Recently opened at Crossrail Place, the restaurant draws on more than 80 years of history to deliver a high quality Italian dining experience
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There’s a danger with growth, especially when it comes to hospitality brands.
A business founded and nurtured with passion by its creators can lose its appeal as economies of scale dislocate a sprawl of branches from the things that made the place good to start with.
It’s understandable. Those seeking a profit margin will always be tempted to trim an ingredient here or there.
It’s an equation where small differences can translate into big savings.
The risk is how close to tipping the scales does an operation dare go? Will the punters really notice a sauce made with two cloves of garlic instead of three? How about one?
Fortunately, Lina Stores – recently opened in Canary Wharf’s Crossrail Place in the unit formerly occupied by The Breakfast Club, is more concerned with value and quality for its customers than making a quick buck.
At least, that’s the message it’s sending out on its pale green plates.
There could be a few reasons for this.
Firstly, the brand’s lineage is an 80-year-old deli in Soho rather than a beloved restaurant.
That brings with it a certain dedication to quality born of a family-run institution that was conceived primarily to supply Londoners with the kind of Italian treats which were a rarity at the time it opened.
The restaurants, which can now be found in 11 locations in London and Manchester, plus three in Japan, aren’t tasked with replicating an existing establishment, but instead aim to showcase produce.
The original shop is a jumping off point for this, rather than something to be photocopied.
Secondly, the team at White Rabbit Projects, which has worked with Lina to expand the brand, have clearly shed sweat to tread lightly.
an Italian ethos
Italian cooking at its best lives or dies on the quality of its ingredients often in spare, unfussy combinations.
There’s nowhere to hide and Lina isn’t afraid to be the neutral backdrop to the stars topping its green and white-striped serving paper.
The aesthetic of the Canary Wharf restaurant follows this pattern.
Head upstairs from the ground floor deli and you’ll find a bright, airy space with a barrel-vaulted ceiling.
Everything is in shades of pale green save the floor – marble the shade of emeralds at night.
There’s an open kitchen too, with stools for diners who want to watch the magic happen.
It’s a minimal scheme akin to the slender black picture frames used to contain the delicate art on its walls.
This is because Lina saves nearly everything for the eyes and mouth.
sampling the food at Lina Stores
To start, we crunch the flesh of fresh green Bella Di Cerignola olives (£4) while making up our minds.
Burrata (£10) comes bathed in a little pool of extra virgin olive oil and dusted with black pepper – a simple, creamy delight on the tongue with a pleasant tang.
Next comes the grilled prawns (£13) – three chunky specimens that arrive with a wedge of lemon and dressed with fresh tomatoes and garlic.
Expertly singed, these give up their meat without effort in sweet little chunks – an excellent way to whet the appetite for what we’re really here to try.
Lina in Soho is known for its fresh pasta, trays of which in its windows have been tempting passers-by through the doors for decades.
So what of the restaurant offering?
We order three due to greed and the desire to be comprehensive – the Jerusalem artichoke and ricotta ravioli (£10.50), the lamb sausage ragu pappardelle (£14.50) and the 30-egg yolk tagliolini with black truffle (at £17.50, the most expensive option on the menu).
The portions are sensible, the kind you might actually get as a first plate in a restaurant in Italy.
But the flavours are outsize.
The ravioli is earthy and vegetal, the tagliolini a fabulous overload of truffle, but the star of the show is the deep, rich pappardelle shot through with seasonal greens and chilli.
Great value, high quality.
When the staff have relaxed into things – clearing away the plate for discarded olive pits without asking while I was still chewing, was a minor misstep – Lina is shaping up to be very good indeed.
**** (4/5)
key details: Lina Stores
Lina Stores is located at street level in Crossrail Place. The restaurant is open daily from 11.30am-11.30pm.
The deli is open from 8am-5pm on weekdays and from 9am-5pm at weekends.
Bar Lina is open from 5pm to midnight, Tuesday-Thursday and from 5pm-1am, Friday-Saturday.
Find our more about the restaurant here
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