The set menus are this summer's perfect lunchtime treat

Canta Napoli’s new lunch deals seem too good to be true. A fine selection of their pizzas and pasta dishes at £5 each, or add a drink and a salad for another £5. My companion Max and I went to check it out on a rainy day at the end of July, where we found that it was the perfect antidote to a dismal London Tuesday lunch break.

We were seated immediately because Canta Napoli was not particularly busy, perhaps due to the horrible skyline. In which case, we were soon patting ourselves on the back for making such an intrepid voyage through gloomy W4 and reaping the rewards!

We decided to share a ‘Focaccia All’Aglio e Rosma’ which is really a nice way of saying a Garlic Bread. This isn’t in the deal but at £3.95, we thought it was probably worth the extra £2 each. If you’re hungry, it most certainly is. It arrived within 5 minutes and was far more than we were expecting - an entire Garlic Pizza, if you will. I think it would be fair to say that as a starter, this would comfortably suffice four people, especially when you bring the size of Canta Napoli’s main courses into play. We very much enjoyed it though, and soldiered through the whole thing - something we would later come to regret as we were already half full by the end of the starter!

About 10 minutes later, our pizzas arrived. I opted for the Pizza Forte, a spicy option with Spianata Calabrese sausage and fresh chillies, whilst Max chose the Pizza Napoletana, which featured anchovies, capers and olives. The pizzas were huge and were more than sufficient for a lunchtime jaunt. Max had a salad with his, the Insalata Pomodori, which was a simple mixed leaf salad with tomatoes and red onions, which he told me was extremely tasty and very fresh. We could not fault our pizzas either, our only regret being that our starter rendered us unable to finish them! The Forte is not for the faint-hearted, mind you - the sausage is spicy enough and the chillies give it a real kick. We both agreed that the pizzas were bursting with flavour and highly enjoyable.

Extremely full but determined to march on in the name of food reviewing, we decided to have a dessert. Max informed me that I simply had to try an Affogato, a shot of Espresso over vanilla ice cream. I agreed, despite not having too fond a taste for coffee, and was delighted that I did so. I thought it was excellent, although Max, who had tried these things before and so could compare, said that whilst it was good, he'd tasted better, though he coudn't remember where! At £3, however, I would recommend it as an excellent finisher (especially if you’ve had the spicy Forte.)

We thoroughly enjoyed our experience in Canta Napoli, and for the price, it is simply the best lunch deal around in W4 right now. I’d expect it to be a lot busier next time I head back for round two!


Jack Collins

August 2, 2012