36 Brixton Water Lane, London, SW2 1PE

Tel no: 020 3186 4011

email: info@maremmarestaurant.com

Internet: https://www.maremmarestaurant.com/

This local Italian (Tuscan) restaurant opened not so long ago and we reviewed a visit here. It is difficult to book, probably because we saw it had a rave review in the TAP in-flight magazine, back in those heady days when air travel was acceptable. Now you don’t have to wait, as they do takeaways. But from here it gets complicated and we suggest you go to their website to check, in case it’s changed.

Orders for meals, as well as the deli for grocery and wine, are made via email to info@maremmarestaurant.com for collection Wednesday – Friday, 4pm – 6pm. Orders must be placed by 3pm the day before collection. But if you want the BBQ and roasting boxes then order by 3pm on Thursday and collected on Saturday, 10am – 12 noon.

There’s lots to choose from, including the deli with meat and cheese looking particularly good. If you pay a premium and are sheltering, then they will also deliver to the door.

You can have that blow-out meal by ordering a Surf and Turf Box, which includes steak and lobster (£48 for two), or a Roasting box (£30 for two).

We ordered several things for a three-course meal, including some meat that we hadn’t had for ages. Our first course was the roast vegetables, secundi was pasta with lamb ragout and finally a Torta del Nonna.

The roast vegetables were great – aubergine, peppers, olives and artichoke hearts with a covering of olive oil. We added salt but apart from that this was a great buy – not least as we had some over to add to another meal. The bread you can see in the photograph of the vegetables is a slice of the fantastic Brockwell sourdough, produced by the Old Post Office Bakery.

Next we chose Lamb and green olive ragù and to go with it tagliatelle, so that the pasta would catch the sauce. This was a tale of two portions. The first was very dry, little sauce to coat the pasta – we ate this one with many slugs of wine. But while we had ordered a portion each, the one was enough. But then, when we had the second portion on another day, it was much looser and tasted great. So lesson for us was to check the separate containers and for Maremma – look carefully at your portion quality control. Again we added salt – which I should say we do not mind. You can always add extra, but you can’t take it out.

For dessert we shared one portion of Torta del Nonna, which was plenty, with a bit of cream. It was a lovely end to the meal.

The price, including some 1 kg bags of plain and 00 pasta flour (like gold dust) was £23.50, plus a £5 delivery charge.