Art Deco Dining At TOZI Grand Café
Tate Modern boasts the Turbine Hall. Battersea Power Station has TOZI Grand Café, a top notch Italian restaurant that gives foodies a feast in what feels like an art gallery.
The upside down table that’s been part of London’s skyline since 1941 has at last been re-worked as centre piece of a new riverside neighbourhood and leisure attraction with its own Northern Line tube station.
TOZI Grand Café is part of the spanking new art’otel with its arty foyer of modern paintings – think Magritte meets Dali – and pottery that Grayson Perry wouldn’t sniff at.
The shiny new restaurant – which opened just last month – is all glass, circular, a massive metal tree trunk rising from floor to ceiling, its branches hung with bright tapestries and red mobile shapes whose inspiration you can only wonder at – lips, whale, bone, Polo mints, surely not a flying phallus. Surely not.
But maybe the ecstasy of the food. Kicked off by a Prosecco cocktail with elderflower and mint (£12.50) to banish a grey damp dusk, was casting a spell. Spanish artist Jaime Hayon’s work certainly lends enchantment whether you are popping in for breakfast – the restaurant opens at 7 am and doesn’t close till 11pm – lunch, afternoon tea, a pre-theatre supper, a cocktail and olives at the bar, or a leisurely dinner.
We were dining. And sharing.
TOZI is a Venetian slang word used affectionately to mean a group of close friends and so sharing plates or cicchetti are an ideal way to observe the Italian tradition of sharing great food with good friends.
Family too. And pets. There were a couple of well-behaved dogs and toddlers. One little girl decided on dress-down dinner, divesting herself of her knickers.
The friendly, efficient waiting staff didn’t bat an eyelid at that, nor when my chum ordered two spoons to share his Jerusalem artichoke soup with salsa verde (£8.75). Silky smooth was the verdict.
A mountainous platter of finely sliced fried zucchini with Parmesan shavings (£6.75), hearty deep fried fennel with dill (£6.50), chunky calamari with lemon (£10.50), and rosemary focaccia (£5.50) were perfect cicchetti _ and now I’ve added two new Italian words to my vocabulary.
Admiring the striking art works we happily waited to order our main dishes, a fresh and light vegan pasta (£10.50 small portion) with mushrooms and dark kale for him, a ridiculously plump gilt head sea bream (£25.50) which offered up its succulent white flesh and tasty cheeks for me. Tender stem broccoli (£5) with chilli and almonds complemented both dishes. As did our Sangiovese organic wine (£8.50 a glass).
We’d run out of superlatives by dessert. Pistaschio tiramisu was light, airy and gloriously gooey. While the dark chocolate and biscuit Gianduiotto tart was pronounced scandalously indulgent (both £8.75).
What better to round off our TOZI Grand Café sharing experience but an Espresso Martini for that caffeine hit (£12.50) before hitting Battersea’s Electric Boulevard, London’s latest riverside neighbourhood dwarfed by the Grade II listed power station.
