Norma

The taste of Mediterranean

Orange, rosemary, red prawns

Ben Tish has been a busy man lately, since leaving the Salt Yard Group, he has joined The Stafford London Hotel as food director and has helped shape its flagship restaurant The Game Bird as one of the finest hotel restaurants in London. He has also launched Norma, an Italian inspired restaurant in Fitzrovia. With his experience from Salt Yard Group, I was really sure the food standard at Norma would be pretty solid. Looking at the menu, it looks fairly similar to Veneta, his old restaurant that champions Venetian cuisine with a strong focus on raw seafood and Italian small plates. Norma's menu is fairly big and is ideal for sharing, with dishes ranging from snacks, raw seafood, starters, pasta, mains, and desserts.

Cherrystone clam saffron and shallot pickles

Monkfish, caper, peas, mint

I started off my meal with some raw seafood, the monkfish was really well-executed, the crispy capers acted as a great seasoning, as well as a nice crunchy texture that combined nicely with the meat taste of the fish. The red prawn was just as good, sweet and fresh with a melting texture, the addition of orange offered a lovely fresh sour tone which enhanced the beautiful seafood umami taste. For my main, I had a whole roasted mackerel, the oily and meaty taste of the fish was lovely, just as I would expect from a mackerel. What I enjoy even more was the garnish of almond dressing, it was sweet, creamy and smooth, it worked like a treat with the mackerel. The side dish of tomato was rather underwhelming, however. The quality of the tomato was average, taste rather bland and the olive oil dressing didn't really add much to it.

Cornish mackerel with spices, almond dressing and rainbow chard

Grilled lamb, carrots, beet, olive

 As I was expecting, the food from Norma is your typical Ben Tish creation. It had a clean and fresh taste to it. These kinds of cooking won't look out of place in a restaurant from Italy, very enjoyable. The downside of my meal was the service, it was pretty poor with our waiter messed up our order, we had the wrong dish landed on our table, as well as missing order. To be fair, the restaurant only just launched so there will always be issues. Overall, Norma is a great addition to Fitzrovia and I would rate it as one of the better Italian restaurants in the area. 



Food 3/5


Average cost without drinks and services:
£40

8 Charlotte Pl, Fitzrovia, London W1T 2LS

https://normalondon.com/