Pizzeria Sette Bello
8 Amen Corner, Tooting
SW17 9JE London
0871 3327080

Reviewed on Monday 4 May 2009 evening

Pizzeria Sette Bello

Reading great reviews about this pizzeria, I tried to have a lunch there several weeks ago to find out it is mostly (only?) open during the evening. If it happens it is closed, you can always go to Limoncello located two minutes walk from it (review of Limoncello). They also have good pizzas.

Some huge bottles of wines against the wall

Back to Setto Bello now It is located five minutes walk from Tooting Broadway. The restaurant is made of one large room and is decorated with bottles on the walls and also pictures, including family photos. There is a great atmosphere and it is very family friendly. It is nice to find an authentic Italian restaurant in that area where curry restaurants are the norms. The prices are low compared to other pizzerias I know. Pizzas are aroud £6-£7, you can get veal with cream for about £12 and desserts were around £3 something. Unfortunately the receipt is not detailled. A bottle of a red house wine (a 2007 Montepulciano d’Abruzzo) was around £10.

Red house wine

We ordered two pizzas: a Calzone (ham, cheese, tomato) and a Fiorentina (mozzarella, tomato, spinach, egg, parmesan and garlic). The calzone was absolutely massive and it was not because it was the second time I was eating out today. It was good but the pizza base was too soft for my liking: it feels a little too much like bread. I like when it is crispy outside, soft inside. Still, the base was good and all the ingredients were good too. Next time I will just ask to cook it a little longer, even if it gets slightly burnt. The fiorentina had also the same little problem: too soft, no crisp at all. Toppings and the egg were good. The chilli oil was very nice and it was indeed spicy which surprised us as a real good spicy olive oil is becoming rare.

Fiorentina

Pizza Calzone

The wine was good, dry enough and going well with the pizzas.
We took for desserts a so-called strawberry sorbet that turned out to be ice cream (too sweet for us) and a vanilla ice cream with coffee and amaretto (nice, the coffee and amaretto were good at counterbalancing the sweetness from the vanilla ice cream).
We ended with an espresso and a double espresso and they were fine.

Vanilla ice cream with coffee and amaretto. In the background the so-called strawberry sorbet that turned out to be ice cream

Cost and conclusion: two pizzas, a bottle of red wine, two desserts and two espressos for £33.95 (with optional service charge to add) is a good value for money. The pizzas were good but we feel they could have been exceptional if cooked a little longer so they would be crispy. They were not crispy at all. The service was nice but the single waiter was a little overloaded doing all the service so it took a good 5 minutes to get the chilli oil (through the owner who was helping the waiter). We will certainly be back.

215 Upper Tooting Road
London SW17 7TG

Reviewed 24 March 2009.

Al Mirage

Al Mirage is a Pakistani restaurant located close to Tooting Broadway which is a centre of the Asian community of South London. There are many Indian and Pakistani clothes shops, sweet shops and of course restaurants in this area. It is simply my favourite restaurant for eating a curry. I have been there several times and nothing I tried has been bad. The staff are friendly, something that cannot be said for other restaurants in the area, and they help you to choose the meal with some nice suggestions. The place feels airy, thanks to the reasonable space between the tables but also to the high ceiling as from the ground floor you can see a part of the first floor. Strangely, it is not as busy as in the restaurants next door for some reason but people do not know what they are missing! They also do take aways, I never tried it.
On the door you can see their Scores on the door (food hygiene rating) and they got 3 stars which is good compared to the restaurants around not displaying their score (as it is too low), with the exception of a few of them.

We took the Al-Mirage Masala Fish (£4) for starters which is a cod fish marinated and deep fried. It was excellent: fresh fish and nicely spicy. I like the fish design plate used with it as you can see on the picture below.
Other starters can be the Chicken Tikka (boneless chicken pieces marinated and barbecued – £2.50), the Peri-Peri Chicken grilled or fried for £3.95 (it is a whole chicken marinated in peri-peri sauce), Tandoori Chicken leg (£1.95) etc. They also have many vegetarian starters like Onion Bhajia (deep fried balls of onion and batter – £2), Chilli Paneer (grilled cheese cubes dry or in sauce – £3.50), Vegetable spring rolls (£1.50) etc.

Al-Mirage Masala Fish

Main courses:

Like for the starters they divide the menu between vegetarian dishes and non vegetarian dishes.
Vegetarian dishes includes Bombay Alo (a hot spicy potato dish – £3.25), Channa Masala (a rich creamy chick peas dish – £3.25), Mixed Tarka Daal (lentils flavoured with cumin seeds, garlic, ginger and spices) etc.
As we aren’t vegetarians, we chose the Lamb Bhuna (tender lamb cubes prepared with fresh ginger, onions, peppers, tomatoes and garlic – £5.50) and the Balti chicken Tikka Masala with cream (£6) in the non vegetarian dishes. Others dishes per example are the Shakari chicken (chicken on the bone – £4.95), the Balti chicken Keema (minced chicken – £4.50), the hot Lamb Rogan Josh (mutton pieces cooked in traditional Kashmir masala with yoghurt and cream – £5.50), the Ginger Chicken (£4.95)… There is also 12 kinds of Naan to choose from!
We had two Mango Lassi for drink for £1.85 each (This is a alcohol free restaurant).

Mango Lassi

The Lamb Bhuna was very good, spicy and hot (we asked for making it hotter) but not overly hot. We could still enjoy its taste. The sauce was oily but not too much. Just one downside here: we both had a piece of bone, so check well your plate before eating!
The Balti chicken Tikka Masala with cream was delicious. A rich smooth cream, slightly spicy (hot) and the chicken was great, with some burn as it was just grilled. As you can see on the photo below, there is enough sauce for a good use of the Naan

The Lamb Bhuna (red meal), the Balti chicken Tikka Masala with cream (yellow meal) and the Naan.

A closer look

Cost and conclusion:  for about £20, the value for money is excellent. Adding to that a good and fast service, this restaurant IS the place to go for anyone who is into curry. Highly recommended!