I love Il Pirata, so I couldn't wait to try out Coppi and
looked forward to a meal there. We were seated among the overcrowded
tables in the dark, but in the full glare of the kitchen lights, which had the
ambience of eating in a parking garage. The concrete pillars and unfinished
ceiling made the drone of background noise and terrible music so loud and tinny
that we could hear neither the server nor each other. Not a relaxing atmosphere
to savour one's dinner. Service was both painfully slow and extremely friendly,
which made determining the tip a tricky prospect.
But on to the food. We sampled three cichetti: mixed
olives, manchego and quince, and paprika toasted almonds. The manchego
and quince paired up were particularly delightful. Coppi makes its own
pasta in house, but mine was gloopy. One of my companions had butternut
ravioli with chili and rocket and it was sublime. An order of parmesan and
rosemary fries was delicious but woefully short on rosemary, so much so that we
wondered if we had misread the menu. Desserts were also hit and miss.
Chocolate fondant was solid, rather than fondant, although delicious.
Lemon posset with raspberry sorbet had me eyeing my husband's plate with envy.
The range for
vegetarians is depressingly familiar and fairly limited: goat's cheese pasta;
goat's cheese pizza, mushroom in puff pastry, ravioli. So many possibilities
for great Italian food...but not if you aren't keen on mushrooms or goat's
cheese. There are, however, a number of great options for the cichetti: in
addition to the ones already mentioned, there are also marinated artichokes,
mushroom crostini and a few others.
Coppi would be great for a quick drink and a snack, but for
dinner it was a sensory overload in all the wrong ways. A disappointing night
out - so much promise, but not delivered.
2/5
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