Mele e Pere is Italian for the Cockney rhyming slang of stairs. Which explains this new Soho trattoria’s rather delightful window display; hundreds of individually designed Murano glass apples and pears. It looks more like an interiors boutique than a restaurant, but perhaps that’s in keeping with the en vouge trend for speakeasies. Behind its showy façade there’s the typical rusticity you’d expect from a neighbourhood Italian – there’s vintage tiles, chunky woods and a fabulously retro copper bar.
Reports of the kitchen are mixed; Jay Rayner disapproved, others have elatedly endorsed its traditional fayre; and with the likes of spaghettini with clams, monkfish and chilli and rabbit, carrot and black olives on the menu, it’s a venue high on our must-visit list.
