I had heard HEAPS about PADELLA, which is located just outside the famour Borough Markets. And then we walked past one day, and I realised that a lot of other people had also heard of PADELLA! We jokingly asked how long the wait would be on an evening, as they don’t take bookings – 2 hours. This must be bloody good pasta.
Padella sourdough bread with new season Fiorano olive oil 2018 (£2) 
Burrata with new season Fiorano olive oil 2018 (£5.50)
We decided to brave the crowds (and cold) for a Saturday lunch. Arriving at around 11:40am (they open at midday), there was already quite the queue forming. Thankfully it moved quickly and we got in at around 12:30pm. We did have to go and buy some snacks from Borough Markets to get us through.
I didn’t realise that the restaurant had a downstairs section too! Guess that’s how they were getting through the tables pretty quickly. They seem really apologetic (and perhaps a little defensive) about making people wait in line. There was even a sign that said something like “Our chef can only make pasta for 10 people every 15 minutes”. Maybe they’ve had a lot of complaints?
Honestly though, all your qualms will be washed away as soon as you have the first mouthful of pasta. Or even before that, like in our case! The photos above show the delicious, thick crust sourdough bread we devoured as soon as we sat down. I didn’t even realise we were being charged for it – Padella sourdough bread with new season Fiorano olive oil 2018 (£2). We can’t really resist burrata whenever it’s on the menu, so we got that too: Burrata with new season Fiorano olive oil 2018 (£5.50).
I love the simplicity, it’s literally just burrata, olive oil and a little bit of cracked pepper. Honestly, that’s all you need. The burrata was intensely creamy and delicious, worth every penny. I’d recommend ordering this if you’ve been waiting in line for ages and just need to justify it to yourself.
Choose a pasta, any pasta. You won’t go wrong. I was also blown away by how cheap everything was. You’d be paying double for this quality in Sydney.
DS had the Taglierini with pancetta, parmesan & egg yolk (£10.50). It seems like the go-to dish that a lot of people get. It’s also basically like carbonara, if you’re wondering. I love the perfect egg yolk on top and that added creaminess once you mix it in. This is hearty, wintery food at its best.
As I mentioned in my post about yakitori at Jidori, the only offal I really eat is liver. And I flippin’ love it, so I order it whenever I see it on the menu. I don’t think I’ve ever come across liver in a pasta though! I forgot to take a picture of the actual menu we had on the day, but from some Instagram stalking of the PADELLA page I think what I had was the Pappardelle with chopped chicken liver, Marsala and sage. Although I think there may have been mushrooms in mine as well… Super delicious, I love wide pasta! Couldn’t fault this dish and DS loved it too when he tried it.
Overall we had SUCH a great time at PADELLA. While I was waiting in line I thought to myself, this can’t be that good. This isn’t going be worth the wait.
But then as DS and I were sitting there eating out pasta we both agreed that it is totally worth the wait. And yes, we will be back!
