Last Updated on June 28, 2024
Whitechapel is an area of London very much associated with going for a curry on Brick Lane. Now there’s another option with the opening of a brand new Sicilian restaurant in the basement of the Hyatt Place London City East hotel on Whitechapel Road just round the corner from the foot of Brick Lane.
Sotto Cucina & Bar doesn’t feel like your standard hotel restaurant – there’s not a sign of a burger or club sandwich here. The restaurant’s executive chef Alfio Laudani grew up in the Catania region of Sicily and spent 17 years working in top London restaurants such as The Rex Whistler and Cipriani. He aims to combine authentic Sicilian cuisine with locally sourced ingredients where possible, with notable exceptions such as Etna olive oil and Etna lemons.
To enter into the Italian spirit of things, I ordered the Aperol Spritz – a very decent example (though a little on the petite side).
My companion was driving so stuck to Sotto Cucina & Bar’s soft drinks. She’d been hoping for an exciting Sicilian mocktail. None was forthcoming so she opted for a thoroughly British Franklin & Sons lemonade.
I wouldn’t like to estimate quite how many arancini we managed to eat on our last trip to Sicily. My companion immediately seized the opportunity to add three more – the Arancinetti, saffron arancini, Datterini tomato jam and Superstraccia. She’d failed to notice that Sotto Cucina’s arancini are completely plant-based and feature a vegan cheese – and none the worse for it.
One of the aims of Sotto Cucina & Bar is to combine the best of local ingredients with the recipes and cooking style of Sicily. I suspect that smoked trout isn’t a dish commonly seen on the dining tables of Catania (I may well be wrong). I found the Trota agli Agrumi – Lemon and orange cured Chalk Stream Trout, cucumber and wild fennel
– to be a refreshing start to the meal. The generously thick cut fish was enhanced rather than drowned out by light citrus flavours. The finely slivered cucumber with wild fennel made an excellent accompaniment.
My companion ordered her main from the Secondi menu, choosing the Cotoletta di Pollo – crispy chicken breast with capers, lemon and parsley dressing. This is one of her favourite things and she appreciated the crunchy coating, tender meat and additional flavours of lemon and tiny capers. For her sides, she chose the chips (good) and the Insalata di Pomodoro –
Heirloom tomato and oregano salad. Alas the tomatoes had not been ripened in the Sicilian sun and were a little on the dull side.
I don’t constitutionally seem to be able to resist at least one aubergine-based dish when faced with an Italian menu. My companion had, irritatingly, refused to share Sotto Cucina’s caponata – traditional Sicilian sweet and sour roast vegetables, pine nuts and raisins – which is based on chef Alfio’s own family recipe. The trout won out over the parmigiana di melanzane so it just had to be the Timballo alla Norma from the Primi menu. Baked Sicilian anelletti, tomato sauce, fried aubergine and ricotta salata all make for a delicious mix. The big surprise – and I should have guessed from the name meaning small rings – is that anelletti look just spaghetti hoops (thankfully without the Heinz sauce). A trip down memory lane ensued.
There is a short pudding menu at Sotto Cucina & Bar from which I picked the Pannacotta al Marsala – a perfectly wobbly pannacotta with a rich and satisfying marsala glaze. My companion had reached fill of food and enjoyed a very good cappuccino.
The restaurant itself is friendly and comfortable with a dimly lit subterranean feel. Sotto Cucina & Bar has dedicated space for new art and artists to display their work and the walls are currently covered with works commissioned from the students at Norwich University of the Arts. There’s also a narrow “Terrazza” for outdoor dining, decorated with a mural by local street artist Sam Kerridge.
You would need to know about this place in advance otherwise it would be easy to walk right past the hotel without seeing that there’s a tempting Sicilian restaurant open to the public hidden away downstairs. It’s worth checking out Sotto Cucina & Bar for a taste of Sicily in London.
Sotto Cucina & Bar
45 Whitechapel Road
London E1 1DU
