San Marco

We came here for a friend’s birthday dinner. We were a group of 10, and all our food came at the same time piping hot. Really good value traditional Italian fare, pizzas and pasta, meats and fish.
A pizzeria restaurant, but we looked at the specials for the day and went for that instead, so now we have to go back for the pizzas which looks amazing as they were preparing them right in front of our eyes as our table was right by the open wood fire oven.
Very friendly and relax atmosphere. The owner’s amazing oil paintings are on the walls which are for sale, but he has not painted for more than three years now. A friendly and chatty owner says it was either the restaurant or painting, after taking over the restaurant from his parents, although he trained as an architect.
It is right by Bruce Grove station on the overground, so only around half an hour from Central London, and is well worth a visit.

Let’s be pretty honest. I am Italian, used to a good pizza every Saturday dinner since my childhood. When I moved to Tottenham two years ago I was amazed to find a place which makes such good pizza menu and taste.
If you go, please try Siciliana. An amazing Vegetarian pizza which reminds me of South Italy, summer and sun — oh yes and a lot of garlic!

Best pizza in Tottenham. They serve real, traditional Italian food at an affordable price

Really great place, nothing too much, very easygoing!

This restaurant really is a bit of a jewel in Tottenham’s crown, and I really enjoyed my recent visit: I’d popped in having heard rave reviews, and it was a good place to stop off after seeing a play at the nearby Bernie Grant Centre. Very much a traditional Italian, there are quite a lot of meat-​heavy and fish dishes I couldn’t try, but luckily for vegetarians they also do (very good) wood-​fired pizza. Fundamentally they get all the basics right, so you get really decent and tasty mozzarella, super-​fresh veg etc. The atmosphere is warm, inviting and friendly, and the décor again is very much the sort of thing you might expect to find actually in Italy. There is also an ever-​changing ‘gallery’ of art works, which customers can buy if any pictures take their fancy be careful not to over-​do the chianti and come out with a £500 bill and a painting under your arm when you go!

I’ve driven past this little place for several years and have never had the chance to go inside… until very recently.
I visited with 3 friends on a school night (3 courses, bottles of wine and Lemoncello all sampled!!), it was quiet in there but there was a family celebrating a birthday and mybe 3 – 3 couples.
It is like stepping into a little back street restaurant in the Italian countryside… very homely, kind spirited with lots of ‘stuff’ to look at.
Graziano Parletta (owner of the restaurant with his parents) has his paintings on the wall which are stunning!
The food was fresh and kinda retro… all courses were very nice, served at the temperature they should be with service with a smile!
My only issue with the place is Graziano is a man defeated! Times have been hard and I think he’s felt it… trust me this is a proprietor that does not desrve to be ignored. He cares, is friendly, clearly loves his family and has made sacrifices to survive this crappy economy… but not to the detriment of his business.
So if you’re like me and have passed this place but never gone in, or want to escape the noise of the main stratech of Tottenham, go to San Marco’s, relax, drink wine and eat well… you won’t regret this little treasure!

Everyone has a right to their opinion as McAllister has expressed.
However, don’t be a sheep! Try it you just might like it!
When you enter San Marcos, it is like you physically left Tottenham and landed in a whole new and relaxing world. The décor is ecletic to say the least. The art that surrounds you (which is for sale) is unique and awe-​inspiring especially since they were painted by the manager.
Each table is designed with extra large cognac glasses turned lamps that give a private romance. Soft mellow jazz sweetens your ears and relaxes you but still gives a beautiful vibrance.
The front of house and fellow staff are all very welcoming and attentive to your every needs. You may wait a bit for your food but this is because it is made from scratch with care and attention given. No frozen foods here!
If your taste is more for modern clean cut pizza express style Italy, then this is not for you, however before you mock it try it you! No harm ever came out of trying!

Having lived in the area for some years now, I would have to honestly say that one of the decisive factors in my uprooting from South London was the existence of this fantastic little place. I’ve found the pleasant welcome and consistently charming atmosphere a real highlight, and the food speaks for itself. Many times have I experienced far lesser fare across London for sometimes 3 or 4 times the price. San Marco I salute you!

As someone who has been eating at San marco for over 20 years I would just like to draw attention, considering the previous over critical review, to the freshness of the ingredients, the changing gallery of paintings (for sale) and the cost which is far less than anything you will find in Upper Street for such good quality.

I have used this restaurant for the past 15+ years. As a Tottenham resident, I find it a reliable, much needed quality local restaurant. The staff are always friendly and welcoming; good home cooking, traditional and unpretentious. Some dishes are particularly remarkable — the tricolore salad is a dish that I almost invariably eat as a starter. How do they manage to serve perfectly ripe avocados — not hard, or overripe — week in, week out — no other restaurant in my experience is so consistent. Good value, generous portions, well cooked food, prepared as you request it, i.e. if you ask for medium or rare steak or pink duck, you get what you ask for. This is a family restaurant — it does not pretend to be anything else. It has a comfortable, relaxed atmosphere and is the ideal place to take friends and family for an everyday meal or a celebration.

I am forced to reiterate Edaly’s comment that Macallister’s review is ‘well wide of the mark’. Let us take that rather lengthy and repetitive piece of writing in context: it is clear that Macallister has an inherent problem with Tottenham as an area. His opening salvo suggesting it is ‘hard to criticise’ given San Marco’s ‘location in London’ should already ring alarm bells for the educated and wary reader. His constant suggestion throughout his appallingly unjustified attack on this excellent and honest family restaurant that it suffers from not being in ‘any of the better London post codes’ and that only if the price and ‘expectation of what you are going to get was lowered’ would this ‘be a perfectly acceptable Italian restaurant for this area of London’. Having therefore discredited Macallister’s writing as being a public expression of a private and obviously very personal issue with the N17 Post Code, I should now like to appraise the efforts of San Marco in a somewhat more rational and indeed untroubled manner; starting with the food itself rather than any comments regarding the furnishings or decorations. This is after all, a restaurant review, not a feedback page for cheap Channel 5 makeovers.
San Marco’s menu is exactly what it claims to be: simple, honest, Classic Italian food. It does not offer the nouvelle cuisine and so called ‘modern’ cleverness of certain current TV Cooking Personalities, though excellent examples of this genre are readily available within the postcode, as Macallister is no doubt aware…
What San Marco does offer is a reliable menu that is never bland, cooked with passion and supported by the interest of a constantly changing ‘Daily Specials’ feature that has in the past offered Veal Cutlets basted with Rosemary and infused olive oil, Duck Breasts with fresh cherries, and Red Snapper fresh from the fish market that morning. The rest of the menu is then made up by exquisitely presented Italian classics ranging from pasta and seafood specialties to meats and vegetarian dishes including steaks cooked to perfection.
These can be served with either the more traditional Italian accompaniments of spaghetti with a sauce of your choice, or you can enjoy slightly more British fare with freshly prepared seasonal vegetables — local produce of course. If your taste buds are still itching for titillation then try one of the desserts — either the (again) specials of the day or the always available homemade fruit pies that use produce grown in the owner’s small orchard.
The wine list boasts some of Italy’s best offerings, and unlike the exorbitant prices that reflect neither the advice of a well-​versed sommelier nor even the family pet available in many other London post codes (yes, Macallister, I thought you’d know what I’m talking about), the appearance of each and every bottle on the San Marco list is a declaration of quality in itself — not that you would necessarily guess this from the very reasonable charges. Must be that damn post code problem again…
In conclusion, if you enjoy excellent food at competitive prices with a traditional and authentic feel, then this restaurant is well worth the journey. The service is extremely efficient and friendly, making you feel completely welcome and at ease. The décor, which includes subtle lighting and creates a very intimate atmosphere, does at times betray the longevity of this restaurant’s existence, but also reflects the love, care and dedication put into this wonderful local treasure throughout generations of expertise.

This is a hard review to write as I am going to criticise San Marco in a way that is possibly unfair given their location in London.
As you approach the restaurant the first thing you notice is some rather higgledy piggledy bits of trellis, odd tables and chairs, a menu board occupying the forecourt between the restaurants frontage and the pavement. This I think is mainly a smoking area.
In contrast, hand written menus displayed in the window reassure, giving the impression of a daily or weekly varying menu, perhaps making best use of the fantastic variety of produce that London’s world class wholesale markets have to offer.
The interior is lit atmospherically, with some stylish lampshades that are very du jour, possibly because they have there 35 years and are just coming back into fashion. Large vintage stereo speakers provide a vintage feel to the place, and as it turns out, give an indication of the food to come.
Unfortunately the food does not lead up to the promise of the delightful hand written menus. Tricolore salad boasted under ripe hot house tomatoes. Another starter contained rock hard avocado. Wrapped pats of butter are solid from the fridge. Meatballs and spaghetti could have been bettered if bought as a supermarket ready meal. Vegetables cost extra and seem to be all fairly dull — English vegetables cooked in an English style. All stuck in the 70’s.
Service is lacklustre, the staff give the impression that they would rather be somewhere else.
At the end of the meal the bill is quite high considering one is not in any of the better London post codes.
Thirty five years ago when San Marco opened, I am sure I would have been more happy with the offering, but times have changed and San Marco is stuck in a timewarp.
Perhaps the owners should consider retirement and the sale of the business to a younger, more enthusiastic operator.
Equally if the prices were lower, and the expectation of what you are going to get was lowered this would be a perfectly acceptable Italian restaurant for this area of London.