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LONDON | We were recently invited to visit WOLF II, the latest Italian dining offering from the team behind Stoke Newington’s WOLF restaurant. Located in the heart of the City in a shipping container in Finsbury Avenue Square, the restaurant is headed up by chef Karla Knowles (ex Petersham Nurseries).
The restaurant is open all day, serving eat in or takeaway breakfast in the morning, which includes classics such as superfood pots with quinoa, avocado and poached free range eggs, to the less usual morning dishes like the porko dio or “piggy” sausage roll (a free-range pork sausage in a homemade buttery pastry with a parsley dressing) or the wild boar waffles with gooey fontina cheese and served with their special Ammazza sauce.
Between 11am and 5pm, the restaurant transforms into a pasta bar with dishes such as wild boar parpadelle and orichette with parsley root and tender stem broccoli on the menu. There are also desserts on the menu for those wanting to bring back a dolce with them to the office.
After that, there are Italian tapas on the menu, including the platter of fritto misto (a selection of fried fish, meat and vegetables, served with black garlic mayonnaise) or a baked Fontina cheese. Making WOLF II the perfect after-work aperitivo spot are the delicious Italian cocktails on the menu, such as bellinis, negronis and Aperol spritzes.
We visited the restaurant after work on a sunny day and sat outside to enjoy the food on the menu. We ordered a selection of salads to start with – pesca e gorgonzola with charred peaches, gorgonzola cheese, watercress and walnuts; fregola e burrata with grilled aubergine, yellow and green courgettes, charred red onion, burrata and mint; and datterini siciliani with Sicilian blistered tomatoes, Spanish navar rico chickpeas, flat-lefa parsley, ricotta and chilli. The salads were fresh and delicious, and contained a combination of the finest local produce with specialty Italian ingredients.
We then had the pollo diavola, a focaccia sandwich containing Italian-spiced roasted chicken, market greens and jalapeno mayonnaise. The chicken was spiced and cooked beautifully. It is no surprise that this is one of their most popular dishes.
No visit to an Italian restaurant would be complete without some pasta, so we ordered the cacio e pepe (fresh spaghetti with black pepper, pecorino cheese and black truffle). While this was our simplest choice for the evening, it did not disappoint. We left the restaurant feeling very full and very content.
We would recommend a visit, particularly for city workers looking for a change from the regular options nearby.
WOLF II
Unit 2, Broadgate
1 Finsbury Avenue
London EC2M 2PF
United Kingdom
Telephone: 020 7254 4141
Email: [email protected]
Website
Open
Mon – Fri: 7:00am to 11:00pm