Garum

This restaurant, tucked away in the bustling Chinatown part of Bayswater, serves Roman style pasta. It opened in December 2022, is run by Francesco Fantinel, and seats up to sixty customers at one time. The name “Garum”, incidentally, is a kind of fermented fish sauce condiment that was once a staple in Roman cuisine, and is featured in the historical Roma cookbook Apicius, compiled in the 5^thcentury, around the end of the Roman empire. The menu was a la carte and featured various classical Roman dishes. 

The wine list had 65 labels and ranged in price from £37 to £235, with a median price of £75 and an average markup to retail price of 3.8 times, which would raise eyebrows in Berkeley Square, never mind Queensway. Sample references were Sinis Bianco Cantina del Rimedio 2024 at £37 for a bottle that you can find in the high street for £15, Gavi Tenute del Melo DOCG 2024 at £66 compared to its retail price of £17, and Pigeno Subtirol Alto Adige Pinot Nero Stroblhof 2022 at £82 for a wine that will set you back £23 in the high street. For those with the means there was Ageno Malvasia La Stoppa 2020 at £125 compared to its retail price of £43, and Jakot Radikon 2014 at £235 for a wine whose current market value is £47.

Arancini had one rice ball flavoured with tomato and basil, and one that had a centre of risotto flavoured with chicken stock. There was also one crisp fried ball with a potato filling, a croquette with smoked provola, a spun cow milk cheese from Campania. The latter was a little bland but the two classic arancini were very good, with crisp outsides and good risotto centres (13/20). Salt cod with aioli and capers (£12) was really just a piece of salted cod rather than a classical bacalao, which is dried. Nonetheless, it was fine, though the aioli lacked enough garlic flavour (13/20). As a Portuguese dish, originally, it is a street dish in Rome.

Risotto of langoustine (£27) used one-year aged carnaroli rice, and was garnished with a single langoustine in its shell, with crème fraiche and a touch of lemon zest. The rice had a reasonable texture, but the stock did not have enough intensity, the langoustine itself being cooked just a touch too long (12/20).

Rigatoni with oxtail ragu (£19.75) was quite nice, with pecorino Romana and little dark chocolate. The pasta had a touch of firmness, and the ragu had reasonable intensity (13/20). Also good was amatriciana (£19.75), pasta with a tomato sauce and a little guanciale (14/20). Cacio e pepe (£19) is a Roman dish of tagliatelle with black pepper and Pecorino cheese. This looked rather grey but tasted fine. Having just eaten this in Rosciolo in Rome just a couple of weeks earlier, this version did not compare well (13/20). A side dish of “vegetable salad” was quite odd though, just raw carrot, green bean and cauliflower, with no dressing (10/20).

For dessert, tiramisu lacked sufficient coffee flavour (12/20). Better was a small dish of zabaglione, Italian custard made with egg yolks, sugar and masala, served with an amaretti biscuit (13/20). Coffee was Illy. It was unusual to see an Italian restaurant with no ice cream on the menu.

Service was friendly enough, the chef popping out to take our order; he seemed very engaged. The pair of waiting staff, who were not exactly stretched tonight, seemed quite distracted, and it was hard to get attention. The bill came to £94 each, which seemed quite a lot given that we brought our own wine, taking advantage of corkage. Garum was a rather mixed bag, with some nice arancini and pasta, let down by some other dishes and lacklustre service.