milk, which he does not want much of. However, he felt that in an Italian restaurant it would be more correct to have a single espresso without the milk.
So the coffee was correctly minuscule (that is the way espresso is served, small size and strong to revive you after over-eating at your meal). But the way it was served was good - with not one but two thick concave biscuits. We broke them in half so each of the four of us could have a mouthful. The biscuits were hard and crunchy.
The biscuits were the final good note. As Shakespeare said: All's well that ends well.
To conclude, the decor here is top notch, at top prices. Definitely a great place for a celebration, or a regular treat.
Service
The service was great. Attentive. Friendly. Fast. All in all, an excellent evening.
We finished in time.
An early sitting gives you time to go home and talk on the light summer evenings. But the full restaurant at 8 pm had more of an atmosphere, a buzz of excitement.
The pianist upstairs played loudly. But you could hardly hear him downstairs. All I could hear was just a pleasant murmur of animated conversation.
As we left, we looked behind at the pretty flower displays in front of the windows. Above was the balcony with a table for two, just the two. Romeo and Juliet. Romantic.
Italian restaurants are famous for being family friendly. It's part of the Italian culture.
Practical Information
Villa Bianca
1 Perrins Court
London NW3 1OS
tel 020 7435 3131
contact@villabiancagroup.com
Also on their business card
Piccola, 33 Heath Street, NW3 6TR
The Fish Cafe, 71 Hampstead Heath High Street NW3 IQP
The Coffee Cup, 71 Hampstead High Street
Connubio, 229 Muswell Hill
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