Ave Mario in London’s Covent Garden is the rearmost opening from the Big Mamma Group who also enjoy the monstrously popular Gloria and Circolo Popolare. Like the other two venues, Ave Mario serves a menu filled with Italian classic dishes and is exorbitantly flamboyant in its design.
The space is a visual circus inspired by Florence and it’s Duomo edifice. The crapola scenery is anover-the-top assault on your senses. Neon signs, bold snap banded walls, deep red velvet furnishings and back- lit glass bottles piled up from bottom- to- ceiling at the bar all battle for your attention. The main dining room is huge and lively, the whole place echoes with noisy exchanges. Disappointingly, our table was downward but the scenery was still vibrant and the buzz kept alive thanks to all the tables being full and a large, roisterous group seated right next to us.
I loved the antique fruit and vegetable plates, ewers and swab & pepper pots, the authentic bold checked table cloths and the Italian bill art lining the walls. Who would n’t want their food served on a bright unheroic sunflower plate? The blend menu reflects the eatery’s fun with drinks similar as the Gindependent Women, the rum invested Calm Your Tits served in a blood shaped vessel and the Negroni Par- tea to name a many.
The third conception from Big Mamma has a lot to live up to and prove itself on its own graces once the original hype has lowered. Judging by the lack of vacuity it seems to be doing well enticing curious Londoners looking for a good timepost-lockdown. We could n’t get a booking * on a weekday evening at either Circolo Popolare or Ave Mario so decided for a walk- heft at the after and squat down for amalgamations at near Mrs Riot until a table came available. Slight issue that we noway entered a call but took our chance to pop by to check only to find the visitant had written our telephone number down awry. While it was great to see such a busy eatery with such a vibe that comes at a cost as waiters attention is spread too thinly.
Ave Mario’s menu is vast. It took a while to work our way through and indeed longer to actually place the order. The conception is food that nonna used to make with housemade pasta and pizza taking centre stage. The pizzas are prepared with ‘ Biga ’ style dough which takes 24- hours to leaven performing in an authentic pilowy crust. To be honest if there’s a Melanzane Parmigiana on any menu I ’m always going to order it, add in some hunks of Italian chuck served with olive canvas and balsamic ginger and a glass of red wine and I ’m happy. My only complaint was although the dish was veritably delicious it was relatively cold presumably due to slow service. My dining companion ordered the pesto pasta and a huge mountain of it arrived, so big that we had to take partial home in a box.
All views are my own grounded on my experience
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