Datte Foco
10 Stoke Newington Church Street
London N16 0LU

Date of Last Visit: Sunday, March 28

The Victims: Chris, Evelien, Seona

The Damage: £12 each?

The Background: Chris and Evelien have moved. This is a bummer because they used to be right down the street from me. But now they're "all the way up" in Highbury. And somehow, they convince me that Stoke Newington is a short walk from them. I think to myself, "That can't be possible. Highbury is NOT close to Kingsland Road, and I know I've taken the bus up Kingsland Road before to get to Stokey." But no, "It will be a nice walk," they tell me.

So I walk to Highbury to pick up Chris, Evelien, and toddling Seona. And then we walk. And walk. And walk some more. Until we get to the eastern end of Stoke Newington Church Street, where we find Datte Foco. Full disclosure: My friends–Chris & Evelien and others–are friends with the owners of Datte Foco.

It's good that we did all that walking though because now we're STARVING. (And Seona is exhausted. She sleeps through our entire visit, rising only at the end to demolish a slice or two.)

We put in a few requests, but otherwise, we get an assortment of everything. And it's all so different. The courgette pizza is light and summery. The spicy sausage has a good kick to it. I pass on anything with mushrooms on it, and Chris happily polishes off anything I leave behind. We fight over the that last spicy sausage slice and end up dividing it into pieces.

Datte Foco is small and simple. The dining room is bare and basic. There's free wireless. And tiramisu. As we're sitting there, a few people come in with their laptops, load up on pizza (and tiramisu) and happily while away the afternoon.

Owner Herbie emailed me a few weeks ago and told me…

As I mentioned to you then, my teacher [from Rome] did come up to London to check
our place out and the pizza! Of course he gave me a few tips to make it
better, the biggest change is that he found my pizza a little to high!
So from last week the pizza has lost about 20% of it's weight! Much
thinner, but always crisp outside and soft inside…

So the pizza I had is not the pizza you'll have. But you should go and decide for yourself. Datte Foco is inexpensive and neighborhood-y and during our visit, the pizza choice was wide and varied. I like variety. 

The Verdict: Go.

The post Datte Foco, Stoke Newington first appeared on Passport Delicious | Solo Travel Blog | Solo Female Travel.

Date of Last Visit: Tuesday, July 10th

The Victims: Ben, Gerry, Matt

The Damage: Oh I forget. But I think it might have been just £20 each.

So the other Sunday, I was bored and actually cooked for myself. I use the term "cooked" loosely as always. "Cooking" involved stopping into Tesco Metro and buying Old El Paso Enchiladas in a Box, along with some chicken, which was–as it should be–already cut up for me. I am nothing if not efficient. "Cooking" also involved setting off the smoke detector a couple of times, which always keeps things exciting. (No pots or pans or appendages were burned during my cooking, I swear) Ah, my neighbo"u"rs must love me.

Well, my Enchiladas from a Box were delicious–particularly because I ditched the packet of ueber-bland tomato sauce for 1/2 a jar of salsa from Whole Foods. Hot!

So this had me totally geared up for a night of Mexican, by real people who could cook! Ben & Gerry are thinking of moving to Stoke Newington, so I hopped on the 243 and headed up to meet them after their day of flat hunting. As a FIRST, I actually had a conversation with an entirely normal person on the bus (as opposed to the crazies I normally talk to). I was afraid that I had missed my stop, so I asked the guy next to me for help. The good news is that he was heading to Stoke Newington Church Street too. The bad news is that he wasn’t my type. (Or well, I wasn’t his.) But he was nice and gave me lots of Stokey recommendations. (Can I call it Stokey?)

Mercado was not one of his recommendations. His actual quote was something like, "It’s awful. Unless maybe you like all that fried bean stuff thrown onto everything." (And ummm…I’m thinking, "Well wow yeah, like that sounds totally good.")

And the guy behind the bar at The Rose & Crown? He said the same. He said everything was drenched in mole sauce, and the guacamole was awful. And he is a chef. Sometimes. Except when he’s not working behind the bar.

So we made some back-up plans. But then…

The Snacks: The chips and salsa are quality. Gerry, who was born in Costa Rica, very much approves of the guacamole. And you know what? I trust her judgment implicitly. The queso fundido is nice too, but you can’t really get cheese and chorizo wrong.

The Service: Is not from Mexico, but it’s friendly. There’s a woman behind the bar, and she is definitely speaking Spanish. And I ask about the chef, and his name is Alberto and he’s from Mexico. He replaces the previous chef, Carlos, who has gone back to Mexico…but Carlos is coming back at some point.

The Food: I have the enchiladas, and they are indeed covered (drenched) in mole sauce. So I check this out the next day with Arturo–my co-worker of Mexican American origins–and his response is something along the lines of "Mole? Pour that sh*t on."

The Loos: Just a few words: High pressure water cleaning. Por favor, mis amigos. 

The Verdict: I gotta be honest, I liked my food. And so did everyone else. That guy on the bus and that guy behind the bar? They don’t know what they’re talking about. If I lived closer, I’d go here all the time. As long as Alberto is cooking. I’m wondering if the bad rap has something to do with that Carlos guy.   

The post Mexican: Mercado first appeared on Passport Delicious | Solo Travel Blog | Solo Female Travel.