Exmouth Market is the hidden gem of Angel. Home to quaint restaurants and home to our new favourite Italian, Paesan.

Paesan is rather industrial looking on the inside or as some would say ‘trendy’. Upstairs we have the restaurant and downstair we have a bar with the most delicious cocktail menu. The bar is separate from the restaurant and goes by the name of Bitter and Rye but has exactly the same vibe as the restaurant.

We must highlight straight away the customer care at this devine dine. Paesan treated us like the princesses that we are. We arrived 25mins before our reservation and they were so apologetic as our table was not ready!!!!! They then gave us free drinks and starters to make up for it!!!! Omg. The staff are lovely and held our hand as we had a million questions about the menu. We felt really taken care of and were so impressed about how tentative they were.

The menu at Paesan is stripped back to just the good stuff, so simple and so authentic. We ordered Sicilian Olives (you how crazy we are about them) and burrata with warm aubergine caponata to start. What is a burrata some of you maybe asking. It looks exactly like mozzarella but my god is it a hell of a lot more tastier. Elena and I have made numerous visits to Italy devouring mozzarella thinking it’s the best cheese Italy has produced, had we known about burrata well mozzarella would have been a no go. Burrata has a hint of sweetness to it and is more seasoned so has more flavour all round. It is much more creamy and just melts in the mouth. Thank you Paesan for the introduction to this cheese. To compliment it we had some sautéed aubergine infused with herbs and we had to order some focaccia to wipe up our mess.

Three years ago on our trip to Venice a terrible ordeal took place in Elena’s life. Before I came into her life the concept of sharing food was non existent until this event happened. We went out to dinner at this family run restaurant where I ordered an amazing salmon pasta and she ordered a sardine. She wasn’t content and watched me devour my delicious dish. Since this event whenever we have Italian the thought of that incident still haunts her so she will either insist on sharing dishes or order the same as me. So at Paesan she copied me like a copy cat and ordered Vongole which is spaghetti with clams, chilli and a hint of lemon zest. Delicious. The pasta was freshly made, the clams we perfectly cooked and easy to eat, the flavour of the chilli and lemon brought the dish together. Such a simple dish yet so much joy with every mouthful. The waitress insisted we have a side dish of hand cut fries with truffles and dulcelatte, so basically cheesy chips, strange combo with the pasta you would think but omg what a combo of textures. Naturally, we insisted that we needed more cheese.

In food coma we ordered the bill and well our night couldn’t get any better, it was so cheap we felt like we were actually robbing the place. What an evening of pure indulgence, thank you Paesan, we can’t wait to come back!

Paesan
2 Exmouth Market, London EC1R 4PX
www.paesanlondon.com