La Gourmandina

Amazing location with great food. It looks like a café up front but they have a dining room in the back. They serve both selections of French and Italian foods. it’s a great local eatery with a great atmosphere. Definitely worth a visit.

This was amazing. We got the tuna Niçoise salad, which was fresh and delicious, and the goat cheese and arugula sandwich. The salad was the winner. Great service, cute atmosphere and friendly staff.

Oooh I love their balls!
A couple of months ago my colleagues told me about a small café that serves really good risotto balls… as she described the melting mozzarella in the middle of perfectly flavoured rice… I knew I needed to come and try it. But… then we became distracted by the amazing Malaysian food near our office, so I forgot that I wanted to walk over to sample this. I was a fool.
I finally remembered my risotto-​need this lunchtime, and my colleague loved the idea so much, that she left her home-​made lunch in the fridge so she could come and eat with me. I can see why she loves this place! They have amazing looking cakes, good looking salads (and I think I need to come back and try their pastas too…) We ordered our risotto balls, then paid, then went back to the entrance to pick up our orders. It is a slightly chaotic system, but it seems to work.
The risotto itself was perfect! It is exactly the right size to fill me up, and comes with some green salad so I felt like I was having a healthy lunch, despite the huge wadge of gooey, yummy cheese. Come here, buy a ball + be happy.

Uff. I’m really pissed off for rating this place with only three stars. I do want to come again here, as I think I may just hit a wrong day. I mean, Some mistakes will never allow it to go past 4 stars, but still you can get to the 4 stars «hey good place» Unilocal-​level. But let’s start from the beginning!
Me and my lovely lady came here for a brunch before day at the park on a saturday: I had tagged this place as «croissant to try» spot, and I don’t know who can better judge a croissant other than my lady as she lived in Southern France for almost 2 years now, trying every possible croissant on the Mediterranean coast of the Transalpine state. But a brunch is a brunch, and a croissant does not qualify itself as a complete breakfast, not even to start thinking about lunch. Hence we decided, other than french pastries, to try the king of every Brunch: eggs!
The place offer you several varieties of eggs, and we chose two of them: mine was a masculine «hunter», with eggs, greens, chicken liver pâté and pancetta, while my half had scrambled eggs with tomatoes, greens and prosciutto.
And here comes the main reason for the downgrade. If you take my dish, it has sourdough bread chicken liver pâté, salad and eggs: crunchy, fatty, fresh and fatty: it misses something, it misses a damn slice of cheese! furthermore, the place has a lovely cheese fridge, why don’t you put a damn slice of quality cheese on my dish?! you can play with the tastes and the different consistencies, I mean it’s damn easy! slice a bit of that cheese, if I like it I can even order a bit more and taking it at home, this is not only a mistake in the kitchen for not understanding hot the dish should be composed and how you will eat it, but it’s also a poor decision in marketing. That is the sort of things that makes me REALLY angry.
Anyway, the dishes were good enough to be enjoyed, even if one main error was present in both of them: They were lacking in salt! I mean, seriously lacking! I’m used to be on a low-​salt diet, so that my taste is used not to have any salt in the dishes, but here they completely forgot to add it, completely. That’s something unbearable: downgrading forced. A minor error involved my poached eggs, while they were really well made in terms of cooking and presentation, the lack of vinegar was evident. It seems somebody there in the kitchen had good technique but it has a bit of attention deficit, making unbearable errors.
BTW, the croissant was awesome, fresh and tasteful, with the right amount of butter to make you feel guilty but not enough for feeling filled up with only one!
I hate these kind of places, you have wonderful people, wonderful dishes and you manage to ruin them because of some stupid errors!

Great location — easy to find. Seated promptly and drink order was taken swiftly. We had the half and half to share to start with — well presented, and delicious :) I had the gnocchi for main and my dining partner had the risotto, both were to die for!
Portions were very generous sadly we could not fit in desert!
Ambiance was fantastic and our overall experience was terrific. will be back, and will leave room for desert next time!

I like this place. I mean, I think the greater context (my never-​ending love for Lamb’s Conduit) doesn’t hurt, but even as a stand-​alone: I like this place.
Disclaimer: I’ve never been here for dinner. Only for lunch, takeaway and Saturday brunch.
Let’s start with the best: brunch! On Saturdays La Gourmandina has a small but mighty brunch menu. Fruit and veg salads, and the stars of the show: egg dishes. Various scrambles and omelettes with cured meats, and cheeses, and veg. Good options for vegetarians as well.
For lunch there are eggs featured in another key role: quiches! I highly recommend the smoked salmon one, and there are various prepared cold salads to pair with it if the side of greens is insufficient.
In terms of hot dishes, their lunch time takeaways include an eggplant parm and a lasagna bolognese. Both taste *good*, but neither looks appealing sitting on plates in pre-​cut slices. My gripe especially comes when either one of them is ordered for takeaway: they are quickly warmed up in the microwave which unevenly heats and causes it all to, well… kindof puddle together in a paper-​based takeaway container. I’ve learned the hard way (TAKE HEED!) and just started buying it cold and heating it up in the oven at home, whenever possible.
Whereas the dishes already mentioned I return for, the arancini are totally tempting but always disappointing; I’ve had both kinds (one veggie, one meat) and they just feel unseasoned and less than the sum of their (delicious) parts. I think I prefer them as I’ve had them at other places: smaller, so there’s a different rice to filling to outside layer ratio.
That said: good service, friendly, open early for breakfast (8:30 I believe) and a nice stop on Lamb’s Conduit.
Unilocal note: though I have yet to try it they have an interesting decaf coffee in the back. Oh, and let’s not forget: CHEESE FRIDGE.

We had a fabulous dinner — starters, mains and wine were delicious. The staff was attentive and polite. Look forward to returning one day soon.

I just love this place. It is great for a light breakfast, lunch or dinner, or just for a glass of wine. They have a great wine selection and can always recommend something to go with your meal. The service is super friendly and both pastries and dishes are carefully crafted.
I come here often and have tried pretty much everything. For lunch, the pre-​set lunch menus have my two favourites: aubergine parmigiana and the arancino. But their menu goes way beyond Italian food and include a number of french options as well. The lamb or the spanish sausage offered at dinner are absolutely wonderful.
And the icing of the cake is the jazz music in the background. Highly recommended.

Very nice deli offering Italian and French high-​quality food. Very good coffee to go & croissants. Very nice interior. But not a real restaurant — good for a sandwich or bite and if you want to buy stuff for home.