Pizzeria La Lanterna
6 Mill Street
Lantern Buildings
London SE1 2BA
020 7252 2420
The Victims: Too many to mention. Richard, Maria, Al, 2 Germans, 1 Columbian, and 2 additional real Englishmen.
I don’t know what I was thinking, going out for dinner at 10 pm on a work night. Bad bad idea. But Richard is Italian and this is how he lives. So we meet at La Lanterna and our waiter is crazy and gregarious and I can’t understand a word he is saying. Richard orders pizza as a starter, so I think, "Well if pizza is a starter, I suppose I should have some pasta as a main dish." So that’s what I get. For like 14 GBP. Everyone else gets pizza, which was just so odd for me. Pizza followed by pizza?
So my pasta comes and it is DELICIOUS. But so not on the Atkins diet. It’s got huge shrimps in it and it’s in this creamily delicious sauce. But the dish is HUGE. It’s enough to feed me for a week, seriously. So I eat the shrimps and a half-cup of pasta, but that’s all I can take.
Now what I really dislike is waste. I believe in doggie bags. If I don’t eat it, who will? No one. It will just be thrown out. But this being England, I am not allowed to ask for a doggie bag, so I have to watch while they take away my 1/6-eaten, 14 GBP-costing pasta. And I am so sad, because it is so delicious.
Well then they bring out the lemoncella and things get hazy after that. I know I got stuck on the way walking home because there’s a little bridge in Shad Thames that closes at 11 and I didn’t find that out until it was too late so I had to walk all the way in the opposite direction and not get that pretty view of Tower Bridge at night.
The Verdict: Go here for casual. delicious Italian food, but watch out for the size of those pastas!
