Good and fast pizza. The arancina we're cold in the middle, a little bit longer would have solved that. Good prices, good menus and what felt like authentic italian. Always rare to find a good expresso like we did here, as well.

Who doesn't love a great Italian eatery? It's Britain's favourite foreign food and sadly so often done badly! However, Arancina in Westbourne Grove is a true hot spot for homely Italian food. You can hardly complain when there's 20 Italian school children, several Italian couples and Italian families tucking in around you. It's vibrant exterior and stunning food counter entice you into the foodie delights that Arancina has to offer; and trust me there's plenty.

Where

Arancina, Westbourne Grove

When

Thursday night, 6:30-8:30pm

What we ate

Beef ragu arancine, beef and mozzarella arancine, Nduja and buffalo mozzarella pizza, Carnivora pizza, mixed roasted vegetables, caprese salad, avocado salad

What we drank

Aperol spritz with fresh orange

Highlights:

The arancine were delicious! Super crisp exteriors give way to soft sticky rice and a hearty filling. I preferred the beef ragu version which was speckled with peas for added colour and green goodness. I found the beef and mozzarella version a touch heavy, but it was nonetheless very yummy.

The pizzas were really tasty too and freshly made. I liked the rectangle shape which allowed us to have two types of pizza in one pizza - tongue twister much?! I favoured the Nduja (a spicy Calabrian sausage similar to chorizo) pizza with its soft buffalo mozzarella. This has a smokey sweet flavour that was just delicious. That said, the meat-fast style pizza topping was also really tasty. I would have like to try more veggie options.

Our mixed salad was also a great way to indulge in added veggies alongside the pizza. We went for mixed roasted veggies, a delicious fresh tomato and avocado mix, plus a yummy caprese salad of mozzarella and tomatoes.

Lowlights:

The leaves with the caprese salad where quite limp and not really needed

Overall

Yes I would thoroughly thoroughly recommend visiting Arancina. If you're a West Londoner then it's a great Italian pit-stop for you, however I would say its worth travelling to if you're in central. The rectangle pizzas are really fun and make for much easier slicing, plus the variety of flavour combinations is really great. My favourite thing at Arancina is definitely the beef ragu arancine so if you get a chance to try it let me know!