The Honest Italian, Balham

It's rare for me to go out for dinner on a weekday but last Wednesday was the first time in a while that I made an exception as I was invited to visit The Honest Italian* and try out their menu. I'm always on the lookout for new places to go in London so how could I say no? I even managed to turn it into a dinner date and bring my boyfriend with me because I'm nice like that *insert smug face emoji* so we decided to meet after work and head to the restaurant together.

We arrived just after 6pm, which is when they open on weekdays, and we received a warm welcome from the staff and then got shown to our table. The waiter took our drink and starter order straight away as we already knew what we wanted: garlic bread! Their service was amazingly fast as he came back with our order within a few minutes! My boyfriend and I were pretty impressed by this so as you could imagine, it didn’t take us very long to get stuck in.

The garlic bread was crunchy on the outside but soft and buttery in the middle which is exactly how I like it! Honestly I probably would’ve asked for more if I wasn’t needing to save room for pizza.

Speaking of pizza, now we had devoured our yummy starter it was time for us to choose our mains and this is when we needed a bit more time to decide. See I’m normally the type of person who just goes for a margarita but not this time! I wanted to be more adventurous and the one that caught my eye was the Fiorentina while my meat-lover boyfriend chose the Prosciutto. They both arrived just as quickly as our starters and I am happy to say that our pizzas were cooked to perfection! The thin base and scrumptious toppings confirmed to us that we had made the right decision and our taste buds certainly appreciated it.

Fiorentina - tomato sauce, fior di latte mozzarella, spinach, garlic, and egg on top (£10.95)

Prosciutto - smoked ham, tomato sauce, fior di latte mozzarella (£9.45)

Unfortunately we were quite full from what we had just eaten so reluctantly decided not to have dessert. HOWEVER I did notice a happy customer a few tables away from us demolishing what looked to be a very tempting chocolate brownie so at least I know for next time what I’ll be treating myself to!

The whole evening exceeded our expectations - from our friendly and attentive waiter to the simplistic yet relaxing atmosphere I already can’t wait to visit them again. If you’re looking for high quality Italian food in South West London with fantastic service then The Honest Italian is where you need to go!

Also did I mention that they have a wood-fired pizza oven? This definitely adds to their cool, rustic style.

Website: The Honest Italian
Twitter: @HonestItalian
Facebook: @TheHonestItalian

*Our meal was provided free of charge in exchange for an honest review. As always all views and words are my own.