| Ambiance: |  (4.5 / 5) |
| Service: | (4.5 / 5) |
| Value for money: | (5 / 5) |
| Toilet: | (4 / 5) |
| Pizza: | (4 / 5) |
During a visit to one of my supper club venues, “Wild Café”, Lucy and I thought it’d be a good opportunity to try out one of the local Italian restaurants. We settled on Yammo as it advertised serving traditional Neapolitan street food. “Yammo” is also the Neapolitan slang for ‘andiamo’, meaning “let’s go!” Yes, send me back to Italy I thought!
We arrived at 2.50pm, ten minutes before closing time. From working in restaurants, I know how annoying this is, when customers walk in so close to home time. Luckily, the owner decided he could accommodate us, as long as our order wasn’t too complicated! We chose a table outside in the beautiful 28C sunshine and were given a jug of iced water while we deliberated over the amazing sounding menu.
Lucy with the menu!
Lucy and I aren’t the most decisive people at the best of times but with such a great menu, packed full of yummy sounding fried food, pizzas, paninis and burgers, we were hopeless. In the end, we agreed to share some deep fried mozzarella with spicy tomato sauce, piselli arancini and a pizza, which we were allowed to divide into two halves, meaning we were both equally happy with our choice of toppings. I chose my favourite friarelli, Italian sausage and smoked mozzarella and Lucy, being vegetarian, ordered La Vegetariana.
Deep fried Mozzarella
Piselli Arancini
The starters came within ten minutes and looked beautiful, and tasted as good as they looked. The arancini was shaped into small dome like shapes, rather than the traditional circular shape, which I actually preferred, in terms of presentation anyway. The mozzarella was hot and the accompanying sauce was the perfect level of spice for the subtle flavours of the cheese. All in all, both dishes were really impressive and when the owner came out to collect our plates, we told him so. Being Italian, he was very passionate about his home city (Naples) and his food, saying everything is freshly made, even the oil is changed on a constant basis. He educated us on the cheese he used ‘fior di latte’ and chatted to us for a while about the world of restaurants and catering.
Yammo’s Pizza
Our pizza arrived, and wow – looked delicious. Lucy and I were chuffed, hers was topped with the most amazing ricotta cheese I’ve ever had, and a variety of yummy vegetables, including mushroom, aubergine and courgettes. My pizza honestly tasted better than the ones I’d experienced in Naples. The only thing I’d say was slightly disappointing was the crust, as it was slightly chewy and not charred, however, considering Yammo don’t have a wood fired pizza oven, they did a pretty good job! We couldn’t end up eating much of the pizza so ended up taking it home to enjoy later.
Despite being massively full of food, the chef (also Italian – Luigi) had just knocked up some donuts and the owner asked us if we’d like a taste. Er, there’s no way Lucy and I were turning down free food so we enthusiastically nodded yes. And wow (again, a wow!), I don’t think I’ve ever had warmed donuts so fresh and light in texture. They were served with some sauce and whipped cream, and again we ended up having to take the majority home.
Yep, despite the avid display of concentration – I lost…
By this point we were feeling incredibly chuffed with our selection of restaurant. The food, service and sunshine filled our face with huge smiles and we couldn’t stop raving about it. But, the fun wasn’t over – the owner asked us if we fancied seeing the back garden and we ended up having a game of table football and ping pong against him and Luigi. All in all, we had a brilliant day at Yammo and both of us would definitely return.
Recommendation
This may well be my first ‘five’ that I’ve given in the UK. It really made me think I was back in Italy – it’s authentic, serves great food and at very reasonable prices. Perfect for any occasion!
