Thu 15 - Osteria del Mercato

Apart from the daily smoothie, this was not a healthy nor nutritious food day.  A cheese and ham croissant to start from Konditor & Cook.  It was a bit dry and overly crunchy by the time I got it at 11am, but I imagine it would have tasted better when fresh a couple of hours before.  The croissant itself was of a high standard, though the quantity of cheese and ham filling wasn't exactly generous.

I couldn't resist a "curly wurly" chocolate brownie whilst I was in K&C.  The lighter coloured part lent a creamy smoothness to this well executed classic.  For me, the brownies are the best thing in K&C.

I had dinner with the boss tonight, we visited one of his preferred haunts - Osteria del Mercato, a small but smart Italian restaurant that overlooks Leadenhall Market.  Like most restaurants in the City it does most it's trade at lunchtime, so was pretty quiet when we turned up at about 7pm.  I had a pretty decent beef carpaccio to start, served with rocket and a thin layer of good quality olive oil.  It looked and tasted good enough that I'd eaten half of it before I remembered to take a picture.

My main course was crab stuffed tortellini with an artichoke cream sauce.  The pasta was clearly (very well) homemade, and the crab was fresh, not overpowered by the light and delicious sauce.

I finished with a caramel panna-cotta, which was pleasingly reminiscent of the creme caramels that my nan used to make when I was a kid.

The service was polite and unobtrusive.  I look forward to visiting this place again.