If the past is another country, Battersea Power Station is another world. Nick refuels at Tozis Grand Cafe while exploring the reclaimed area
I’m so old I remember when the power station was a ruin, I even vaguely remember the broohaha in 1977 when Pink Floyd flew an enormous inflatable pig over it for an album cover. The porker “accidentally” broke loose, causing air traffic chaos and oodles of publicity for the album.
So let’s take a look at that album cover and see how it’s all changed since. It’s now a massive modern shopping and leisure destination loomed over by the iconic Grade II listed power station. Around it runs Electric Boulevard with shops and restaurants, and it has its own brand new Tube station too.
After a good wander about, we fancied a straightforward lunch and TOZI Pizzeria & Cicchetti Bar, drew us in. It’s open for breakfast, lunch and dinner, as well as weekend brunch.
A circular space under the art’otel, it has a terrace for sunny days and is double height with large windows that we immediately made a bee line for. As March sleet was beginning to fall hard, we were grateful to get inside to the room’s warmth.
It wasn’t the weather for cocktails, but who cares? Negroni Ristretto with Plymouth Gin, Coffee Brewed Campari, Blackcurrant Vermouth, Vanilla, Amaretto was delicious, the coffee notes actually making it feel warming. We also slurped a Bergamot Sbagliato – a Tozi in house Vermouth Blend with Campari, Bergamot, Prosecco. A classic and rather well done
Cichetti are good as starters and so we shared some calamari fritti. Good to see they weren’t rings (that rings alarm bells for me), and came with their tentacles, another sign that they were made in house. Carefully fried, they were very good, although I would have liked some kind of dip to go with them, maybe some mayonnaise or even a drop of tartare sauce. There was lemon, though
I’ve had so many terrible mozzarella and tomato starters over the years – tasteless mozzarella and tomatoes crunchier than apples – that I don’t usually bother anymore. Still, I thought we’d give Tozi’s burrata, heritage tomatoes, pine nut pesto a go and we were glad we did. Very interesting tomatoes, some even green, with excellent taste and good acidity, which played well with the creamy quality burrata and that pesto with its splash of balsamic vinegar. Nice one.
Quite a range of pizzas were on offer ranging from the extravagant – Roast datterini tomatoes, poached lobster, gremolata, samphire, through spicy – Fennel sausage and ‘Nduja, San Marzano tomatoes, fior di latte, all the way to the classically simple, such as a Napoli – Fior di latte, San Marzano tomatoes, anchovies, olive, garlic.
That’s what I went for and it was a tidy example, the base thin and the edges puckered, burnt and blistered as they should be. A healthy amount of anchovies were laid on top of a good tomato base that tasted fresh. Sadly the olives were those tasteless tinned/jarred ones everyone seems to use, I vastly prefer proper olives with stones in, despite the risk to my teeth, they have flavour. If I was Tozi, I’d raise their olive game up a level because their pizzas deserve it.
P hates pizzas with a passion, for reasons impossible for me to understand, so she went for pasta – Trofie, wild mushrooms, cavolo nero, Parmigiano vegano. The latter I assume is vegan parmesan.
You don’t see trofie pasta all that much, it’s a Ligurian variant and pleasantly chewy. This was a very good bowl of pasta, a rich variety of mushrooms, although I doubt the Japanese ones are seen that often in Italy, their flavour well absorbed by the pasta in the final moments of its cooking. The crispy cavolo nero was a nice touch. P really raved over this dish and from what I tried with she had good reason.
We ended up with caramelised lemon tart, meringue and a pistachio tiramisu. The latter was a novel take on a classic which I found less cloying than usual, but as usual it needed more booze in it. I expect that was down to the restaurant being kid friendly, can’t send the rugrats out all lit up after all.
Talking of drinks, we had a glass each of Primitivo ‘Salento’, Boheme Puglia, 2021 at £9 a glass, quite a mark up on the bottle price, and one which once would have shocked me, but now I am resigned to such gouging. Very decent wine though.
So Tozi is decent too, an ideal pitstop place and they have a ‘Sunday Kids Club’ where you can eat lunch in peace, whilst the kids are taken care of by Tozi’s partners at The Kids’ Table. Now that’s a good idea.
www.tozibattersea.co.uk
3a Electric Boulevard
London SW11 8BJ
Main Image courtesy of Tozi