Last Updated on November 26, 2024
Steak, Sicilian Style in Fitzrovia
Charlotte Street must be one of the ultimate foodie destinations in London. Apart from the historic Pied a Terre (London’s oldest Michelin-starred restaurant), there’s everything from the stunning robatayaki dishes at Roka to Thai Food at Siam Central and Oscar, the none-too-shabby restaurant at the Charlotte Street Hotel. Looking for beautifully aged beef with a selection of Italian-style side dishes, starters and desserts? You won’t find anything better than Bricco e Bacco, a traditional Sicilian-style steak house.
The family behind Bricco e Bacco were originally butchers – ‘Carmezzieri’ in Palermo, Sicily, and opened their first restaurant there in 2003. The Fizrovia restaurant dates back to July 2021 in the thick of the pandemic, a challenging time indeed for the hospitality business. It’s a testament to the excellence of the offering at Bricco e Bacco that the Sicilian steakhouse is still thriving. We were impressed that the restaurant quickly filled up on the evening we were visiting – and that many of the guests seemed to be repeat customers bringing their friends and family, to a warm welcome from Dino, the restaurant manager. Roberto, the co-founder, was in the kitchen. We learned that a new chef is starting in January, so in the interim, he was there keeping a close eye on things.
A selection of homemade bread with aromatic butter arrived to nibble on while we waited. Delicious stuff, while I was reluctant to eat too much, for once, I really wanted to take home what was left over. It had that earthy, rustic quality that you only find from properly proved and baked bread. The aromatic butter really wasn’t necessary – but very nice for all that.
At the suggestion of Dino, we ordered the Caponata Siciliana and the Caciocavallo alla Sfincione. I’m a big fan of caponata and make my own when properly ripened tomatoes are abundant in the garden.
The Bricco e Bacco version is slow cooked – the aubergine (eggplant) first baked, then the dish with a mix of vegetables, tomatoes and herbs reduced down for hours in a sweet-sour sauce that originated from the days when Sicily was an important shipping route. It is thought to be a pre-Islamic Persian dish brought to the island by Muslim traders and dates back to at least the 18th century. The agrodolce needs to be carefully balanced to complement the mixture of vegetables and capers and it can be served at room temperature or warm. Needless to say, the flavour was exemplary, with full-flavoured, firm chunks of aubergine and other vegetables in a rich tomato sauce. I’ll be trying pre-baking my aubergine next time I make this at home.
Caciocavallo is a classic Sicilian cheese made from stretched curds which are worked with wooden utensils, before being shaped in a rectangular wooden mould. The term caciocavallo – cheese on horseback – comes from the practice of tying a rope around the middle of 2 rectangular cheeses, then hanging them over a beam to age – reminiscent of being astride a horse. Baking it with sfincione, a tomato, anchovy and onion sauce, topped with breadcrumbs, makes for Sicilian comfort food that just begs to be eaten with some of that homemade bread to dip in it.
It was quite a challenge not to fill up on the starters. But Bricco e Bacco is particularly focussed on their steaks – there are two massive ageing fridges and guests can pick from two types of Wagyu (Spanish and Japanese) on the bone and six types of beef on the bone from around the world. Or Chateaubriand.
The meats are priced by weight and cut for two people who will need around 800-900 grams to allow for the bone. Guests pick their cut depending on their own preference – each meat is graded by marbling, softness and flavour. There’s Shorthorn from the UK, Marango from Italy and Rubia Gallega from Spain for example. Orders are cut and cooked to rare in the kitchen then carved into slices before being served on hot salt plates – rather beautiful chunks of crystal that can turn the rare slices into meat cooked to your own preference in minutes.
It’s very much about the theatre of food – guests are presented with a beautiful pile of meat that Dino carefully moves to rest on the bone to stop it from cooking too quickly. There are three sauces on offer (pepper, wine and cheese fondue) but we felt that would have been totally unnecessary. We picked the Italian Marango and were rewarded with some of the best-flavoured steak I’ve ever tasted.
Along with our steak, we enjoyed some great hand-cut chips and a side order of broccoli – both perfectly cooked and tasty. Sipping on a glass of Pieno Sud Rosso, Terre Siciliane, a Nero d’Avola it was easy to imagine ourselves in the heart of Palermo.
While this kind of restaurant isn’t the place to expect the ultimate dessert, Bricco e Bacco has a stunning list of Italian sweets and digestifs to choose from. For dessert, we shared some delicious Cannolo Siciliano with the kind of sweet sieved ricotta I remember learning to make when I was in Sicily myself. And, a pistachio cream and ricotta caramelised biscuit with almond flakes.
This is a place to come for an experience. The food is delicious and the welcome exemplary. Good steak, carefully prepared and served – what could be better than that?
Bricco e Bacco
11-13 Charlotte St.,
London W1T 1RH
Looking for more interesting places to eat? Check out our roundup of the best new restaurants in London
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