Postino

267 Kensington High Street
London W8 6NA

020 7602 6777

Last night came out of seeing Avatar at Odeon Kensington High Street (which whatever criticisms it might have had for the Hollywood schmultz storyline is visually awesome) in need of something simple. The closest place to the cinema occupying a great site for passing trade is Postino. Postino has replaced the old Scoffs Eating House which also served Italian food but bizarrely was done as a pastiche alpine chalet and was in severe need of an overhaul.

I don't know whether the current restaurant is under the same ownership but it has certainly had a decor make over. It is now simple pine tables, modern and bare with spot lighting (rather well done and affords some intimacy despite quite a crowded space).

The welcome is almost overwhelming and multilingual. Lots of buona seras followed by good evening and mille grazies etc Nice, friendly but I felt taking the family Italian restaurant comic opera almost too far, too in your face; but if you like that sort of thing the service really was good. It just wasn't subtly unnoticeably good; but the staff and chefs in the open kitchen appeared genuinely happy with what they were doing (very often not the case!).

The menu is very long (a bad sign); eighteen different types of pasta twenty different pizzas (mostly around £7), antipasti, carne, rissoto, etc. I have a capricciosa pizza: the pizza dough is flabby, the cheese filling gooey and there are rather nasty looking little squares of ham. My fellow diner has the linguini ai frutti di mare the most expensive pasta at £10.95: rubbery seafood in canned tomato sauce, no taste of fish stock or fresh fish. We have a passable bottle of Sardinian red wine (not cheap at £24). The total bill,including 10% service which they add, comes to £46.65. For all the family theatre I'd rather go to Ask or Pizza Express.