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Review by Ethan Shaw
There is a difference between fast food and good food. I am sure almost all of us realises that. However, there is a place of which I am about to tell you that is different from the other two categories. It serves good food that is also fast food and is right in the centre of Wandsworth High Street.
The name is Nuccio's. Not surprisingly, it is Italian. Nuccio Presta is from Parma, that's where that delicious ham comes from, and Parmesan cheese.
Nuccio runs his small but friendly little trattoria with a warm and welcoming manner accompanied by his family. It is not unusual to see his sons there, his wife, or even a brother in law.
The food is aimed at the tastes of local people, not an easy feat in Wandsworth. For instance, builders, street cleaners and long distance drivers (when they can find a place to park), rub shoulders with office workers, even office managers, council staff, shop workers, undertakers and yuppies.
In the early morning, the place opens at 7am weekdays, 7.30am Saturdays, the English breakfast dominates. Egg, bacon, sausage, mushrooms, beans and toast, for three quid, are all eagerly devoured with gusto by hungry people setting out for the day's work.
The clientele changes markedly as the morning progresses. Hot tea gives way to Italian coffee of which there are nine types. Favourites being cappuccino, café latte, Americano and the very strong macchiato - all at a basic 95p price. Tell that to Starbucks.
You can vary these with hot chocolate, tea and an assortment of fruit juices.
However, English breakfasts have to give way to lunchtime dishes, and here the Italian influence comes into it own. Among the fine salads (try the Trecolore) there are Italian pastas, lasagne, tortellini, fusili, ravioli, and I urge you to compare these with other dishes such as salmon cream pasta or chicken chilli with pasta. These exotic dishes will sting you for roughly £2.90 per meal for one. They can be eaten on the premises or boxed to take away.
If you are seriously on the hoof, then you can have sandwiches, freshly made as you watch, with ciabatta, focaccia, or baguettes. You can also, while they last, have granary or white crusty rolls or sliced bread.
Nuccio occasionally pushes the boat out with Italian cheeses you won't find
anywhere else in the neighbourhood, and has other special sandwich fillings,
including smoked salmon and egg Florentine, along with the salami, tuna with
corn, chicken mayonnaise, ham, cheese, and many others, more than I have space
to tell you about.
All this in a space about the size of the interior of four saloon cars!
He also has excellent toilet facilities, rare in Wandsworth's smaller enterprises.
Unfortunately, because the family has to rise early to deal with the next day, all the food being fresh, the restaurant starts to wind down to close at around 3pm. It is hoped you will go along because you want to, not because you are strapped for cash. Either way, you will be more than welcomed by the brilliant friendliness of the staff (the family). The food will welcome you all by itself.
Address: Nuccio, 112 Wandsworth High Street, London, SW18. Restaurant
Tel: 020 8870 9506