Spagnoletti Pasta Restaurant. Perfect Pasta Heaven In London’s King’s Cross.

Andy Mossack reviews Spagnoletti pasta restaurant, the perfect answer to fabulously fresh pasta right opposite King’s Cross Station.

You’ll have no problem finding Spagnoletti when you emerge from London King’s Cross Station. Just look for a building covered in London’s largest graffiti mural. A 19th-century façade has never looked hipper.

This is the boutique Megaro Hotel and Spagnoletti is on the ground floor. Again, hard to miss, just head for bright pasta yellow and then it’s like walking into a giant yellow Meccano set.

Although Spagnoletti is across the road from the uber trendy eateries in Granary Square, the contrast in quality and value here ls noticeably different. It’s light years better. The pasta is made fresh every day. From the open kitchen come lunchtime, you can watch chefs roll out agnolotti, rigatoni, mafalde, and tortiglioni while you eat. There’s nothing better than cucina theatre to keep you focussed on food.

The extraordinary décor courtesy of interior design legend Henry Chebaane makes this a worthy destination in its own right. Behind all the industrial piping, lava lamps and Meccano-esque metal bits and bobs lies an homage to 19th century London engineer Charles Spagnoletti who invented the signalling system on Britain’s railways. Who knew?

In fact, the interior of the whole property has been designed by Chebaane. From the memorable steampunk-themed lobby and bar, and fashion-inspired guestrooms (including a hip hop Britannia theme in three rock star rooms) to the equally extraordinary Hocus Pocus alchemy cocktail lab in the basement. This by the way, yet another homage to 19th century innovation when eccentric quacks promised numerous miracle health cures using ‘new science’. More industrial steampunk and weird and wonderful alchemy props. But a promise of home fermented botanicals creating all manner of imaginative cocktails.

So you get the picture. No chain restaurant vanilla themes here, instead, a portal to a parallel dimension that is never short on surprises.

But trust me, this is no style over substance. The food at Spagnoletti is excellent, a brilliant homage to the glorious regional landscape of Italian pasta with a few delicious added meat dishes thrown in for good measure.

We began with tagliere di salumi (£17), a sharing board of mixed Italian charcuterie and homemade pickles. Mortadella, bresaola, slices of Dolomite speck, spicy salami and a stack of crispy Sardinian pane carasau. An utterly satisfying way to kick off an Italian meal. Just to top it off we had an added side of homemade toasted focaccia with sun dried tomato, and black olives (£5.50).

By now, it was 8pm and Spagnoletti’s narrow corridor of tables was buzzing with international chatter, courtesy no doubt of the St. Pancras International Terminal opposite.

With a summoning ring of the kitchen bell, our mains arrived in triumphant fashion. A chicken and mushroom ballotine with pickled shimeji (£18) for me and a ribbed and smouldering rigatoni with prawns and chilli (£16) for my dining partner.

My ballotine was essentially an Italian version of a roulade stuffed with forest mushrooms and surrounded by dainty beech mushrooms in a delicious jus. Perfectly cooked. Exceptional flavour.

The generous bowl of super fresh rigatoni came al dente, with tender prawns and a satisfying chilli kick. Raised eyebrows and a satisfied smile said it all.

I had no excuses for adding a side of roasted new potatoes cooked in olive oil with Ligurian taggiascha olives and oregano (£7). Comforting and delightfully indulgent.

With a sigh we received our dolci menus, barely enough room left for dessert. Yet, the tempting draw of tiramisu, gorgonzola cheesecake or salted caramel ganache (all £7) was almost too much to ignore. In the end we decided on what we thought would be the least filling, a shared coconut mousse with chocolate sorbet and caramelised fig (£7).

Needless to say, this was another triumph, a gallant palate cleanser if ever there was.

Spagnoletti pasta restaurant is the real deal, backed up by an adventurous design that will bring a smile to your face every time you look up because you’ve just spotted something else weird and wonderful. Forget those fancy places in Granary Square. Pop across across the road and have great food and lots of fun at very sensible prices in this parallel universe. Highly recommended.

You can thank me later.