Restaurant Review: Santore

I have been a bad blogger - sorry for the absence. Continuing my Worldwide Tour I have just returned from Amsterdam. I may do a tiny blog on it but it was all work work work...so no real scoop. Sorry about that. Before I jetted off I did a couple of interesting things since we last spoke. Dining at Santore is one of them.

Some of the tables small pizza (judge by the pasta behind...)

I've written about Exmouth Market before (here) and it really is a fab place to eat, drink and wander. On this regular Thursday evening post some after work drinks we found ourselves craving some good food. Although Santore and in fact Exmouth Market is only a 5 minute walk away from our office we absolutely had to stop in one of the many pubs en route for a shot or two.

When we finally arrived it was buzzing. We had to wait outside for 5-10 minutes for a table to be free, there was 6 of us so we didn't really mind...although the shots were wearing off. On sitting we had a great round table near the bar. Without looking at the wine list ordered some Rose wine and ploughed into the menu. Many of us had visited here before. I had but only for lunch where there is a fabulously tasty and good value set menu. We also knew of their famous pizza by the meter. No one was feeling very complicated so instead of any of this we opted for a few sharing starters and our own pizzas.

Pizza by the meter or half meter

To start, garlic pizza bread which was thin, crispy and exceedingly garlicy in a good way, baked breaded mozzarella which was delicious and calamari...obviously.

Baked, breaded mozzarella with tomato and yummyness

Garlic and tomato pizza bread

Calamari and baked vegetables

For main one of the few times I won in the ordering steaks. Usually I suffer from entree envy...not today. I opted for a 'pizze special' which is "proudly made following the authentic methods of Neapolitan recipe using fresh ingredients imported directly from Naples." with ham, smoked mozzarella and mushrooms. Whatever I was expecting it wasn't this. A beautiful hybrid between a calzone and a regular pizza. It was heavenly. Everyone else on the table knew I'd ordered the right thing 'smug face'.

Cheesy, crispy in all the right places, perfectly peppered rocket and a soft gooey centre. Carb heaven

This is a picture of winning

The depth of the beast

Stringy cheese goodness

Inside the beast

Afterwards I wasn't quite pigged out to the max, so we opted for a couple of sweets to share. Chocolate torte and thanks to the Great British Bake Off we all fancied a bit of Creme Caramel (this is a very kitsch show on the BBC in the UK where contestants battle to be the best baker of the week. Each week they do a 'technical bake' of something which is notoriously, the week of our trip to Santore they made Creme Caramel so we knew exactly what we were after in the delivery!)

This wouldn't be winning Star Baker

The chocolate torte was goo but pretty standard...the Creme Caramel did not live up to expectations set by The Great British Bake Off!

Overall this is a fantastic 'authentic' Italian in an area full of nice bars and decent (varied) clientele. We will definitely be back here for fantastic pizza, good service and great value. Apologies for the poor quality of the pictures...drunken Instagram Pictures do not a photographer make.

Atmosphere: 4/5
Food: 4/5
Drink: 3/5
Overall: 4/5 Fabulous family style pizza