When you are lucky enough to be able to eat anything without suffering side effects you take things for granted and “go off things”. I was like this with pasta, it was such a staple part of my diet growing up that when Mum cooked spaghetti I used to groan and think how boring. However once you are unable to eat those meals they acquire a desirability of immense proportions and you crave that food. As a coeliac I am so grateful that Bruschetta opened nearby to me and I can now satisfy my cravings for pizza and pasta on a regular basis. Bruschetta is the UK’s first completely gluten free restaurant serving fresh pasta, stone baked pizza’s and the most heavenly desserts. It is the brainchild of Julia Zardetto, who has a wheat intolerance and has been experimenting for years to come up with great tasting Italian gluten free food.
Julia and her partner Danielli run the restaurant together and whether you are a regular customer or trying it for the first time you are given the same warm welcome. The restaurant is on a busy main road on the outskirts of Kingston upon Thames town centre and has 3 or 4 tables on the pavement with 2 large olive trees helping to screen some of the traffic. Inside the restaurant is a comfortable atmosphere with diners talking and eating and the staff at Bruschetta calling out to each other in Italian all adding to the general feeling that you had somehow gone to Italy.
Once seated you are presented with a complimentary bowl of olives, that are marinated in a special recipe at the restaurant, and handed the wine & food menus. We ordered a bottle of the excellent house wine and a Moretti lager for the web guru. Starters are always a tough choice as there is so much to choose from, we eventually settled on Calamari for me & Italian Sausages with mushrooms for the web guru. My Calamari is light, crisp and absolutely delicious, the web guru grudgingly allowed me to try his sausages which were meaty and enhanced by a light taste of fennel and the mushrooms just filled your mouth with flavour. For our main course I went for Spaghetti with Lemon & Parma Ham whilst the web guru continued with the taste he acquired for fennel and chose Finocchiona Pizza with Tomato, Mozzarella, Artichoke Heart, Fennel Salami and Parmesan Shavings. His pizza was massive but he loved the combination of flavours and textures and had no problem finishing it. My Spaghetti was a revelation, it was light, fresh and oh so good. The Parma ham added a slight salty tang that offset the sharpness of the lemon, I thought I’d died and gone to heaven. Even though we had hardly any room left we felt we should try a dessert and opted to share a Tiramisu. It was heavenly, light as air, creamy and with a slight coffee tang to it and I began to wonder if perhaps I could have eaten a whole one on my own. We finished with an espresso and were offered a Limoncello on the house and when the bill came at under £60 for food and drinks we felt we’d eaten exceptionally well and had excellent value for money.
Even more exciting for those of us that are gluten challenged, Bruschetta re now selling their pasta and pizza bases for people to take away and cook at home. You can order online or over the phone but have to pick your order up from the restaurant.
Also as from Friday 8th July Bentalls store in Kingston upon Thames will be selling Bruschetta’s gluten free pasta in their food concessions. All of their pasta meals will be gluten free and are the first UK store to sell only gluten free pasta and at the same price as what they sold their standard pasta meals at.
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