ECO – the place to go for pasta
Once upon a time, a previous partner of mine took me on an adventure in Clapham. What began as a plan to get coffee, quickly transformed into an intoxicating Italian meal, complete with fresh bread, exquisite dipping oil, and a plentiful supply of the best food ever invented. Need I tell you its name? (It’s not pizza).
When I first laid eyes on it, Eco didn’t stand out. It looked like a decent place to go for breakfast or lunch, not a great fine dining experience. Not the kind of restaurant I’d seek out for my Birthday, or a big boozy dinner. But as I soon found out, Eco is a restaurant more than worthy of either occasion. Long before I left Eco for the first time on January 2nd 2019, did I decide that I would most certainly return. Many times.
I ordered a delicious ragu, a strong and meaty sauce that could not have gone better with the sharpness of the red wine I shared with my partner. If I’m going out for pasta, it’s always got to be wine, and why not a bottle? To my frank surprise, our wine was served in tumblers. I thought it a bold move for a restaurant like this to serve what is generally a fancy drink in the same style glass as the water. Not getting your drink in the correct glass can be a huge turn off for some people, and I thought it would be a turn off for me too. But on the contrary, I found myself charmed by the arrangement. The glasses were so finely polished that if anything, getting my wine like this just seemed all the more fancy, and the idea of drinking wine from a traditional wine glass quickly began to appear boring. If you need convincing about this, here’s a photo.
On my later trips to Eco, a very different dish to the ragu won me over and became a strong favourite of my taste buds. I don’t have a photo of this one so use your imagination here: Artichokes, asparagus and wild, long-stemmed mushrooms, mixed with spaghetti and white wine sauce. It’s a great vegetarian dish and even if you’re a meat-eater like me, the lack of fleshy food will not be missed; with the crunch of the asparagus, the soft slippery mushrooms, slimy and delectable, and the artichoke, both soft and crunchy giving the dish just that perfect extra bit of bite, this bowl of spaghetti is a MUST for anyone who appreciates a good veggie dish!
Eco has all the traditional pasta dishes you’d expect, as well as the more interesting, less common ones like this. While I’ve never had any of the pizzas, they always look pretty damn good, and, to be honest, I’m not sure if you can ever go wrong with pizza. (Unless you go to Franco Manca; stay clear of that place. AND Pizza Express; I’ll be having a conversation about you soon). Usually, the problem with ordering a pizza at a restaurant isn’t because they’re not good, but because looking at the variety of those pasta bowls, you simply feel like you’re missing out on something even better.
Eco lends itself individuality by adding a certain customizable element to its menu. Each pasta dish comes with its own type of pasta, be it linguine, spaghetti, you name it, there’s nothing new about that. But the menu also gives you the option for each pasta dish to be served with a particularly obscure pasta, for only a tiny extra charge. So, if your bored of trying to stick fusilli with the end of your fork, or slurping spaghetti between your lips, you can have a go at eating some new shapes instead. This is one of the many reasons I love pasta so much, and is perhaps part of the reason it never gets boring.
Whether you’re looking for a quick lunch, or you’re with family and you need to find a restaurant that will have something for everyone, or if you’re looking for somewhere you can spread out your dining experience, relax over multiple bottles of wine for an entire evening, (I’ve done this as well) you will have nothing to fear visiting Eco. The menu is more than reasonable, and I can tell you from honest experience, the quality of the food easily usurps that of Bella Italia and other big Italian chains. It sits in the middle of Clapham Highstreet and has recently taken over the joint next to it, adding even more seating and losing none of its cosy charm. If rumour has its way, then the charms of Eco will surely echo throughout the nearby boroughs. I wish both the restaurant and its staff all the best, and I shall be returning shortly for another dose of white wine and asparagus spaghetti.
