Macellaio RC South Kensington - London

On the way old brompton road, after having given short instructions on it's location, I have spyed a shopfront with a bright red brandise and a strange matching sofa on the front. I remembered that marie said "to look for the business front with lots of meat ' I looked at the window and knew that I was at the right place.

I love this place meat 6 weeks aged, from only the best Nordic female cows is delicious! go for the filet if they don't feel like sharing, or share a rib eye or T-bonus plate with friends. 800g is enough for 2 ppl, for 4 a few plates at 700. the desert is incredible and everything is homemade. they can not go wrong with homemade tiramisu or cheesecake of service and know the coworker of wein and meat is impressive this restaurant is good for a date, or for a young night out of red meat and wein! this place however comes to a price. they expect to pay no less than £100 for 2 people. they are hungry my friends!

Got invited to this gem for a birthday dinner when it used to be called Maxela, did not have much of a clue to be honest, till I walked past the glorious cuts of meat by the entrance and everything just magically turned perfect! The ambience, the smell, the wine, mamma mia! The old style Fiorentina we ordered was legendary; tender, juicy and the taste of the 'tagliata ' was one for the senses! Service was very good too, I also had a couple of conversations with the waiter in between courses about meat and wine combos. The quality of the meat reflects in prices, of course it is slightly expensive to eat here but fitting for a special occasion or two. This one is a must in South Ken, if you are feeling a bit carnivorish!

Maxela opened in late 2012 in the Brompton Road, near South Kensington tube station. The dining room is in two parts. The first room as you enter features a large meat counter with a few tables, so it looks a bit like a butcher’s shop that has added a few seats. Indeed the name of the restaurant means “butcher” in a Ligurian dialect. The second, more conventional dining room is beyond, and has a skylight and tiled floor, with a blackboard picture illustrating the various cuts of meats from a cow. Maxela is a branch of a small chain of restaurants of this format in Italy, which has at the time of writing grown to nine branches. The chef here is Rafaelle Cozzolino, who has cooked at a few London restaurants, most recently the Taverna Italiana in Wimbledon. What interested me is that Maxela specialises in Fassone beef, which I have eaten several times in Piedmont but never in London. This Piedmontese meat is interesting in a number of ways; It comes from a breed of cattle selectively bred to have a faulty gene that causes the cattle to have less connective tissue than usual, which results in a very tender meat. Fassone beef has much less fat than normal cattle, about one-third the calories of normal beef, and less than half the cholesterol. It looks suspiciously lacking in marbling, and yet is still tender. The menu, not surprisingly, is heavily oriented towards meat, with a selection of cured meats, a few pasta dishes and a number of ways of serving the Fassone beef. The beef is imported vacuum-packed from Piedmont, aged for 25 days. The meat is then aged further depending on the particular piece of beef in the restaurant, typically for a further 4-6 weeks. Only female cattle are used here the male cattle can have a gamey flavour when aged). There are a couple of pasta dishes without meat in case a truly short-sighted vegetarian decides to wander in by mistake. A burger using the high quality beef was available for just £6.50. The sliced Fassone beef, offered with various accompaniments, was just £16, which to me seems a bargain. The Italian wine list starts at £18, going up to £99. It has wines such as Falesco Poggio Dei Gelsi Est Monte Fiascone at £22 for a wine that you can find in the shops for around £9, Antinori Chianti Classico at £36 for a wine that retails at around £23, and Flesco Montefalco Sagrantino at £60 for a wine that cost around £35 in a shop. There is even Antinori Tenuta Guado al Tasso 2007 at £99 for a wine that will set you back around £72 to purchase retail. Given that there are some fairly serious wines on the list, it is irritating that vintages are not listed I only found about about the vintage of the Antinori wine by asking to see the bottle). Fresh taglierini pasta was served with a ragu, the pasta having good texture, the tomato sauce with meat having quite full flavour 14/20). I was able to try two cuts of the Fassone beef. The rump steak was offered with rocket and shaven ricotta. Cooked medium-rare this had excellent flavour 14/20), but even better was a rib-eye of the Fassone, which had deeper flavour and was genuinely top class, accurately seasoned easily 15/20). Unfortunately it was accompanied by some truly dire fries, which were actually hand-cut but were limp yet leathery: really disappointing 8/20). This was quite jarring given the quality of the other dishes that I tried. Latte dolci fritto £5) is a Ligurian speciality: thickened milk flavoured with lemon zest and sugar is put into a blast-chiller to solidify, then coated in breadcrumbs and deep-fried. It was very pleasant, though a bit more lemon would have improved it 13/20). Tiramisu £6) was nice, though the coffee flavour could have been quite a bit stronger to my taste 13/20). The bill came to £31 a head, with just water £2.25 a bottle) to drink. Espresso was very good. With a modest wine the bill would come to around £50 a head for three courses. Service was friendly, the manager in particular very enthusiastic and helpful. It is always tricky scoring a restaurant that essentially does one thing very well, but I will leave it at 13/20 for now given the unevenness. Maxela is clearly a restaurant that has a lot of enthusiasm behind it, and if they can iron out some issues in particular the poor chips) then they should do very well, especially given the modest price point. I will be happy to return.

Maxela is a charming and intimate (yet not crowded! spot for Italian food lovers who also happen to enjoy sinking their teeth into a beautifully prepared steak. Great for a classy but casual evening for anyone from the medium-price searcher to the haute-cuisine lover, the restaurant announces its intentions with a full butcher case just inside the door. A few steps brings you to the small bar, stocked with a solid list of Italian wines perfect for a pre-dinner drink. Behind the bar is the dining room, a nice mix of modern and pastoral with a few reminders of the provenance of the inspiration for the food. On my visit, with three local friends (we were 2 guys and 2 girls back for their second visit, we generally stuck with the bread-and-butter of the house; that is meat. I took carpaccio garnished with rocket and mozzarella to start, while the rest of the table went for the beef tartare (they went for the plainer option, although the second tartare, with Worcester sauce, made one of them happy on their first visit . The carpaccio was a bit thicker than I have usually had, but this served to give a wonderful substance to the tender beef, with a delicious taste augmented by the touch of garnish. My main was the entrecôte piccante, which arrived rare, as ordered. The meat was great and they let it speak for itself, of course with a good (but not overwhelming kick from some hot pepper. Two of my mates went with the rosemary entrecôte, which got good reviews, as did the gnocchi. Dessert was millefoglie for me and tiramisu for the rest, each providing a fantastic cap to a great meal. Service was good and took away nothing from the meal--we enjoyed speaking to our Italian waiter, who was helpful when needed. The one odd part of the meal was that no plates came with the fresh bread, so we waited until the courses came out to try it with olive oil and balsamic. We would have preferred to do this between courses.