CHOW DOWN!
ON THE LEMON PIE XXL FROM NAPOLI GANG
Of all the things the pandemic took from us, it even managed to suck most of the joy out of a takeaway. First, we got bored of regular delivery fare; all the indulgence and anticipation desiccated by an ever-rising frequency. There was a brief period of respite when restaurants pivoted to at-home menus, and for a while we took glee in playing chef, rustling up Michelinstarred grub in the mi-cro-wavé, but that eventually lost its lustre, too.
No matter how good the food is (and to be fair, there are some incredible options), it will never match up to that you’d get in the restaurant itself. There’s no ambience, no wine list, no fellow diners to gawp at, no flurry of gastronomic machismo from the kitchen.
Before the pandemic, few restaurants offered that in-situ buzz better than Big Mamma Group, the clever people behind Gloria and Circolo Popolare, two of London’s rowdiest Italian nightspots. Among lurid artwork, loud music and an almost lascivious mastery of burrata, the vibe is positively bacchanalian. And it will be again.
But in the meantime, the group has opened Napoli Gang, a takeaway service offering some of the restaurants’ punchiest dishes via delivery. The best, and most cheering, is the Lemon Pie XXL, which looks and tastes exactly as its name suggests. A simple, delicate, shortcrust lemon pie is topped with an absurd quiff of scorched meringue the height of a pint glass. And aside from being delicious — sharp, sweet and richly satisfying — the sheer act of manoeuvring it from the takeaway bag elicits the kind of glee no bhuna or burrito could possibly muster. napoligang.co.uk