Tozi

Tozi (“buddies”) is an Italian restaurant not far from Victoria station, connected to the Park Plaza Hotel. The head chef and co-founder Maurilio Molteni previously worked as the head chef of Shoreditch House. He opened the restaurant in 2013 along with Venetian born Daniele Pampagnin, and the restaurant offers, amongst other things, cicchetti, Venetian style small sharing dishes. A later branch was opened in Battersea Power station. There is even a branch in Amsterdam. The Tozi in Victoria is a large restaurant, seating over 150 diners at any one time. 

The menu was a la carte. There was also a set lunch menu at £23.95 for three courses, and a pre-theatre menu at the same price. There were no fewer than three different length tasting menus, at £38, £55 and £65. The almost entirely Italian wine list had 111 labels and ranged in price from £39 to £695, with a median price of £79 and an average markup to retail price of 2.9 times, which is very fair these days. Sample references were Marchesi Migliorati Pecorino Abruzzo 2022 at £49.75 for a bottle that you can find in the high street for £19, Maremma Rosso 12 Uve Paradiso di Frassina 2018, at £79 compared to its retail price of £44, and Bolgheri Rosso Tenuta Meraviglia 2020 at £99 for a wine that will set you back £29 in the high street. For those with the means there was Taittinger Comtes de Champagne Blanc de Blancs 2011 at £168 compared to its retail price of £157, and Gaja Barbaresco 2020 at £350 for a wine whose current market value is £254.

Tuna tartare was pleasant, with a good level of seasoning and a hint of peppery bite from a little chilli. The tartare was garnished with rocket and a slice of lime, which was useful to bring a touch of acidity to balance the natural richness of the tuna (13/20). Maccheroni pasta came with rabbit ragout, taggiasca olives (an olive cultivar grown around Nice and the Riviera di Ponente in Italy) and thyme. The pasta had excellent texture and the ragout had plenty of meaty flavour, nicely enhanced by the olives and thyme (14/20). Rustichelle pasta is originally from Abruzzo. This came with peas, asparagus and Tuscan Pecorino cheese. The pasta’s texture was nice, and the flavour of the peas came through quite well (14/20).

I had Amalfi lemon tart with ricotta and pine nuts, along with a scoop of raspberry sorbet. The pastry was rather clunky but there was a decent amount of lemon flavour, and the sorbet had plenty of flavour as well as having smooth texture (13/20). Service was good at a packed service on this Wednesday evening. The bill came to £128 per person, with cocktails a good bottle of wine (Brunello di Montalcino Il Paradiso di Frassina Moz Art 2019 at £110 compared to a retail price of £66). If you ordered a cheap wine from the list then a typical cost might be more like £85 a head. I was pleasantly surprised by Tozi, which is a large restaurant associated with a hotel. The standard of food that we ate was quite high, and pricing seemed acceptable, with the wine list being cheaper than most London restaurants.